KL to probe log smuggling case

KL to probe log smuggling case

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Anwar
Ibrahim has ordered a probe into a suspected log smuggling
operation in Malaysian Borneo, the national news agency Bernama
said yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who visited Sabah on
Monday, ordered the probe after Malaysian authorities on Saturday
intercepted an illegal shipment of timber. The shipment, worth
six million ringgit ($2.4 million), was on its way to Japan.

"I have directed the marine, forestry and customs departments
to submit a detailed report on the matter and not deal with the
problem half-heartedly," Bernama quoted Anwar as saying.

"I regard the problem as serious," Anwar said, adding that the
powerful Anti-Corruption Agency might be asked to step in because
the smuggling had been "taking place for a long time".

Anwar did not say where the logs originated.

But executives of timber companies in the east Malaysian state
of Sabah on Borneo island told Reuters the logs were illegally
felled in Indonesia's Kalimantan province on Borneo and smuggled
into Sabah for re-export.

"The (Malaysian) government does not want to say it, but
that's the truth," a timber company owner said by telephone from
Sabah's capital of Kota Kinabalu.

Bernama said the Malaysian-registered "Able Helmsman" vessel
was detained with 2,800 logs, with a total volume of 16,000 cubic
metres, between Sabah's Wallace Bay and a tiny island called
Pulau Sebatik, which runs along the Indonesian border.

Indonesia has long banned all log exports.