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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2000

Diplomat, police say Manser not in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysian police and the Swiss Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday said there was no evidence that a Swiss activist, who went missing six months ago, was in the country.

"We have no proof that Bruno Manser is in Malaysia. I have no further comment," Swiss Ambassador Rudolf Staub told The AP.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry was asked to request help from Malaysia in tracking down Manser, who entered the country's Sarawak state clandestinely on May 22, the Bruno Manser Fund said in a statement on Monday.

Manser, 46, has long promoted the cause of the Penans, believed to be the world's last nomadic rainforest tribe, who eat palm, bear and boar deep in the lush forests of Sarawak. He lived with them from 1984 to 1990.

The group complains that widespread logging has devastated its traditional lifestyle. The government wants to bring them into the mainstream, offering homes with running water, schools and work.

"As far as the police is concerned, he is not in the country. We cannot confirm reports saying he is," said Yusuf Nok, deputy police chief of Sarawak, a state in the northwestern part of Borneo island.

Manser was banned from Sarawak after he led a campaign in the state to stop logging in the rainforests of Sarawak. Authorities accused him of instigating the Penans to go against the government.

Manser defied the ban last year when he landed his glider near the residence of Sarawak's chief minister. He was immediately deported.

The Basel-based Bruno Manser Fund said the activist slipped into Sarawak earlier this year as "the Penans were under greater threat than ever before." But when there was no word from him since late May, Manser's family in Switzerland reported him missing.

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