The Mukah police have been strongly criticised for treating eight Ibans as criminals when they tried to save their longhouses from slipping into a river as a result of sand extraction works by a company.

The eight comprising Ajah Lungan, Likong Lungan, Baring Buah, Laja Jeli, Roney Inggut, Bandang Janang, Chundau Lungan and Sempun Lungan were released yesterday after a three-day remand and have been ordered to appear before a magistrate on Jan 10.

Their “crime” was to save their longhouses by asking the company to stop the extraction works after the police failed to do anything, said their lawyer See Chee How.

“They have lodged 10 police reports, but the police have failed to carry out investigations,” he said.

“The extraction works carried out at Lubok Jelatong, Batang Mukah, have caused land near their longhouses to slip into the river and  the villagers are concerned over their safety as their  longhouses may  also be dragged into the river,” said See (left), who is Sarawak PKR vice-chairperson.

“How can (the police) treat them as criminals? There was no violence. The arrest was really bad and not necessary,” he added.

Urging the police to be impartial, See said that the police should in the first place carry out investigations based on the people’s complaints.

“Who are you to say that these people do not have native customary rights (NCR) lands? How do you know that the area is not an NCR land?

“It is not for the police to decide whether the land is NCR or not,” he stressed, pointing out that the longhouse folk had filed a civil suit against the company as they claimed the area and the river are within their NCR land.

See, who is also Batu Lintang assemblyperson, met with the longhouse residents last month regarding their NCR land claim.

Meanwhile, Mukah district police head DSP Omar Bakhtaran Yaakob said that they were arrested under Section 341 of the Penal Code for illegal obstruction.

Omar said the company that operated the sand extraction works had obtained a valid licence from the Land and Survey Department.

“The suspects had obstructed the sand extraction works by workers at the river.

“They claimed that the land of which the sand extraction works took place is an NCR land and it belonged to them.

“As such, the claim that they were arrested for protecting their land as it is NCR land is incorrect because they do not have rights to obstruct the work of sand extraction in the area,” he told the press.

Omar said the suspects were remanded for three days from Dec 31 to Jan 2 to facilitate the investigation.

“Before this, they had stopped a barge from transporting sand in their area and they acted to take away the key of the barge.

“However, the police had advised them not to take matters into their own hands and that they should get a court’s order if they wished to stop the barge.

“But they were stubborn and they took their own action so the police had to arrest them for further investigation,” he added.