KL says `regional powers' undermining loggers

KL says `regional powers' undermining loggers

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad yesterday
accused "regional powers" of offering money to countries to
persuade them to stop logging operations by Malaysian firms.

"We do not know what to call such aid, but it is questionable
whether ecology has anything to do with it," Mahathir was quoted
saying by the Bernama news agency.

The countries involved also received bribes to halt timber
operations by companies from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), Mahathir said.

Mahathir did not identify the "regional powers" he blamed for
the disruption, but analysts said he could be referring to the
developed nations in the Pacific.

At least two Malaysian-owned timber firms in the Solomons
Islands and Papua New Guinea had seen their activities nearly
crippled in the past two months on allegations of impropriety and
illegal logging.

"Suddenly money was offered to these developing countries to
persuade them to stop Malaysians and other investors," Mahathir
said in Kedah state after opening a meeting of ASEAN agriculture
and forestry ministers.

ASEAN groups Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand.

Berjaya Group Bhd. almost lost a US$60 million timber
concession in the Solomon Islands in July after the top executive
of its subsidiary there was accused of trying to bribe a local
minister.

Kumpulan Emas Bhd., another listed Malaysian company, saw its
timber subsidiary in Papua New Guinea suspended this month after
being charged with unlawful felling of trees.

Following the action against Kumpulan Emas, Australian Prime
Minister Paul Keating said Malaysian and Indonesian companies
were among those "threatening the future of the South Pacific."

"Unless the environmental piracy of foreign logging companies
operating in the South Pacific is controlled, the future for the
region will be bleak," Keating said.

Mahathir, however, took a swipe at western countries which he
said were out to ban tropical hardwoods logged by ASEAN on the
grounds the timber was extracted indiscriminately.

"We would like to point out that we do not do clear-felling of
trees", Mahathir said, adding that timber tycoons of the rich
North had felled millions of hectares of forests with impunity.