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CK
Posted Jun 29, 2006 10:26 AM
The rape of PNG forests
Sexual coercion, corruption and assault are the coin of PNG's illegal logging
industry, writes Greg Roberts
June 24, 2006
SASA Zibe sighs as he explains why he believes he was sacked by Papua New
Guinea's Prime Minister Michael Somare as the country's environment minister.
"I trod on too many toes in the logging industry and it's got powerful friends," Zibe
says. "I insisted that our industry standards should be no less than those in Australia. I
paid a high price for that."
PNG government documents obtained by Inquirer demonstrate how Malaysian
logging companies that hold concessions to log eight million hectares of rainforest in
PNG are operating in defiance of the country's laws with the blessing of Somare's
Government. Port Moresby now faces restrictions on timber imports by Australia and
other Western nations, which are increasingly frustrated at PNG's failure to act against
unscrupulous operators in the industry.
Zibe says that at the time of his sacking 18 months ago, he was implementing
measures to crack down on the corruption, human rights abuses and environmental
degradation that have become the industry's hallmarks. Since then, the environment
department's enforcement unit has been effectively disbanded. "Now there is nobody
watching over what these companies get up to," says Zibe, who remains an MP in
Somare's ruling National Alliance Party.
Compliance audits completed by the PNG Government's forestry review team have
found numerous breaches of regulations in all 11 projects studied. A report on the
Asengseng project, typical of the rest, said loan conditions negotiated between the
Government and the World Bank to improve forestry practices were not met. Political
pressure resulted in new permits continuing to be issued quickly, in defiance of
government policy to log forests on a sustainable basis.
The report said compliance requirements were "typically either trivialised or ignored".
The Asengseng project was illegal because it was not mentioned in the national forest
plan and there was no legal instrument to record landowner agreement. Three
government agencies failed to comply with due process. The audits, the review team's
latest, were conducted over 12 months to March last year.
Somare has a long personal association with the loggers. As a director of the Sepik
River Development Corporation, he was forced to front a 1989 inquiry into the
industry by retired Australian judge Thomas Barnett, who found Somare should be
referred tothe Ombudsman Commission for allegedly lying under oath about a
logging concession held by the SRDC in East Sepik Province.
The SRDC, which Somare still heads, negotiated a logging deal over the concession
in 1991 with Hey Bridge Pty Ltd, in which his son Arthur is a leading shareholder.
Arthur Somare was forced to resign in March as PNG's planning minister over
allegations of financial impropriety.
Last year, Malaysian company Brilliant Investment took over the SRDC concession.
The PNG Forest Board is investigating whether timber permits issued to Brilliant are
valid.
Three of Somare's five children are directors of their family company, SAB: Arthur,
his brother Sana and their sister Betha, who is the Prime Minister's press secretary.
SAB is involved in several logging operations in East Sepik Province.
PNG authorities are investigating allegations of illegal logging in the Morijau wildlife
management area in the province. Betha Somare says she knows nothing about
logging in the reserve but she declines to comment further on the operations of SAB.
Speaking on behalf of her father, Betha Somare says he had nothing to do with the
Hey Bridge negotiations and has no direct involvement with the industry. "He has
never profited from a logging company."
She defends the Prime Minister's forestry policies. "The people of PNG want
development, but not at any price. His leadership has always guaranteed this."
A confidential National Executive Council minute signed by Somare in 2004 shows
how his Government rejected warnings by the World Bank that it would withhold
about $30million worth of loan funds because of concerns about logging in the
Wawoi Guavi and Vailala logging concessions, both held by Malaysian forestry giant
Rimbunan Hijau.
Somare conceded that the issue risked damaging relations with the World Bank and
compromising PNG's ability to raise loans. However, the permits would not be
revoked because of the "adverse political, social, economic and legal implications",
Somare wrote. The loan funds were subsequently withheld.
The Rimbunan Hijau Group is owned by Malaysia's Tiong family. It accounts for 80
per cent of logging in PNG and has an annual turnover of more than $1.5billion.
Rimbunan is a big player in the country's economic and political life. Royalties from
the group make up 3 per cent of government revenue. Rimbunan owns one of PNG's
two main newspapers, The National, which runs a fiercely pro-logging line, as well as
its biggest supermarket chain, RH Hypermarket. Somare declared in a recent speech
that Rimbunan "must be supported" in the face of international criticism of its logging
practices.
The closeness of ties between the Somare Government and Rimbunan is reflected in a
2004 letter sent by Rimbunan managing director James Lau to Forest Minister Patrick
Pruaitch. Lau told Pruaitch he had learned of a Forest Board decision to issue a showcause
notice to the company over its Vailala concession. Pruaitch promptly wrote to
board chairman Wari Iamo ordering the indefinite deferral of a board meeting planned
to discuss the notice, which was never issued.
Documents show how Pruaitch seeks reimbursement from his own department for
expenses. A Forest Authority remittance advice records K680 ($279) being paid to
Pruaitch as a refund of 2003 club membership fees for the South Pacific Motor Sports
Club in Port Moresby.
