Sarawak forestry officer attacked over crackdown

KUCHING: A Sarawak Forest Depart­ment enforcement officer has been attacked in southern Sarawak, just days after the Chief Minister announced a crackdown against illegal loggers.

A statement from the department said the attack was against an officer with the Sri Aman office, attributing the attack to “feelings of unhappiness after illegal logging activities were exposed”.

“The attack occurred when the officer was on the way to a site to monitor seized logs while waiting for further action to be taken.”

It added that the officer suffered physical injuries and was left feeling shaken.

“A few personal items of the officer were taken and destroyed. It is believed the incident occurred because logs being transported by an illegal logger had been seized by forest enforcers,” said the statement, issued yesterday.

The officer has made a police report and police who went to the site have “successfully apprehended a suspect for further investigation”.

The statement added that the seized logs were from the San Munggor area, at Batu Lintang, in Sri Aman.

“Through an investigation, it was found that the logs were not extracted according to requirements under the Forest Rules and Forest Ordinance 1958 (Cap.126).”

State Forest Department director Sapuan Ahmad said this was the first such case since the authorities launched a crackdown to curb illegal logging.