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FBC's teak business export/import p



Subject: FBC's teak business export/import position

Does the FBC have a position on Burmese logging companies, and Burmese
logging business. Is there a widespread international consensus position
to stop the destruction of these rare and precious Burmese natural raw
materials, or are they still being used to make nice us battleship decks
and folding chairs, yacht decks, hulls or whatever?
ds> 
> <bold>No waiving of new permit terms
> 
> </bold>
> 
> Firms must agree to meet all conditions
> 
> Supamart Kasem
> 
> Permits to import logs from Burma will be issued to any company which
> complies with the conditions, Forestry Department chief Plodprasop
> Suraswadi said yesterday.
> 
> These were intended to ensure the timber was genuinely Burmese, and not
> trees felled illegally in Thailand.
> 
> "People who want to import logs from Burma must follow four procedures.
> Any company that can meet these requirements can import logs," Mr
> Plodprasop said during a trip to the border forests with Lt-Gen
> Watanachai Chaimuanwong, commander of the Third Army.
> 
> An importer must arrange for forestry officials to inspect the logs in
> Burma, set up a log yard at least three kilometres from the border and
> away from any forest reserve, import one lot of logs at a time, and mark
> imported logs with bar codes.
> 
> A spokesman for four companies which have applied for import permits said
> on Thursday the conditions were unacceptable.
> 
> Mr Plodprasop said that in the past, forestry officers did not inspect
> logs in Burma. That provided opportunities for traders to claim illegal
> Thai logs as Burmese imports.
> 
> Burmese logs should also be brought in through permanent border passes.
> Any temporary border passes would need approval from the Interior
> Ministry and the National Security Council, he said.
> 
> Measures to prevent importers bringing in wooden Burmese furniture made
> from illegally felled Thai trees would be discussed at a meeting with the
> director-general of the Customs Department next Friday.
> 
> Mr Plodprasop expressed concern about the relocation of Burmese refugee
> camps to forest areas in Tak province.
> 
> "There is nothing to guarantee that the refugees will not encroach on
> forest reserves and destroy them.
> 
> "We agreed with the move after being told it's for national security and
> is only temporary," he said.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> <bold>Rebels kill 3 soldiers
> 
> </bold>
> 
> Three Rangoon soldiers were reported killed and many wounded in a clash
> with Karenni National Progressive Party rebels inside Burma near the Thai
> border yesterday.
> 
> After the clash, the KNPP base at Doi Luang in Kayah state, opposite
> Muang district of Mae Hong Son, was heavily pounded by artillery.
> 
> Further skirmishing was reported, but no additional casualties.
> 
> The KNPP base is 3km northeast of Nam Piang Din border pass in Muang
> district.
> 
> A Thai military source said the first clash took place at about 4.30am,
> when a Rangoon-trained eight-man commando unit trying to probe the KNPP
> base was ambushed by the Karennis.
> 
> Three Burmese soldiers were killed and many others wounded. The Karenni
> rebels captured three weapons-an M-16, an AK-47 and a G-3.
> 
> Burmese artillery from battalion 531 at Huay Pong base and battalion 428
> at Thana Khway fired more than 70 artillery and 60mm mortar rounds at the
> KNPP base.
> 
> The 7th Infantry Regiment subsequently despatched military and border
> patrol units, backed by several 120mm field guns, to strengthen Thai
> bases along the border in Muang and Khun Yuam districts.
> 
> Infantry from Kawila camp in Chiang Mai were also rushed to the border
> area to provide protection for about 20,000 Karenni refugees at two
> holding centres in Muang and Khun Yuam districts.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> <bold>Foreign help vetoed
> 
> 'Mandela unable to fathom the situation'
> 
> </bold>Burma's military government has recevied no outside offers of
> mediation to resolve the deadlock with the pro-democracy opposition,and
> will solve its problems on its own, Foreign Minister Win Aung said.
> 
> A European Union delegation that visited the country this week had made
> no such offer,nor had former South African President Nelson Mandela
> despite reports he could consider such a role,Win Aung said on
> Thursday.
> 
> "It would not be reasonable to do so(offer to mediate) because it is our
> domestic affair,"the minister said.
> 
> A South African diplomat said last month Mr Mandela would consider acting
> as a mediator between the military and the opposition which is led by his
> fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.The diplomat said Mr Mandela
> was willing to consider the role if formally asked by the opposition.
> 
> "I think Mr Mandela can't understand our politics," " Win Aung said. " We
> don't  mean that we have solved the problems. We are trying to solve the
> problems by peaceful means by ourselves. Our problems are very
> complex."
> 
> Win Aung said a visit by a mikranking EU delegation this week had been
> confined to fact-finding.
> 
> " Therefore, we told them what they wanted to know. "
> 
> EU diplomats said the delegation went to Burma to look at reestablishing
> a dialogue with the government in the interests of pro9moting human
> rights and a rapprochement between the opposition and military.
> 
> The Eu is also interested in repairing its relationship with the
> Association of Southeast Asia Nations (Asean), which has been damaged by
> the grouping's formal admission of Burma in 1997.
> 
> Burma's treatments of the opposition, including the arrest and detention
> of hundreds of its members, has led the European Union to bar Burmese
> officials from its region, forcing the cancellation of  a high level
> meeting of the two blocs earlier this year.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------