A memorandum from Wari Iamo to National Forest Service finance controller Robby
Louai of the same date shows Iamo sought a refund for the same fees. A report
commissioned by the National Forest Service from consultants Quest Investigation
International examined spending of NFS money by Pruaitch over four months in
2004. Six different motor vehicles were provided to Pruaitch, including a car worth
K3797 for a staff member to "pick up some confidential document". The minister
receives travelling and entertainment allowances but he dipped into the public purse -
augmented in large part by Australia's $300million a year in budgetary aid to PNG -
for such items as a K2426 dinner for "bodyguards". The minister's spending was an
"exercise in self-enrichment and double dipping of the public purse", the report said.
Somare ignored the report's recommendation that Pruaitch be referred to police.
Pruaitch's office declined to respond to written questions from Inquirer.
Some of the most severe criticism of the PNG Government's handling of the industry
comes from its own agencies. A PNG Planning Department report described as "cause
for serious concern" complaints in 2004 that Rimbunan used police to silence
complaints against logging. Investigators were told that protesters were bashed and
their homes were torched.
The closeness of ties between police and the company is reflected in a letter from the
Kamusie police detachment to Rimbunan company Straits Marine asking for money
to "complete the mission". Rimbunan community relations manager Axel Wilhelm
replies that police have never been asked to act against logging opponents. PNG's
National Intelligence Organisation claimed in reports on Rimbunan's Turama and
Vailala logging concessions that people died after drinking from the Karoa River after
fuel drums had been dumped in it, and others fell ill when fuel and industrial waste
were dumped in the Purari River. A 2004 report by PNG's Community Development
Department said timber workers in Wawoi Guavi were paid less than one kina an
hour, worked 12-hour days and were not supplied with boots or helmets.
Rimbunan's 1.5-million-hectare Wawoi Guavi concession has been particularly
controversial. A villager from the area, Patrick Pate, points to a scar on his nose as he
tells Inquirer he was assaulted recently by unknown assailants after leading an antilogging
protest. "They don't let anybody stand in their way," Pate says.
He claims that locals working for Rimbunan get little out of logging. "They got credit
with shops owned by the company, and that uses up all their money." People often
sell their daughters to Malaysians in the logging camps for sex. "All the old family
ties are falling apart."
Wilhelm replies that the group's 4000 employees are treated well and that logging
operations are always conducted in accordance with PNG laws. He says he is unaware
of any links between logging-related pollution and deaths or sickness. Allegations of
environmental degradation and sexual abuse were made by marginal groups of
landowners "coerced by third parties pursuing their own agendas", he says.
In a National Court document, landowner Max Mera claims he was offered K30,000
to drop a 2004 court action against a logging operation by Rimbunan company
Frontier Holdings; Mera claims he initially agreed and accepted a down payment of
K3000, but changed his mind.
Wilhelm replies that Mera had fallen out with fellow landowners and that Rimbunan
never offered bribes, adding: "We hold on record various attempts by marginal groups
of landowners and third parties to extort money from the company in exchange for not
creating problems."
A PNG Community Development Department report says women employed as
domestic servants in the Vanimo concession by Malaysian company Vanimo Forest
Products in 2004 were expected to provide sexual favours and were beaten if they
refused. Women were forced to insert ball bearings in their vaginas before sex to
boost the men's pleasure and had given birth to large numbers of illegitimate children.
Fourteen complaints of child sex abuse were lodged against one foreign company
employee. The company did not return calls.
Reports of this nature have prompted a Howard government decision to ban the
import of illegally logged timber from PNG and elsewhere. Details of the ban are
expected to be announced soon. Brisbane-based TLB Timbers imports 17,000 cubic
metres, about half of Rimbunan's annual timber exports, to Australia. A TLB Timbers
spokesman says there is no evidence any Rimbunan timber has been felled illegally.
International pressure on Port Moresby over the logging issue is mounting,
nonetheless. New Zealand's High Court has ruled in favour of the expulsion by the
NZ Timber Importers Association of Rimbunan company the LumberBank.
In London, the Wolseley Group has banned the import of plywood from China, the
main market for PNG timber. Activists in Australia plan a campaign against the ANZ
bank because Rimbunan is a client and the bank provides guarantees for logging
companies to secure approval for new projects in PNG. An ANZ spokesman says the
bank has raised concerns with Rimbunan.
Anti-logging activists claim the Somare Government is stepping up a campaign of
intimidation against them. Eco-Forestry Forum co-ordinator Ken Mondaia says he
moves house in Port Moresby every two or three months because of threats. "You
don't feel safe when you keep getting visited by police. You are always looking over
your shoulder."
An impediment to new logging projects has been removed with recent legislative
changes. Instead of having to go through the usual assessment processes, new projects
can be classified as extensions to existing logging concessions. That gets around the
difficulty Rimbunan had when PNG's Ombudsman Commission concluded that the
800,000ha Kamula Dosa extension to its Wawoi Guavi concession was illegal
because it bypassed approval processes.
"A 37-step approval process has been reduced to nothing," says Port Moresby lawyer
Anne Kajir, whose stand against illegal logging this year earned her a coveted
international conservation award, the Goldman Environmental Prize.
"We've gone from a situation that was very bad to one that is much worse," Kajir
says. |
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