BKK Post, February 26, 1998 SALWEEN

[burma@xxxxxxxxxx]

February 26, 1998
SALWEEN SCANDAL / SECOND IN A SERIES

Rival firms battled for monopoly 
Renegade Karens provided stamps 
Onnucha Hutasingh

While officials are piecing together relevant details about the Salween 
logging scandal, a suspended policeman familiar with such illegal 
activities says log poachers are fighting among themselves to gain a 
monopoly.

According to Police Senior Sergeant-Major Thaweesak Kantha, loggers 
turned to the Salween National Park after having chopped down all trees 
on the Burmese side of the border about two years ago.

"Heavy log poaching started when there was no forest left in Burma and 
further logging in Burma seemed to cost too much and involve too many 
risks," said the officer attached to Mae Sariang police station.

Only three companies - Ska-B, Thai Industry Venir and SPA Richwood - 
were allowed to import timber into Thailand through border passes. They 
reported their last imports last year, according to Customs records.

However, the policeman said "Tycoon Nong" who undertook logging 
activities under Ska-B was still in the business though the company 
itself was pulling out.

"The turn of 1996 was when heavy logging in the park started. We don't 
know where the logs came from," he said.

While Ska-B was quitting with reports of illegal logging in the park, he 
said, a large number of logs to be taken to Ban Mae Sam Lap Pass were 
spotted in the Salween River.

But the logs were reportedly hijacked by another group of log poachers, 
he said calling them "the pirates of the Salween".

>These pirates set up a trap in the river to prevent logs from reaching 
Ban Mae Sam Lap, he said.

"And the owners of these logs yielded to the power of the pirates who 
took complete control of the transport route," he said.

Local villagers and Karens were hired to fell trees in the park. The 
logs were shipped to Burma to be stamped at a stronghold of the 
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, then imported into Thailand via Ban Mae 
Sam Lap, he said.

A fee of 300 baht per log went to the DKBA, he claimed, adding money was 
paid through a manager in Mae Sariang to be handed over to smaller 
operators.

>According to the policeman, the poachers went as far as having logs 
>stamped on Thai soil before hauling them out of the forests to a 
>destination in Tak.

"The trucks leave Mae Sariang about 8 p.m. daily. Each has a sticker. 
The drivers flash the headlights when the trucks approach checkpoints 
and they don't have to stop for inspection," he said.

He estimated some 100 trees were felled daily to produce 300 logs, and 
so far more than 75,000 trees had been chopped down.

Around mid-February, Snr Sgt-Maj Thaweesak gave Prime Minister Chuan 
Leekpai a list of 15 local officials who allegedly had been bribed to 
turn a blind eye to illegal logging activities.

Since then, the officer has been guarded round the clock. Every door in 
his house is locked or double-locked.

But the policeman said he had to do what he did because his previous 
attempts to bring the matter to higher authorities proved futile.

"I reported wood laundering and illegal logging in the Salween park to 
higher authorities but none of them paid any attention ... neither the 
provincial police chief, the governor, the MPs nor the agriculture 
minister. Nothing happened," he said.

According to him, illegal logging remained unsolved because officials 
were corrupt.

"My action is to persuade the prime minister to reorganise and replace 
all officials concerned from the governor down," he said.

The officer himself, however, has been suspended from duty for alleged 
involvement in illegal logging in the park.

"The information I gave to the prime minister is the most important 
thing I have ever done to protect the forests," he said. He said his 
action was not intended to have him reinstated.

He said his life was in danger and his name was probably on the very top 
of the hit list of every illegal logger.