Local Government and Housing Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin has urged Sarawak chief minister Abang Johari Openg to take action against logging camp workers implicated in a decade's old report on the rape of Penan women in the state.
In 2008, the Women's ministry had commissioned a national task force to investigate allegations of widespread rape against Penan women in Sarawak.
The task force’s report made public in September 2009, confirmedthat Penan women and girls - as young as 10 years old - were sexually abused by logging camp workers in Baram, Sarawak.
Zuraida, who paid a courtesy call on Abang Johari in Kuching earlier today, lamented that the victims have yet to receive any justice.
"I said to him (Abang Johari), 'please look into this Penan case. We have to take action against those perpetrators'
“They have still not been brought to justice, even though we have the names of the perpetrators,” Zuraida was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insight.
The 2009 report lists at least eight cases of sexual abuse of Penan girls and women by logging camp workers. The report said several of the victims were schoolgirls as young as 10.
The report detailed that many of the minors abused were taken advantage of by logging camp workers who gave them a lift to school.
Local NGOs claimed these documented cases were only a small fraction of the total number of cases of sexual abuse. - Mkini
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