BKK Post, March 2, 1998 SALWEEN SCA

[burma@xxxxxxxxxx]

March 2, 1998
SALWEEN SCANDAL / CENSURE DEBATE

Kanchana: Opposition may be hurt by censure debate 
NAP MPs warned to prepare themselves
Surasak Tumcharoen

Aleading Chart Thai Party member yesterday warned the NAP- led 
opposition that the upcoming no-confidence debate on the Salween forest 
logging could hit the opposition instead.

Kanchana Silpa-archa, daughter of Chart Thai leader Banharn Silpa-archa, 
warned the New Aspiration Party members to prepare themselves well in 
the Salween logging issue. Otherwise, she threatened, "the boomerang" 
that it throws at the government might strike back.

Ms Kanchana has been vocal in defence of her father, who approved 
imports and hauling contracts for allegedly illegal logs along the 
Burma-Mae Hong Son border in 1996, when he was interior minister.

The opposition is hoping to parlay the logging scandal into censure of 
the government. The issue has hit a high level only in recent weeks, 
after the government uncovered a five-milion-baht kickback provided to 
Deputy Forestry Director-General Prawat Thanatka.

Chart Thai sources said the "warning" from Ms Kanchana was meant for NAP 
leader Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, and for the Wang Nam Yen faction led by 
the party's secretary-general, Snoh Thienthong.

Ms Kanchana told reporters those who knew the most about Salween logging 
- legal and illegal - had left Chart Thai Party for another one. She 
stopped there, declining to name names or parties. However, many Chart 
Thai members fled to NAP after the fall of the Banharn government in 
1996.

"Those who knew left Chart Thai for good, and they should be aware the 
boomerang they are going to hurl around would likely come down on 
themselves," said Ms Kanchana.

"Ask Khun Burin [Hiranburana]. He'd know a great deal about logging," 
added her father, who was at her side during the talk with newsmen.

Neither Mr Banharn nor his daughter would discuss their preparations for 
the censure debate. They said they have obtained "all necessary 
information" to defend themselves from possible corruption charges 
during Mr Banharn's time as prime minister and concurrently interior 
minister.

Mr Banharn said he and Agriculture Minister Pongpol Adireksarn, Chart 
Thai secretary-general, will be ready to respond to any opposition 
accusations.

But he regretted Mr Pongpol's statements in defence of Mr Prawat. Police 
have charged Mr Prawat with accepting the five-million-baht kickback.

Mr Banharn said officials from the Forestry Department and other 
agencies had examined all papers pertaining to requests for temporary 
openings of border checkpoints to import logs purportedly from Burma 
before he approved the border checks.

He also had consulted the National Security Council.

"I would not have signed any papers that were not authentic or correct 
in the first place," said Mr Banharn.

The Chart Thai leader said he has formed a nine-member working group to 
dig into the logging issue, and had traced it back to at least 1986. 
That was when a Singaporean-owned firm called Skabee - and run by a 
Lt-Gen Kemachat Nitisiri - had painstakingly sought permission from the 
interior minister to import logs it claimed to have felled inside Burma.

Recent reports allege the logs had been cut in Thailand's Salween 
National and falsely labelled as Burmese, including false certificates 
of origin.

Reporters asked Mr Banharn if "powerful elements" had pressed him to 
help move illegal logs. He said no one could have succeeded in such 
pressure.

"I'm not the kind of person to be intimidated to do things. No party 
leader has intimidated me. They just asked me up with reason and 
documentation. They said I should not have put if off and that the logs 
should be hauled [into Thailand] or they would become rotten.

"But I can't remember who exactly asked me. There were six party leaders 
in my (coalition) time. Maybe I've been struck with Alzheimer's 
disease," he said.

Prayud Siripanich, [Chart Thai - Maha Sarakham] head of the Chart Thai 
fact-finding group, told Bangkok Post his team was working particularly 
on details of the "dubious performance" of Gen Chavalit during his time 
as interior minister from 1993 and 1995. During that period, the Skabee 
firm asked to bring in an estimated 4,800 tons of logs.

Mr Prayud is scheduled to brief Mr Banharn tomorrow on what he has 
found.

------------------------------------------------------------------------