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More effort sought in logging probe



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      More effort sought in
      logging probe

      Despite an investigation, local police and
      sources from timber companies feel that
      illlegal logging in Salween will not come to
      a standstill unless the government
      increases its efforts to solve the Bt5-million
      bribe scandal. The Nation reports 

      MASSIVE illegal logging in the Salween
      Wildlife Sanctuary and Salween National
      Park will not stop if the government does
      not increase its efforts beyond an
      investigation into the Bt5-million bribe
      scandal, several sources in timber
      companies and local police in Mae Hong
      Son said Monday. 

      One of them suspected that a bribe, offered
      to Royal Forestry Department Deputy
      Director General Prawat Thanadka last
      week, was offered in an 'uncommon'
      tradition. 

      ''Normally, the 'tea money' is paid to certain
      people at a fixed rate. The Bt5 million could
      have been an extra sum to urge Prawat to
      accelerate the auction of confiscated
      timber by the Forestry Industry Organisation
      (FIO),'' said the source, who asked not to
      be identified. 

      He explained that the Anti-Deforestation
      Command (ADC) had confiscated a lot of
      illegall timber from the two protected forests
      during the past several months and the FIO
      had been slow in putting the timber up for
      auction. 

      The illegal logging in the Mae Hong Son
      forests is seen as the largest operation
      since commercial logging was banned
      nationwide in 1989, with over 13,000 teak
      timbers worth billions of baht being
      confiscated during the past several months.
      The two forests cover an area of about one
      million rai, of which 70 per cent of species
      are teak. 

      According to a reliable source in Mae Sa
      Riang district, illegal logging has been
      operating heavily for three years since the
      Burmese Government announced a logging
      ban in its territory and closed its border
      passes in 1995. No new concession was
      given to Thai traders, but the Burmese
      government still allow concessionaires to
      transport the timbers to Thailand. 

      Most of the timber transported from the
      area is cut in Thailand, especially that from
      the pristine wildlife sanctuary area and the
      national park. They are then floated along
      the Salween River to Burma then shipped
      back again with a stamp and certificate of
      Burmese origin. 

      Sathit Sawintara, director general of the
      Royal Forestry Department, said forestry
      officials have no way of proving whether the
      timber has been cut illegally in Thailand
      once custom officers had agreed for the
      timber to be transported across the border. 

      Most of the companies' sources and a local
      police officer interviewed by The Nation
      agreed that the bribe scandal is just tip of
      the iceberge of the problem in the two
      forests. They blamed a mafia system,
      consisting of influential businessmen,
      police, military, forestry and provincial
      officials, as a unbreakable coalition which
      ruled the unlawful operation. 

      ''It is true that both the park and sanctuary's
      officials are involved in the illegal lumber
      trade,'' the police officer said. ''But they are
      just a part of the whole process. Everybody
      here knows all officials in the province were
      paid to facilitate this illegal operation. 

      ''The local mafia is very powerful and rules
      the illegal timber trade. The brokers for the
      timber companies know how much tea
      money should be paid to whom. There is a
      fixed rate for this,'' he said. 

      A company source whose company
      recently stopped its business in Mae Sa
      Riang observed that the more notorious the
      bribe scandals became, the more the local
      mafia would benefit from it. He said the
      scandal could prompt the government to
      close all the border checkpoints which
      make it impossible for the five companies
      which operated 'honestly' to continue their
      business in the area. 

      ''But the local mafia will still be there and
      gain control of all the logging business
      without competition,'' he said. 

      A source from the B&F Goodrich
      Company, granted a timber concession in
      Burma, admitted that, for the time being, it
      could not run its business without paying
      tea money to the mafia. 

      ''Our company has waited for an official
      approval to open the border pass [to import
      timber from Burma] for over a year and
      have still not received it. Last time we also
      waited until the concession time end did not
      get approval. This time we have got another
      concession, but will still have to wait again,''
      the source said. 

      A source from another company added that
      if his company refused to be under mafia
      control, it would hardly be able to survive in
      the area of business. His company decided
      to abandon more than 1,000 cubic meters
      of timber in the jungle because ''we thought
      it was not worth paying the mafia for that
      timber''. 

      ''The situation was very intense and near to
      violence. So we just gave up,'' the source
      said. 

      A police source said when timber was
      confiscated, illegal traders would try to
      negotiate and bribe officials to return them
      the timber. But if the negotiations failed, the
      traders would still get another chance to get
      the timber by attending FIO auctions. 

      There were several movements in Bangkok
      Monday related to the bribe scandal.
      Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn
      appointed Petipong Pungboon na
      Ayutthaya, deputy permanent secretary of
      the ministry, to head an investigation team
      for the bribe scandal. 

      He also planned to upgrade the Salween
      National Park to be a part of the wildlife
      sanctuary in an attempt to stop logs being
      transported through the area. He added
      that there are some loopholes in the current
      FIO system which officials could use to
      benefit from the illegal timber trade. 

      The Police Department Monday announced
      that it would give protection to Police
      Senior Sergent Major Taweesak Antha, a
      former investigative official of Mae Sariang
      Police Station who submited a list of 15 key
      people related to an illegal scheme to the
      Prime Minister last week. 

      The joint meeting between the Royal
      Forestry Department (RFD) and the Royal
      Thai Army had considered a suggestion to
      temporarily close the border for six months.
      However, RFD's Director General said it
      might not possible to put in practice due to
      many other goods needing transit in the
      area. Stopping the import of Burmese
      timber would be the better choice, he said. 

      The Karen National Union (KNU)'s
      President Maj Gen Bomia had submitted a
      letter to Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai
      saying that the KNU did not support illegal
      logging and did not appreciate
      accusations.