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BKK POST: Karen refugees face



February 22, 1998


                                      



                       SALWEEN / FIASCO HEATS UP

              Karen refugees
              face ejection from
              park

              Move to stem flow of illegal logging
              trade

              Supamart Kasem

              The National Security Council chief has proposed that all Karen
              refugees be moved out of Salween national park before the
              onset of the rainy season in order to stem illegal logging.

              Meanwhile, investigators in Tak are considering suspending the
              operating licence of a big saw mill after it was suspected that
              more than 13,000 teak logs in its possession originated from the
              Salween forest.

              General Boonsak Kamhaengritthirong, NSC secretary-general,
              said yesterday that moving the Karens out of the Salween area
              would ease illegal logging problem. He added that
              non-governmental organisations should become involved in the
              relocation effort.

              About 14,000 Karens have been taking refuge in Salween
              national park and several of them were thought to have been
              hired by influential Thai timber merchants to fell trees in the park
              and in the adjacent wildlife sanctuary. The logs were later hauled
              into the Salween river which demarcates Thailand and Burma.
              Then the logs were stamped with Burmese seals and brought
              back to Thailand with false certificates of origin.

              Observers, however, said it might be easier said than done to
              evict the Karens from the Salween forest. Attempts by Thai
              authorities to move the Karens to a camp in Sob Moei district
              which began early this month met with strong resistance as the
              refugees claimed the new location would make them vulnerable
              to attacks from pro-Rangoon Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
              troops.

              The NSC chief also proposed that all the seized illegal logs
              should not be auctioned off by the Forest Industry Organisation
              as previously practised but should be kept for use by state
              agencies. He also suggested that all border passes be sealed.

              General Boonsak pointed out that Rangoon had banned logging
              near the Thai border for several years and, therefore, it could be
              presumed that all the logs that were claimed to have come from
              Burma were, in fact, originated in Thailand.

              He said that illegal logging in the Salween area was thought to
              have started in 1993 when the Burmese government revoked all
              the logging concessions granted to Thai timber companies. Two
              years afterward, he said thousands of Karen refugees had fled
              fighting between the Karen mainstream force and the
              pro-Rangoon renegades to take refuge in the Salween forest.

              He disclosed that illegal logging, allegedly carried out by Karens,
              concentrated in the Salween wildlife sanctuary and beyond,
              mostly along the Salween river which is more convenient for log
              hauling.

              The total forest area in Mae Hong Son, including the Salween
              national park and wildlife sanctuary, amounts to about three
              million rai.

              In neighbouring Tak province, Governor Phongphayom
              Wasapooti has set up an advisory team to determine the origin of
              some 13,000 teak logs found in the possession of Sa-nguankij
              sawmill in Ban Tak district.

              A complaint was lodged with Ban Tak police by a forestry
              official that the sawmill has in its possession illegal logs.

              An informed forestry source said that the logs were moved to the
              compound of Sa-nguankij sawmill last November with a permit
              issued by forestry officials in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong
              Son province.

              The source said the logs are suspected to come from the
              Salween forest.




                                      




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Last Modified: Sun, Feb 22, 1998