Bruno Manser
Encyclopedia
Bruno Manser in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, legally dead
Death in absentia
Death in absentia is a legal declaration that a person is deceased in the absence of remains attributable to that person...
March 10, 2005) was an environmental activist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
. He was well known in Switzerland for his public activism for rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
preservation and the protection of indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
.
Life with the Penans
Manser created richly illustrated notebooks during his stay in 1984 to 1990 with the PenanPenan
The Penan are a nomadic aboriginal people living in Sarawak and Brunei. They are one of the last such peoples remaining. The Penan are noted for their practice of 'molong' which means never taking more than necessary...
people, in the jungle of the Eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
, on the island of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
, near the Indonesian border of Kalimantan
Kalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
. He stayed with the nomadic band of Along Sega, who became the Penan figurehead for their struggle. He also visited many other settled Penan communities in the Upper Baram district. These notebooks were later published by the Christoph Merian
Christoph Merian
Christoph Merian was a banker and businessman. He was the son of Christoph Merian senior and Valeria Hoffmann and married in 1824 to Margarethe Burckhardt from Basel.He was the owner of a large estate, agriculturist and rentier. He was one of the richest Swiss men of that time...
press in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
. Manser, however, was declared persona non grata
Persona non grata
Persona non grata , literally meaning "an unwelcome person", is a legal term used in diplomacy that indicates a proscription against a person entering the country...
in Malaysia and had to leave the country with a bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
of $40,000 on his head.
Activism
Manser protested internationally for Sarawak. On 17 July 1991 Manser chained himself to a lamp post with a banner during the G7 summit until cut loose by police. His protest was featured on the front page of The Independent newspaper the next day. In 1992 he parachuted into the Rio World Summit.Disappearance
Bruno Manser is missing and presumed dead. Manser was last seen in May 2000 in the isolated village of Bario in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, close to the border with Indonesia. His last known communication is a letter mailed to his girlfriend on May 22, 2000, from the village of Bario, in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, where he had returned to meet the nomadic Penan he lived with for so long.Manser is still regarded by the Penan as somewhat of an idol, named "Lakei Penan" (Penan Man). A man that united them and has been accused by the government of arranging numerous blockades of logging roads (although no proof has been given) and having some positive effect by protesting in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
about the alleged inhumanity of the tropical timber industry.
After search expeditions proved fruitless, a civil court in Basel ruled on March 10, 2005 that Manser be considered dead.
Manser's unpopularity with Sarawak's government and the logging companies such as Samling, who have been known to use intimidation and violence as scare tactics have prompted suspicions surrounding his death, none of which have yet been proved.
Films
- SAGO - A Film by Bruno Manser (1997), a documentation of the culture of the Penan http://www.bmf.ch/de/shop/
Several documentary films have been made about him. They are
- Blowpipes and Bulldozers, (1988) http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/blow.html,
- Tong Tana - En resa till Borneos inre, (1989) http://imdb.com/title/tt0098489/ and
- Tong Tana 2, (2001) http://imdb.com/title/tt0331002/.
- Bruno Manser - Laki Penan was published in April 2007 http://www.brunomanser-derfilm.ch/.