THE NATION: Mae Pai timber may be

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Politics 

      Mae Pai timber may be
      released

      THE Court of Appeal has ordered the task
      force overseeing illegal forestry operations
      to release more than 25,000 logs seized
      from Mae Hong Son's Mae Pai Forest
      Reserve, reversing a verdict reached by the
      criminal court in 1996. The case will now
      move to the Supreme Court. 

      The 25,555 logs, including 24,000 teak
      logs, from Mae Pai were felled by the
      Export-Import VNP Co Ltd in 1986 as part
      of the Royal Forestry Department's (RFD)
      Multi-Purpose Forestry Management
      project. 

      The project's aim was to conduct
      sustainable logging in a natural forest by
      cutting only ''bad trees''. But the company's
      owners, Pao Vongvanawat and Sompong
      Vongvanawat, with the help of 14 forestry
      officials, including the RFD's current deputy
      director-general Wattana Kaewkamnerd --
      who served as director of the Timber
      Management Division at the time -- also cut
      good trees of high economic value. 

      In 1989, the Agriculture Ministry under
      then-minister Harn Leenanond proposed
      that the Office of the Attorney-General file
      lawsuits against the logging firm, alleging it
      had carried out illegal logging, and against
      the 14 forestry officials on the basis that
      they had allegedly violated article 157 of the
      Criminal Law. 

      In August, 1996, the Criminal Court found
      the defendants guilty, sentencing the 14
      forestry officials to five years in jail and the
      businessmen to 10 years and fines of
      Bt200,000 each. The court also ordered the
      Task Force to confiscate all the logs. 

      However on Feb 24 the Appeal Court
      reversed the Criminal Court's ruling,
      acquitting the defendants and ordering the
      RFD to return the logs to the company. 

      A source from the Office of the
      Attorney-General pointed out that the Court
      of Appeal had taken very little time to
      consider all the documents related to the
      lawsuit. 

      ''The Criminal Court took almost eight years
      to collect information and during that time it
      examined many documents both from
      plaintiffs and the defendants, but the
      Appeal Court took only six months to read
      and judge the case,'' he pointed out. 

      Task force member Boonyean Yaibuatet
      said he hoped the public and the media
      would monitor the case carefully because
      the logs from Mae Pai were even more
      valuable than those collected from the
      Salween scandal. He will ask for a copy of
      the Appeal Court verdict to help the state's
      arguments when the case moves to the
      Supreme Court. 

      BY PENNAPA HONGTHONG 

      The Nation