The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) has called on the government to immediately identify, arrest and bring to court rapists and sexual rights violators of Penan girls and women of Baram, Sarawak.

The organisation with 46 members across Asia said this was the logical follow-up to the report of the national task force formed by the cabinet to investigate the alleged sexual abuse of Penan girls and women by logging camp workers in the said territory.

The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Affairs took about a year to release the report despite repeated requests by public and civil society.

Forum-Asia also expressed shock and deep disappointment with the government for not tackling this matter as soon as possible.

The organisation said the government took a month to establish the task force although concerns had been raised by indigenous peoples' rights advocates in September 2008.

It further said that the government then took another ten months without making any report to the public.

The delayed responses by the relevant government authorities are violations of the right of the victims to justice, added Bangkok-based Forum-Asia.

"We would like to state that while we appreciate the report of the task force, this is only a step to justice to the victims.

"More has to be done now that the abuses have been validated," said Forum-Asia's Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples programme officer Bernice See.

Protect the native rights

She urged the government to redress the violations of the human rights of the Penan girls, women and their communities by bringing to court the perpetrators of the crimes.

The government must also rehabilitate the victims, expeditiously investigate the human and development conditions in Penan communities in Baram and other logging areas, she added.

"The conditions of logging concessions with the substantive participation of affected communities must be reviewed, allowing them to live in the spirit and intent of the native customary rights of the Penan and other indigenous peoples.

"Further, we urge the Malaysian government to take measures to ensure the physical, mental integrity and security of the Penan women and children," she said.