BKK POST: Salween damage estimate

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

March 13, 1998


                                     


              Salween damage
              estimate to help
              govt's defence

              Evidence collated for no-confidence
              motion

              The Mae Hong Son forestry inspection team will step up its
              assessment of damage to Salween forests from illegal logging to
              help the government prepare for the censure debate.

              Kraipetch Pansomboon, a provincial forestry official, said the
              team would make a survey to establish where in the Salween
              National Park the illegal loggers operated and to determine how
              much damage their activities had caused.

              The opposition is most likely to focus on the Salween logging
              scandal in order to hit where it thinks it will hurt the government
              the most. The two-day no-confidence debate kicks off on
              March 18.

              Mr Kraipetch said the damage assessment survey would take
              them beyond the national park's boundary into the wildlife
              sanctuary.

              They expected to uncover logging spots where they would make
              records of tree stumps for use as evidence to assist further
              investigations.

              Border Patrol Police, the special Salween Task Force, and
              military rangers would join the survey trip starting from the
              Salween river bank in Mae Sariang district's Ban Mae Sam Lab
              where most illegal logs were found to have been hauled out of
              the national park.

              Mae Hong Son police yesterday sought the provincial customs
              office's permission to question officials responsible for monitoring
              checkpoints and to examine import records.

              Pol Maj-Gen Manas Marutan, Mae Hong Son police chief, said
              they needed to get hold of evidence to verify tax payments as
              well as sources of imported logs and processed wood.

              He was interested in details dating back to 1989. A police
              anti-logging unit has been ordered to keep a close watch on
              border officials who might be linked to the Salween logging
              scandal and keep a personal data file on them.

              A police source said the unit's investigation was hindered by lack
              of cooperation from some state agencies wanting to distance
              themselves from the scandal.

              The unit reportedly found it difficult to obtain relevant
              documents, and sometimes was even given fake copies.

              Tactics used to disguise the origins of Salween logs were being
              looked into. To avoid police suspicion, logs were made into
              planks and used to build houses which were later dismantled so
              the planks could be transported out of the areas for sale.

              Authorities were checking the dismantling of a house owned by a
              former forestry official attached to Pai and Mae Sariang districts.

              Despite slow progress in its investigation, the unit was confident
              it would be able to gather useful data and hand it to the
              government before the debate started, said the source.




                                     




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Last Modified: Fri, Mar 13, 1998