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BKK Post, March 4, 1998. SALWEEN SC



March 4, 1998. SALWEEN SCANDAL

              Panel: Shut
              temporary border
              passes

              3 working groups assigned to probe

              Temporary border passes will be sealed as part of a package of
              proposals to prevent further forest destruction.

              Provincial governors should inspect forestry work in national
              reserves and wildlife sanctuaries under the proposals drawn up
              by a panel investigating the Salween logging scandal.

              Chanasak Yuwaboon, permanent secretary for interior, who
              heads the panel, said three working groups have been assigned
              to investigate different aspects of the scandal.

              The first, chaired by Plodprasop Suraswadi, secretary-general of
              the Agricultural Land Reform Office, is covering import
              irregularities.

              The second, chaired by Lt-Gen Vinit Krachangson, a former
              Third Army chief, is working to identify wrongdoers.

              The third, headed by Kachadpai Burusapattana, deputy
              secretary-general of the National Security Council, is checking
              past requests by logging companies for the opening of temporary
              passes. It has also been assigned to investigate Karen
              involvement in logging in Salween National Park.

              Mr Plodprasop said his group found thousands of logs were
              felled and hauled out of the park and only a few hundred had
              been imported with proper certificates of origin.

              The problem could be tackled if temporary passes were sealed,
              he said. According to the initial findings, Karen refugees were
              hired by wood traders to fell trees in the national park at night
              and haul them out to Burma, where they were stamped as being
              of Burmese origin, he said.

              Lt-Gen Vinit said his investigation was 30-40 percent complete
              and he vowed the guilty would be brought to book even if they
              are senior officers in the Third Army.

              Mr Kachadpai said eight firms received permission to import
              three million cubic metres of wood from Burma between 1989
              and 1992.

              Forests in the Salween National Park have been destroyed
              because trees were felled and hauled across the border only to
              return in the guise of Burmese timber through border passes
              opened temporarily at the request of importers.

              Meanwhile, more than 200 pieces of processed wood and some
              200 illegal logs have been confiscated from an illegal sawmill at a
              forest reserve in Mae Moh district of Lampang province.

              Lampang Governor Chalermpol Pratheepavanich and
              commander of the Prathoo Pha Camp Special Task Force Capt
              Rachai Kongkaew led a number of military forces to raid an
              illegal sawmill in Mae Jang National Forest Reserve in Tambon
              Jang Nua, Mae Moh district.

              They seized a large number of illegal processed wood and logs
              worth more than 30 million baht yesterday morning.

              All illegal loggers and those working at the sawmill managed to
              escape.

              The raid was under the Interior Ministry's order that provincial
              authorities combat illegal logging in Lampang.

              Mr Chalermpol said at least 20 skilled workers might have
              worked at the sawmill and the processed wood might have been
              delivered out of the forest with carts.

              He had been informed that illegal loggers from Phrae and some
              local businessmen had long cooperated in illegal logging in
              several forest reserves and national parks in Lampang, he added.

              According to Capt Rachai, the problem of illegal logging in forest
              land of Lampang, especially in Mae Jang National Forest
              Reserve, has long existed and seems to be more serious amid the
              country's economic downturn.

              At least 50 logs can be turned into processed wood within a few
              hours with the use of hi-tech equipment and skilled labour in the
              illegal logging business, he added.

              "At each sawmill, at least 20 people are hired and four elephants
              and 5-6 carts are used for hauling processed wood out of
              forests. Guards are posted along log hauling routes," Capt
              Rachai said.

              "Several deliveries of wood can be made each night. After the
              processing of logs is completed, the place will be burnt down so
              that there will be no evidence left."

              Most of all villagers involved in illegal logging are found to be
              addicted to amphetamines. Elephants are also fed with the drug,
              so that they can work hard even at night.