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THE NATION: Salween outcome nears
- Subject: THE NATION: Salween outcome nears
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 22:52:00
Politics
Salween outcome nears
THE government's committee investigating
massive illegal logging in Salween National
Park has finished 90 per cent of its work
and has found that corruption among
officials concerned has only involved local
officials, the chairman of the committee
said Tuesday.
Interior Ministry's Permanent Secretary
Chanasak Yuwaboon, chairman of the
committee, said his panel would conclude
the findings on March 16 and would present
them to Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai on
the same day.
Chanasak's committee met for six hours
before he announced the progress to
reporters.
He said details of the officials involved in
the alleged corruption, which resulted in
massive illegal logging, could not yet be
disclosed.
Chanasak said that, so far, the findings did
not implicate any administrative-level
officials or Cabinet members in the
large-scale logging. He said certain
government officials from central office
might have been responsible with regard to
negligence in their duties and not via
corruption.
The permanent secretary said the border
pass in Mae Hong Son was opened for the
sake of border trade, not for the benefit of
the illegal logging.
Illegal loggers felled trees in the park and
smuggled them out of the country
re-importing them by disguising them as
logs from Burma.
''We have some evidence which can be
used to proceed with criminal charges
against several officials,'' Chanasak said.
He said the local officials, involved in
corruption to help the sawmills disguise
illegal logs, all came from agencies
concerned in customs clearing of the
imported logs.
Chanasak said another committee would
be set up to determine whether disciplinary
action would be taken against any official
and he declined to comment whether the
Mae Hong Son governor would be held
responsible for failing to stop the illegal
practice earlier.
Chanasak said information obtained by his
committee could be linked to the
investigation by the Central Investigation
Bureau against former forestry department
deputy director general Prawat Thanatkha,
accused of receiving a Bt5 million bribe
from a sawmill owner in Tak.
Plodprasop Suraswadi, secretary-general
of the Land Reform Office who heads a
working committee of Chanasak's panel,
said most of 10,000 seized logs had been
felled not long ago from the park.
Plodprasop said several of the operation's
officials had took part in the felling and
selling of logs to tycoons and issued fake
documents to help the logging tycoons
receive the logs. Plodprasop's committee
is in charge of fact-finding on the question
of illegal logging.
Pol Lt Gen Winij Krachangson, chief of
another working committee under
Chanasak's panel, admitted that certain
military officers were involved in the illegal
logging, but declined to name them.
BY NUSSARA YENPRASERT
The Nation