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BKK Post, February 26, 1998 SALWEEN
- Subject: BKK Post, February 26, 1998 SALWEEN
- From: burma@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 03:14:00
February 26, 1998
SALWEEN SCANDAL / SECOND IN A SERIES
Rival firms battled for monopoly
Renegade Karens provided stamps
Onnucha Hutasingh
While officials are piecing together relevant details about the Salween
logging scandal, a suspended policeman familiar with such illegal
activities says log poachers are fighting among themselves to gain a
monopoly.
According to Police Senior Sergeant-Major Thaweesak Kantha, loggers
turned to the Salween National Park after having chopped down all trees
on the Burmese side of the border about two years ago.
"Heavy log poaching started when there was no forest left in Burma and
further logging in Burma seemed to cost too much and involve too many
risks," said the officer attached to Mae Sariang police station.
Only three companies - Ska-B, Thai Industry Venir and SPA Richwood -
were allowed to import timber into Thailand through border passes. They
reported their last imports last year, according to Customs records.
However, the policeman said "Tycoon Nong" who undertook logging
activities under Ska-B was still in the business though the company
itself was pulling out.
"The turn of 1996 was when heavy logging in the park started. We don't
know where the logs came from," he said.
While Ska-B was quitting with reports of illegal logging in the park, he
said, a large number of logs to be taken to Ban Mae Sam Lap Pass were
spotted in the Salween River.
But the logs were reportedly hijacked by another group of log poachers,
he said calling them "the pirates of the Salween".
>These pirates set up a trap in the river to prevent logs from reaching
Ban Mae Sam Lap, he said.
"And the owners of these logs yielded to the power of the pirates who
took complete control of the transport route," he said.
Local villagers and Karens were hired to fell trees in the park. The
logs were shipped to Burma to be stamped at a stronghold of the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, then imported into Thailand via Ban Mae
Sam Lap, he said.
A fee of 300 baht per log went to the DKBA, he claimed, adding money was
paid through a manager in Mae Sariang to be handed over to smaller
operators.
>According to the policeman, the poachers went as far as having logs
>stamped on Thai soil before hauling them out of the forests to a
>destination in Tak.
"The trucks leave Mae Sariang about 8 p.m. daily. Each has a sticker.
The drivers flash the headlights when the trucks approach checkpoints
and they don't have to stop for inspection," he said.
He estimated some 100 trees were felled daily to produce 300 logs, and
so far more than 75,000 trees had been chopped down.
Around mid-February, Snr Sgt-Maj Thaweesak gave Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai a list of 15 local officials who allegedly had been bribed to
turn a blind eye to illegal logging activities.
Since then, the officer has been guarded round the clock. Every door in
his house is locked or double-locked.
But the policeman said he had to do what he did because his previous
attempts to bring the matter to higher authorities proved futile.
"I reported wood laundering and illegal logging in the Salween park to
higher authorities but none of them paid any attention ... neither the
provincial police chief, the governor, the MPs nor the agriculture
minister. Nothing happened," he said.
According to him, illegal logging remained unsolved because officials
were corrupt.
"My action is to persuade the prime minister to reorganise and replace
all officials concerned from the governor down," he said.
The officer himself, however, has been suspended from duty for alleged
involvement in illegal logging in the park.
"The information I gave to the prime minister is the most important
thing I have ever done to protect the forests," he said. He said his
action was not intended to have him reinstated.
He said his life was in danger and his name was probably on the very top
of the hit list of every illegal logger.