BKK POST: Probe panel begins to tak

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

February 19, 1998


                                     


              Probe panel begins
              to take shape

              Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Anucha Charoenpo

              The government's joint committee to investigate the Salween
              logging scandal is expected to take shape today, Prime Minister
              Chuan Leekpai said yesterday.

              Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart had been told to assign
              Permanent Secretary for Interior Chanasak Yuwaboon to the
              committee.

              The officials will be made chairman of the panel to be made up
              of representatives of the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry,
              the Customs Department, the PM's Office and relevant agencies,
              he said.

              The committee will conduct a full-scale investigation directed at
              all persons involved in logging at Salween national park. Police
              chief Pracha Promnok will lead investigators to look for evidence
              at the park.

              Pol Gen Pracha said the team was not a special task force but a
              police unit specialising in in-depth investigation. It would delve
              into the logging trade in which many state officials are said to be
              key players.

              The police chief said Seri Temiyavej, the Central Investigation
              Bureau commissioner, was working on the case and was
              expected to report to him on the progress in his investigation
              soon.

              Pol Lt-Gen Seri had been assigned to probe the five-million-baht
              bribe given to Prawat Thanadkha, the Forestry Department
              deputy chief, who sparked a call for action in the Salween.

              Pol Gen Pracha declined to comment on reports that Maj-Gen
              Sanan has ordered Pol Gen Salang Bunnag be investigated for
              negligence over allegations he tolerated logging. The deputy
              police chief heads an anti-deforestation task force which
              supervises national forests.

              If a disciplinary probe was to be set up, the charge against those
              targeted, who might include Pol Gen Salang, must be made
              clear.

              Mr Prawat yesterday went to Government House for a meeting
              but denied he was trying to clear himself over the bribe he took
              to donate to the Thai-help-Thai Foundation last week.

              If he had wanted to keep the money he would not have taken it
              to Government House, he said. He decided to hand over the
              money because the person who gave it to him might blackmail
              him. Mr Prawat declined to name that person because he could
              be sued. 




                                     




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Last Modified: Thu, Feb 19, 1998