BP: 980824

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

                                            August 24, 1998 


                                  


                      LOGGING

 Four companies vie
 for border permits

 Six crossing points may be opened

 Supamart Kasem 
 Tak

 The Interior Ministry is considering a proposal from four Thai logging
 firms that it open six border points so that logs and processed wood
 worth over a billion baht can be brought in from Burma.

 Two of the firms have been identified as Sahai Ruam Rop Kaolee and
 Phon Pana, a border source said.

 The border points are at Mae Sot, Mae Ramat and Tha Song Yang in
 Tak, and at Mae Sariang and Khun Yuam in Mae Hong Son.

 The proposal to open up the border points to enable the import of
 some 100,000 pieces of teak and krayaloey wood from Kayah and
 Karen states was submitted to the Army last year.

 The proposal was withheld for some time due to the Salween logging
 scandal.

 After the scandal subsided, the Army agreed to the proposal and
 passed it to the National Security Council and Interior Ministry for
 approval.

 During that time there were contacts between a former high-level
 officer of the Third Army Area and a former Burmese border force
 commander.

 Military officers of the two sides eventually agreed that the wood
 shipments were necessary, "for military reasons".

 It was agreed that the commander of Burma's Eastern and
 Southeastern Force would be responsible for the shipment from
 Kayah and Karen states, while the commander of the Third Army
 Area would oversee the delivery on the Thai side, the source said.

 The source said Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart has set up a
 working group comprising representatives of the Prime Minister's
 Office, Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries, the NSC, the Forestry
 Department, the Third Army Area and local officials of Tak and Mae
 Hong Son.

 The group will travel to inspect the border points to be opened and
 locations for piling up the wood on either side of the border.

 It will make sure that the opening of the border points does not allow
 logs to be illegally felled on the Thai side, sent across the border into
 Burma and then returned to Thailand as Burmese logs, the source said.

                                                       
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 © Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1998
 Last Modified: Mon, Aug 24, 1998
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