BKK Post / 22 June 1998 LOGGING Govt investigating claims illegal timber is set for Thailand The government is investigating a Global Witness report that a Cambodian firm is about to send 100,000 cubic metres of timber to a Thai company through Laos. Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said he had received the report of the London-based environmental watchdog agency and relevant state agencies had already been told to verify it. Global Witness claimed in its report to the Foreign Ministry that the timber consignment was to be exported by a Cambodian firm, Pheapimex-Fuchan, which is owned by a Khmer national, Choeng Sopheap, who is said to be close to Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. The timber, estimated to be worth US$50 million, was destined for a Thai company, Pipat Forestry, the report said. Cambodia, which has come under fire from donor countries for poor management of dwindling forests, has officially banned logging for export. "Thailand has no policy to support such illegal activities and the government is trying to find out which of the Thai business groups is involved," said Mr Chuan. Time to investigate controversial CNN story on nerve gas New York Times Doubts raised about the accuracy of a recent article that was published in Time magazine but was written by Cable News Network journalists are serious enough that Time's editors have ordered a further investigation. The article asserted that the U.S. military dropped lethal nerve gas on a Laotian village in 1970, during the Vietnam War, as part of a secret mission to kill U.S. defectors. The issue of Time that appears today carries a letter to readers from the managing editor, Walter Isaacson, telling them that the magazine now is doing its own reporting on the matter and will correct any mistakes or clarify any disputes in future issues. The original article appeared in Time the morning after the TV version of the report was broadcast on the debut edition of a CNN program called "Newsstand: CNN and Time," an unusual collaboration between the two news organizations, which are both owned by Time Warner Inc. Within hours of the June 7 broadcast, CNN's report was criticized as false, the producers were accused of ignoring or suppressing evidence that undercut their poison-gas thesis and Time's rival, Newsweek, had begun work on an article that would rebut much of the report. CNN's own producers created some of the suspicion, by choosing not to reveal a noteworthy fact about one of their most important sources. The accusation that sarin, a nerve gas banned by international law, was used in Laos is made most vigorously in the CNN report by two soldiers who were there for one operation in 1970, Michael Hagen and Robert Van Buskirk. But Van Buskirk told April Oliver, CNN's main producer on this report, that he had repressed all memory of that day's events for 24 years, from 1974, when he had a religious awakening, until Oliver began questioning him. Laos Also Being Hit By Asian Crisis BANGKOK (June 22) XINHUA - Laos, one of the least developed countries, is feeling the sting of globalization as the Asian economic crisis is spilling over the borders of the landlocked country. Efforts by the Lao authorities to stabilize the kip, Laos' currency, were failing and the country had little hope of emerging unscathed from the crisis, according to press reports here Monday. Dwindling overseas investment, low foreign reserves, a sharp decline in border trade with Thailand and a heavy reliance on loans and aid meant that Laos could not isolate itself from regional woes, the reports said. Analysts and observers have been warning that a second wave of regional economic and financial turmoil is sweeping across Asia, causing currencies and stock markets to plunge to new lows. The Lao currency has been trading at record lows of about 3,400 units to the U.S. dollar, down nearly 75 percent from a year ago. In the face of the kip's fall, the Lao government has introduced a range of measures to stabilize the unit, including halting the sale of foreign currencies by banks and black-market dealers. In early June, the authorities announced that foreign currencies could only be purchased by businesses registered in Laos, in an effort to curb speculation and control currency flows. The move followed a ban on the use of foreign currencies in trade last June, but the use of the Thai baht and the dollar in everyday business transactions remained widespread. Both measures backfired by effectively bringing an end to the local foreign exchange market, stimulating the re- emergence of a thriving black market of currencies. As nearly 50 percent of Laos' imports come from Thailand, the recent volatility in the baht-kip exchange rate has made Lao importers wary of being unable to sell out their fresh products, leading to shortages in Vientiane. Laos has ordered restrictions on some imports, such as motorcycles, in a bid to reduce the demand for foreign currencies and the outflow of capital from the economy.