Military and Thai Governmental Involvement in Cambodian Logging
1/25/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Significant industrial logging continues in Cambodia, at such a rate that
by early in the next century the main body of rainforests will be much
reduced. The following photocopies of two articles detail Cambodian
military and Thai governmental involvement in illegal and clearly
unsustainable logging.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
ITEM #1
CAMBODIA
Friday, January 24, 1997
Military "involved" in illegal logging
By MARK BAKER, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok
The Cambodian Army is wresting control from Khmer Rouge guerillas of a
huge, illegal logging operation that is rapidly stripping the country's
national parks and dwindling forests.
Cambodian officials and international environmentalists have confirmed an
expanding military involvement in a trade which the Government is secretly
using to help finance its war against the rebels.
Documents obtained by the British environmental watchdog Global Witness
show that Cambodia's co-Prime Ministers, Mr Hun Sen and Prince Norodom
Ranarridh, granted approval last year to the army commander, General Ke Kim
Yan, to sell 30,000 cubic metres of logs from Koh Kong province to a Thai
timber company.
The Prime Ministers approved the importation of new logging equipment for
the company, with proceeds from the deals funding operations against the
Khmer Rouge, without the knowledge of the Cambodian Finance Ministry.
"Here you have the Chief of Staff obtaining approval from the two Prime
Ministers to export freshly cut timber to Thailand, with the money going
directly to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces," a Global Witness
spokeswoman, Ms Charmian Gooch, said. "This confirms the existence of a
parallel budget in the hands of the military."
The head of the Cambodian Defence Department, Mr Ek Sereywath, confirmed
yesterday that freelance military units were heavily involved in logging,
including in national parks. He blamed low wages, partly, for the problem.
The disclosures coincide with a deepening scandal in Thailand over evidence
implicating the new Prime Minister, Mr Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, and his
predecessor, Mr Banharn Silpa-archa, in the illegal logging trade with
Cambodia.
Opposition politicians have circulated documents detailing the role of both
men in decisions to open the Thai border to the illicit timber trade and
linking Mr Chavalit's wife to companies involved in the trade.
Forestry experts estimate that Cambodia's forest cover has dropped from
about 70 per cent to less than 40 per cent over the past few years, despite
an ostensible two-year ban on logging. Under mounting international
pressure, the Cambodian Government ordered its borders closed to log
exports on December 31. But in a move clearly designed to allow the
transfer of large timber stockpiles into Thailand, Thai authorities allowed
border crossing points to remain open until early last week.
Global Witness estimates that nearly 150,000 cubic metres of timber, worth
up to $100million, crossed into Thailand in
December alone.
ITEM #2
Thais defend role in Cambodia logging
Copyright 1997 by United Press International
1/21/97
BANGKOK, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- The Thai government is denying all wrong-doing in
the opening of checkpoints for Thai lumber companies carrying Cambodian
timber across the two countries' common border.
Deputy Prime Minister Samak Suntorawet says (Tuesday) Thailand is being
+unfairly blamed for the rapid depletion of Cambodia's forests and that the
Phnom Penh government and Japan are more responsible for deforestation.
Samak says he is "amused that when the Japanese process the wood and ship
it to Japan nothing happens, but if we import the lumber it is not okay.
Why is that?"
Samak's remarks followed the publication (Monday) of a Cambodian government
document which Thai leaders say refutes charges that Prime Minister
Chavalit Yongchaiyudh took part in deals to illegally extract timber from
Cambodia.
Last week an official of the London-based human rights and environment
group Global Witness was quoted as saying Chavalit and his predecessor,
Banharn Silpa-arch, conspired to open border checkpoints for the removal of
Cambodian logs.
Environmentalists say the rapid deforestation of Cambodia by timber
companies from Thailand, Malaysia and elsewhere will leave the country a
virtual desert early in the next century.
They say tough anti-logging laws by the Thai and Cambodian governments are
being ignored by timber companies and military officials who control the
border.