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.