Friends gather to “remember” missing environmentalist

The Swiss environmental activist, Bruno Manser, went missing in Borneo last year Keystone

Supporters and friends of the missing environmentalist, Bruno Manser, have gathered in Bern on the first anniversary of his disappearance. They vowed to continue his fight for the survival of tropical rainforests and for indigenous peoples living in them.

Speakers at Wednesday’s meeting made an effort to speak of Manser in the present tense. But it was clear that many had given up hope that he was still alive, a year after he disappeared in the rainforests of Borneo. His last known communication was a letter to a Swiss friend dated May 23, 2000.

“I still hope”, said his brother, Erich. But the secretary of the Bruno Manser Foundation (BMF), John Künzli, acknowledged that the gathering was called to “remember” Manser. “With every day that passes, the possibility that he is still alive is getting smaller,” he said.

Manser spent six years in Malaysia’s Sarawak province, where he lived with the Penan, a tribe that inhabits the rainforests of Borneo. His campaign against the timber trade embarrassed the Malaysian government and earned him enemies among logging companies and other vested interests in Sarawak.

A Swiss journalist, Till Lincke, who has been scouring the Malaysian jungle trying to find out what happened to Manser, has said that he believes the activist was killed.

The memorial meeting on Wednesday was in the style of Manser’s own sit-ins as an activist. A few dozen friends and relatives planted a Penan style totem tree in Bern’s central Bärenplatz, a square facing the federal parliament, and squatted beneath it. Young mothers were breast-feeding their babies while homemade cakes and fruit juice were served to onlookers.

The totem tree was a copy made from local pine tree, and symbolises Manser’s campaign to outlaw, or at least restrict, the import of timber that threatens the survival of tropical rainforests and of the indigenous peoples, who depend on it for a livelihood – like the Penan.

A message read on behalf of Swiss interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, praised Manser’s radicalism that “willingly displayed an incomprehension of the usual political rules of play.” Manser’s activism had reinforced the ideas that the survival of humanity and of nature was “identical”, Dreifuss said.

Remo Gysin, a member of the House of Representatives, said Manser’s radicalism went hand in hand with a clear political vision. “He built bridges between communities in Switzerland and Asia, between ecological issues and world trade, and between left-wing and ‘green’ parties,” Gysin told swissinfo.

There were also accusations that the Swiss government had been hypocritical in its dealings with Malaysia over Manser’s disappearance. Organisers of the meeting said that, although the authorities had done their utmost in the search of Manser, Switzerland’s position on the broader issues involved was ambivalent.

“I don’t think Switzerland’s diplomatic service let us down”, Künzli said. “They don’t have any more information about Manser’s whereabouts than we do.”

However, he told swissinfo that the government and parliament could have been more supportive of a ban on timber imports.

Several speakers noted that Switzerland had not ratified Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the protection of indigenous peoples, which could be invoked against the trade in tropical timber.

Künzli suggested that the government’s position was influenced by Swiss exports to Malaysia, worth SFr400 million annually, which could be jeopardised if Switzerland were to ban timber imports. “Unfortunately, financial gains are the priority in political circles,” Künzli said.

Some BMF activists spoke of the need to for a change of focus, saying the organisation was too dependent on Manser. “We will continue to name the culprits, in Malaysia and elsewhere, but we are aware that we may find it difficult to get funding in future without Bruno’s presence,” Künzli said.

by Markus Haefliger