The Star Online MIRI: The 400-odd longhouse folk from Rumah PeeMillo, a rural longhouse 100km south of here who are facing eviction now claim that thugs are harassing the women, children and old folk. The residents claimed that these thugs were outsiders who had been sent to bully them into leaving their homes.
The residents of Rumah PeeMillo had been issued eviction notices by the State Land and Survey Department on June 25. The department had given an oil palm giant provisional leases to open up more than 2,000ha of land in the Suai sub-district near the Miri-Bintulu divisional boundary to be turned into oil palm plantations. Rumah PeeMillo is located within the land covered by these leases. The residents have refused to move, saying that they have native customary rights over the land.
On June 27, they took to the streets of Miri City and camped outside the Miri District Office, appealing for help, vowing to sleep and live on the streets if they were chased out of their longhouse. Miri Resident Ose Murang negotiated for a temporary reprieve from the eviction deadline following an appeal by former Baram MP Harrison Ngau. Murang has forwarded the residents' plight to the State Cabinet, and pending a decision from Kuching, they were allowed to stay put.However, the residents complained to Harrison yesterday that groups of outsiders had gone to their homes on several occasions and intimidated them.
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