[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
BKK POST: Karen refugees face
- Subject: BKK POST: Karen refugees face
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 23:38:00
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.
© The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. All rights reserved 1998
Contact the Bangkok Post
Web Comments: Webmaster
Last Modified: Sun, Feb 22, 1998