Illegal Cross-border Pepper, Rubber Farming Uncovered

TELOK MELANO: Up to one hectare of land in the Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary Sarawak, which is near the border with the Camar Bulan village at West Kalimantan, has been turned into pepper and rubber farms by the Indonesians who live there.

This was disclosed by the Third Infantry Brigade Commander Brigadier General Mohd Bustaman Mat Zin, who said the activity was discovered during a joint operation by the General Operations Force (GOF) and Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) recently.

In this regard, he stressed that the Malaysian Army would not compromise with the Indonesians, even though border control is under the jurisdiction of the GOF.

“Still as the commander of Third Infantry Brigade that covers five divisions in Sarawak – from Kuching to Betong – I want to safeguard our border and keep intruders away. I have called upon the (Indonesian) farmers to stop their activities (in Samunsam Wildlife Sanctuary) immediately. We have set a deadline for them, after which we would come back.

“By then, there would be no excuses for them – we neither want to see the farmers there nor any sign of their crops,” Bustaman told reporters during a press conference at the Indonesian National Army (TNI) post at Temajuk near here recently.

Earlier, he paid an official visit to Komando Resor Militer 121 Alam Bhana Wannawai (Korem 121/ABW) Commander Brigadier General Widodo Isyansyah, who acknowledged the farming activity at the wildlife sanctuary and took full responsibility for the matter in the interest of both countries.

Representatives of the National Security Council (MKN), Survey and Mapping Department and Forest Department, as well as other officers from the GOF and SFC were part of the visiting delegation from Sarawak.

Bustaman and Widodo themselves went to the ground to see the actual situation, where the affected area spanned 6km – from border milestone A74 to A79 – near Telok Melano.

In his remarks, Widodo admitted that the Camar Bulan folk had been illegally farming on parts of the land at the wildlife sanctuary, in that they did not know that it was on the Sarawak side of the border.

Nevertheless, he assured Bustaman, the GOF and Sarawakians in general that the TNI had ordered the farmers to stop their activity at once.

“We conducted checks there and true enough, we found 31 villagers running illegal farms on the Malaysian territory. Based on the size of the crops, the activity could have been running for the past eight to nine years.

“According to the farmers, they did not know that their farms were on Malaysian soil at the border. They’re sorry and regretful about the whole thing, pledging not to do it again,” he said.

Widodo also pointed out that based on satellite observation, the sites where the Indonesians planted their pepper vines and rubber trees measured from 2,000m² to 5,000m² – some even up to one hectare.

In this regard, he said the TNI are ready to work with the Malaysian Army and GOF in conducting joint patrols along the border to ensure that ‘this matter would not happen again’.

It is learned that there are 8,148 border milestones along the Sarawak-West Kalimantan boundary – each placed 50m to 100m apart from one another.-BP