Army told to tackle illegal logging

Army chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro has issued an urgent order to set up a special task force to protect Thai forests along the Salween river after the discovery of large-scale deforestation blamed on influential loggers who have the support of local authorities.

The move followed a trip by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai to inspect forests along the river in Mae Hong Son on Saturday. Gen Chettha received a direct order then from the premier that the military should take a major role in protecting forests along the border.

According to an army source, the new "Salween" task force will be under the command of a colonel and will mainly comprise soldiers who will be fully armed and will have the use of helicopters in conducting their mission. Customs and Forestry officials as well as border patrol police in the province will come under the special task force.

The prime minister became upset upon seeing heavy deforestation which was supported by local authorities and he also blamed the Mae Hong Son governor for never having made field trips to check the problem, the source said.

Several felled logs were found in every square kilometre of the 450,950-rai Salween National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary and thousands more were tied together as rafts floating in the Salween river. The widespread illegal logging has reportedly ruined about 30% of the national park.

Gen Chettha was also very frustrated with the deforestation because empty fields affected military missions in the border area, the source said.

Apart from setting the special task force, the army was also told to remove 13,000 Karen refugees who work for illegal loggers in the national park and to seize felled logs there.

Logs are usually moved into the Salween river and it is then claimed that they have come from Burmese forests under the protection of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and are being "imported" back to Thailand as Burmese goods.

In fact, the excuse is totally groundless because concession areas of Burmese forests were as far as 50 kilometres from the bordering river and had only about 7,000 cubic metres of logs left, the source said.

To cope with illegal logging seriously, the army is also seeking legal amendments to empower soldiers to arrest illegal loggers and to have their authority extended to cover the protection of forests within a range of three kilometres from the borderline nationwide.

The army was working with the Interior Ministry and the Forestry Department to push for the amendments, the source said.