ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By MIN LWIN | Tons of timber dumped in a football ground in Muse Township several months ago are still waiting to be exported to China, residents of the town said.

A local man at the Burma-China border told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that hundreds of logs marked with the logo of the military government’s Burmese Timber Enterprise had been brought in from forests in Lashio and dumped at the park.

“Government trucks unloaded the timber on the football ground several months ago,” he said. “Burmese officials are currently unable to export the timber to the Chinese side because of a corruption scandal, so the trees are just lying around.”

China is Burma’s largest customer for timber. The London-based watchdog Global Witness says more than 1 million cubic meters of timber, about 95 percent of Burma’s total timber exports to China, were illegally exported from northern Burma to Yunnan province in 2004.

Chinese companies have engaged in widespread logging in Burma’s forests. In 2005, more than 1.5 million cubic meters of Burmese timber were imported by China—a dominant player in the global timber market—worth an estimated US $350 million. Much of the logging was illegal, done either by the Burmese military or ethnic groups, according to a report by Global Witness.

Members of the business community in Muse said that the authorities from the na sa ka (Department of Border Trade) had not given clear instructions on what was to be done with the timber.

“The timber trade is controlled by the local military regional command,” said one resident. “Ethnic ceasefire groups, the junta and its militias are selling everything of value to China, including raw wood, processed timber, natural rubber and cane products.”

According to sources close to a timber logging company, the Chinese increased their imports of timber last year in preparation for the Olympics in August.

Meanwhile, several officials from the customs department and the na sa ka at the 105-mile Burma-China border were interrogated on July 2 on suspicion of corruption and facilitating illegal trade, local sources said.

“They were accused of corruption, illegal trading and stealing from trucks containing assistance meant for victims of Cyclone Nargis,” a source said.

The source said that traders at the border had collected donations for the cyclone survivors. However, some of the trucks carrying relief supplies were commandeered by the officials.

The Burma-China border crossing at Muse was officially opened for trade in December 1988.

After a ceasefire agreement between the Burmese military and local ethnic opposition groups in the early 1990s, officials at the Burma-China border played a key role in facilitating the illegal trade in timber on behalf of local military commanders and ethnic armed groups, according to local businessmen.