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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Military
and Thai Governmental Involvement in Cambodian Logging
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
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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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.
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