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.