Environment group exposes Ta Ann’s links to allegations of human rights abuses and environmental destruction in Sarawak, Malaysia.
Huon Valley Environment Centre will today launch a report that documents practices of human rights abuses and environmental destruction with global significance in Sarawak, Malaysia.
‘The logging of Sarawak’s forests and peatlands for palm oil plantations is occurring at a frantic pace. With globally significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, displacement of indigenous peoples and entrenched corruption, Huon Valley Environment Centre exposes the link between Ta Ann Tasmania and it’s parent company who is one of the largest timber companies in Sarawak, linked to practices such as these,’ Huon Valley Environment Centre’s Jenny Weber stated.
‘The report documents claims by indigenous people in Sarawak, that Ta Ann have been using gangsters to threatened them, having their water poisoned by Ta Ann’s plantations and losing food supply due to logging activities,
‘Ta Ann’s Executive Chairman Sepawi, who accompanied Tasmania’s Forest Minister to meet with Japanese customers recently, is a notorious figure in Sarawak, a region noted for it’s entrenched political corruption and large scale environmental devastation. The Tasmanian Government by working with Sepawi is inadvertantly endorsing their questionable practices in Sarawak,’ Jenny Weber said.
‘The Huon Valley Environment Centre condemns the environmental practices of the timber industry and the human rights abuses that are carried out in Sarawak. Ta Ann Tasmania is inextricably linked to these practices. We are calling on the Tasmanian and Australian Government to critically assess their partnership with a company that is involved in such abhorrent practices. We question the role that Ta Ann Holdings has to play in the future of Australia’s timber industry,’ Jenny Weber said.
‘The Huon Valley Environment Centre aims to raise awareness about the activities of Ta Ann in it’s home state of Sarawak, and highlight the connections with Ta Ann Tasmania. Ta Ann Tasmania can not pretend to be disconnected from the practices of the Ta Ann group in it’s home state. The Australian community and authorities need to send a clear message to Ta Ann that their environmentally and socially destructive operations are an international disgrace,’ Jenny Weber said.
Report can be viewed here
