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More effort sought in logging probe
- Subject: More effort sought in logging probe
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 18:21:00
Headlines
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.