Logging goes on despite police probe

Illegal logging is continuing unabated, despite the investigation and troop deployment to protect the Salween forest in Mae Hong Son, according to Pol Gen Sant Sarutanont, the deputy police chief.

As chairman of the fact-finding team entrusted to apprehend illegal loggers and corrupt officials working in tandem with the loggers, he said he had found several newly-felled logs during his recent inspection of Salween national park and wildlife sanctuary.

"For instance, in Huey Korapoo, we found 20 teak trees felled within about one rai. It is very sad because most teak trees grow near the stream," said Pol Gen Sant, adding the leaves on many of the trees were still green.

"This shows they were felled very recently before we arrived there," he said.

He did not identify who paid the Karen refugees to undertake illegal logging. "You reporters should have their names already."

The probe team has divided the culprits into three groups: the loggers who actually felled the trees; the officials who deliberately overlooked the illegal activities; and the financiers.

The investigation team itself is divided into three groups: One headed by Plodprasob Surasawadee, deputy permanent secretary of agriculture, is tasked with collecting information about the logging gangs and their moving of logs out of the forest to the sawmills; another, headed by Pol Gen Vinit Krajangsont, aims to catch the offenders; and the third, led by National Security Council secretary-general Kachadpai Buruspat, is charged with finding out the extent of Karen involvement in deforestation.

While accusing Karen refugees of illegal logging, Pol Gen Sant blamed Thai financiers for paying the Karens to do the dirty work.

A senior police officer alleged that an arrested Karen had admitted that between 700 and 800 teak trees were felled daily in the forest.

The source said four interior ministers in past governments endorsed the opening of border passes to allow logs from Burma to be hauled across the border into Thailand.

Lt-Gen Kemchart Nitisiri, a top executive of Sakabi, a timber company granted permission to haul logs from Burma, was questioned for five hours by police on Friday.

Pol Gen Vinit, the head of the probe team, said the interrogation was routine to gather information.

Mae Hong Son governor Pakdee Chompuming and six other senior officials were yesterday questioned in Chiang Mai by Interior Permanent Secretary Chanasak Yuwaboon.

Mr Pakdee later said he was not involved in the illegal logging but, as a governor, he had to be responsible for the failure to protect the Salween forest

Meanwhile, former deputy Forestry Department chief Prawat Thanadkha and his wife faced arrest warrants after they failed to turn up for interrogation yesterday.

Mr Prawat, Mrs Juree and their children were then asked to turn up for questioning over the five million baht bribe on Tuesday.

Pol Maj-Gen Wassana Permlarp, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, yesterday sent investigators to see the couple but they were not home.

The couple was supposed to show up at the Crime Suppression Division yesterday morning for official questioning.

They have been unofficially questioned several times in connection with the bribe and the Salween illegal logging.

Mr Prawat was transferred to an inactive post after he had tried to donate the money to the Thais-Help-Thais fund.