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BKK Post, March 11, 1998 SALWEEN SC



March 11, 1998
SALWEEN SCANDAL

Soldiers among those to be charged 
Probe chief: Prawat linked to wrongdoing
Temsak Traisophon

State officials of several levels and agencies, including the military, 
will face both disciplinary and legal action in connection with the 
Salween logging scandal, the head of a government fact-finding team said 
yesterday.

They would be charged with malfeasance in office, corruption and 
negligence, said Chanasak Yuwaboon, the Interior Ministry's permanent 
secretary who chairs the fact-finding committee, after it met for six 
hours yesterday.

However, he declined to say if there would be any provincial governor 
among the officials to be punished. Pakdi Chompooming, the governor of 
Mae Hong Son where the Salween National Park is located, has denied any 
involvement in illegal logging operations in the park.

Gen Vinij Krachangson, a former Third Army chief who is now attached to 
the Supreme Command, said yesterday in his capacity as a committee 
member that some military officers were involved in the logging scandal, 
but declined to elaborate. The current Third Army commander, Lt-Gen 
Thanom Watcharaphut, has strongly denied any involvement.

Mr Chanasak said part of the committee's findings could not be made 
public yet. The panel had already met three times and completed about 90 
percent of its investigation, he added.

After two more meetings the committee would prepare a summary report 
which was expected to be ready for submission to Prime Minister Chuan 
Leekpai by March 16, he said.

He said Forestry Department chief Sathit Sawintara yesterday gave 
"useful" information to the committee.

"The committee also found the department's deputy director-general who 
triggered the ongoing investigation was linked to the wrongdoing," said 
Mr Chanasak, referring to Prawat Thanadkha.

The scandal broke when Mr Prawat offered to donate to the 
Thais-Help-Thais Fund a sum of five million baht, which he claimed had 
been hand-delivered in a box to his home. His offer was rejected by the 
prime minister, who instead ordered an investigation.

Agricultural Land Reform Office secretary-general Plodprasop 
Surasawadee, a member of the Chanasak committee, yesterday said 
influential people in the logging business were behind the destruction 
of Salween forests. However, he declined to name them.

Pol Lt-Gen Seri Temiyavej, the Central Investigation Bureau chief whom 
the premier assigned to find the source of the cash delivered to Mr 
Prawat, earlier claimed the police had evidence against Mr Prawat and 
log trader Vinai Panichayanuban, the man suspected to be the source of 
the money.

However, no charges have been made against the two so far. Pol Lt-Gen 
Seri said more evidence was being collected.

The CIB chief said the police were still checking Mr Vinai's logging 
record books and the bank accounts of both Mr Vinai and Mr Prawat.

Yesterday, 15 police officers from the Crime Suppression Division 
searched Mr Vinai's sawmill in Ban Tak district of Tak for evidence.The 
same team also searched the home of timber tycoon Som Chankrachang but 
found nothing that could be used as evidence.

In a related development, Gen Salang Bunnag, a deputy police chief who 
leads a special task force to prevent and suppress forest destruction 
nationwide, yesterday invited Mae Hong Son Governor Pakdi, Forestry 
Department chief Sathit and representatives of the Third Army and the 
Salween National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary to a meeting to draw a 
joint operation plan to examine how much damage had been done to Salween 
forests through illegal logging.

Pol Gen Salang said the operation would focus on gathering intelligence 
on rackets responsible for forest destruction, examination and stamping 
of tree stumps, taking pictures and drawing maps of destroyed forest 
areas, surveys of forest areas cleared for shifting cultivation, and 
crackdowns on log-poaching equipment and houses roughly built with 
illegally-cut wood for sales.

Patrol teams of 12 men each, comprising border patrol and local police, 
rangers and forestry officials, would be deployed and supported by three 
helicopters, he said.

Pol Lt-Gen Seri and Pol Lt-Gen Sanphet Thammathikul, a commissioner 
attached to the Police Department, have been assigned to supervise the 
operation.

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