Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/4/23/nation/17519895&sec=nation
Monday April 23, 2007
Police to patrol buffer zone
MIRI: Sarawak police have extended mobile patrol duties right up to no mans land the unoccupied border region between Sarawak and Brunei to help visitors and tourists coming in from oil-rich Brunei feel safer.
Miri Police Chief Asst Comm Abang Abdillah Abang Othman said the state police have decided to expand its mobile surveillance rounds all the way to the Sungai Tujuh border checkpoint, some 35km north of Miri City, from the city limits because of current pressing needs.
Some people in the tourism industry say that the number of tourists and visitors from Brunei has dropped seriously because of worries and security fears about the gangster issues in the state.
These mobile patrols will be carried out everyday.
This means that the entire stretch between Miri and the Sarawak-Brunei exit will be monitored by mobile police units at regular intervals everyday, not just the city areas.
We want to reassure visitors from Brunei or foreigners entering Sarawak from Brunei that their safety and security are being taken care of at all times, he said yesterday.
A stretch of forested land stretching for two kilometres between the Sarawak immigration checkpoint and the Brunei immigration complex is unoccupied. It is reserved as a border buffer zone between Malaysia and Brunei. The Pan-Borneo Highway runs through this zone into Brunei and beyond.
ACP Abdillah said there were no major security threats here against visitors or tourists.
He assured those entering the state via northern Sarawak that they could always depend on the police for swift assistance if they faced any trouble or problem.
