BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL / SWITZERLAND
31st May 2012
Radio Free Sarawak anchorman, Peter John Jaban, abducted by Malaysian security forces – Police deny knowledge on the whereabouts of the popular indigenous radio presenter
(MIRI, MALAYSIA) Peter John Jaban, a presenter of Radio Free Sarawak, an independent radio station broadasting news for Sarawak’s indigenous communities, has today been abducted by unidentified Malaysian security forces who are believed to be members of the Special Branch, Malaysia’s secret political police.
According to a statement by Radio Free Sarawak, the radio presenter was on his way home to spend the Gawai harvest festival with his family when he was detained and photographed prior to boarding a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia. Malaysian police officers told him that he would be arrested upon arrival in Sarawak. But when he reached Miri, despite heavy police presence, a lawyer and a local politician awaiting Peter John Jaban managed to bring him out of the airport as the police did not have immediate arrest orders.
Several minutes after leaving the airport, Peter John Jaban’s car was stopped and the radio presenter was forced out of the car by plainclothes security forces who refused to identify themselves.
"To say we are worried is an understatement" Clare Rewcastle Brown, Founder of Radio Free Sarawak, has said today. We are desperately trying to find where Peter is and why he was pulled from a car without any proper reason by unidentified people."
London-based Radio Free Sarawak broadcasts a daily two-hour-show on local news in Malay and Iban, a native language spoken by longhouse communities in Sarawak’s interior. The radio station aims at breaking the information monopoly held by the authoritarian Sarawak government under Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. Recently, politicians from Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition had called on the government to clamp down on the rebel radio.
The Bruno Manser strongly condemns the Malaysian authorities' attack on press freedom and calls on Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to immediately order Peter John Jaban’s release.
For updated information on this case, please check the Radio Free Sarawak website under: www.radiofreesarawak.org
Please call the police in Sarawak to protest against Peter John Jaban's abduction and ask about his whereabouts:
Sarawak Police Commissioner: +60 82 247204
Sarawak Police Headquarters Hotline: +60 82 240 800
Miri Police Station: +60 85 432 222
For more information, please contact us:
Bruno Manser Fund
Socinstrasse 37
4051 Basel, Switzerland
Tel. +41 61 261 94 74
www.bmf.ch
www.twitter.com/bmfonds
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bruno-Manser-Fonds/171047506268040
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Oh my God, I use to see this in film and now its happening in Malaysia too. DAMN! May Jaban still safe. We must force the police to find him and release him! Let us together make noise!!!
ReplyDeletecall the 1malaysia
ReplyDeleteMy first thought was that Taib's mediums were not delivering his protection magic anymore. But this is a rough and undermining move. I believe someone else ordered this to force his elusive succession plan and bring about his political demise.A disgruntled Family member or Semenanjung got impatient?
ReplyDeleteWaiting to see if Taib figures this out and delivers Jaban safely.
I thought only Hitler of the Nazi regime and the Indian turned "Melayu" pariah bastard engaged in such lowly acts...now Sarawak! Another evil MF bastard in the making? Malaysians of all races, stand up to these evils and cage them in our zoos as our icon of national disgrace.
ReplyDeleteTaib is so desperate?
ReplyDeleteStupid, isn't it to go back to Sarawak to celebrate Gawai when you know full well that the dark forces will go after you.
ReplyDeleteHell, they bomb a mongolian woman to bits with C4, so, do you think they won't do it again?
Yes, I'm heartless to say that but we all know malaysia has descended into lawlessness.
反贪会沦为国阵工具?
ReplyDelete莎丽扎清白是否意味纳吉失信？
BN一边厢宣布巫统妇女组主席莎丽扎没有涉及国家养牛中心丑闻，一边厢却下令续查公正党署理主席阿兹敏被指17年前涉及的贪污案件，这项决定只会挑起更多疑问，令人质疑反贪会的公信力。
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ReplyDeleteDon't forget Bruno Manser was also abducted and killed in the same manner by you know who's forces.
ReplyDelete