7000 demand ACCOR's withdrawal from Sarawak
Picture: Petition card demanding ACCOR's withdrawal from the Novotel Interhill project. Thousands of members and sympathizers signed cards and returned them to the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).
Within a period of two weeks, more than 7000 people have signed a petition demanding the French ACCOR group's withdrawal from the controversial Novotel Interhill hotel project in Kuching, the capital of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. The campaign has been launched by the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund in the light of ACCOR's cooperation with Interhill, a logging company with a track record of destruction of tropical rainforests and disrespect for native communities.
Interhill is exploiting a 55,000 hectare logging concession in Sarawak's Middle Baram region, an area traditionally inhabited by the Penan, who, until recently, were South-East Asia's last nomadic hunter-gatherers. Despite repeated and ongoing protests by several Penan communities against Interhill, the company is continuing the depletion of the indigenous communities' natural resources. Currently, the company's bulldozers are approaching the community of Long Item, a village whose drinking water supply has already been damaged by Interhill.
Penan representatives confirm that Interhill is one of the worst companies operating in their region and has a reputation for using armed thugs against the native communities. Interhill is also at the centre of allegations of sexual abuse of Penan girls and women, which became public in September 2008.
Hélène Roques, Sustainable Development Director at ACCOR's headquarters in Paris, confirmed that a meeting was held with Interhill last week over the Bruno Manser Fund's allegations. However, so far no detailed information on the outcome of this meeting has been made available. An ACCOR delegation will be meeting with the Bruno Manser Fund in Basel within the next week.
(9 March 2009)