Chinese logging firms seek intervention over seized staff and equipment in Myanmar
Operators say 150 workers have been detained and hundreds of trucks and cranes seized since government troops raided logging camps in Kachin State early this month
Dozens of Chinese logging operators have petitioned local authorities in Yunnan to intervene over the arrests of more than 150 logging workers in Myanmar’s Kachin State and the seizure of equipment worth hundreds of million yuan, the Beijing Times reported.
The petition, sent to authorities in the border county of Tengchong, was signed by 23 owners of logging firms that operate in the region. The owners claimed they had paid for logging licences from a former member of the Kachin Independence Army who had since defected to the Myanmar government, and that they had declared all their timber to customs officials on both sides of the border.
Kachin State, in the mountainous north of Myanmar, shares a long border with Yunnan, and local rebels have been battling the country’s government on and off since 1961. A 17-year ceasefire broke down in 2011. More than 1,700 Chinese workers and drivers were based in logging camps raided by the Myanmar military, one operator told the paper. Most of them evaded the raid and hiked back to China with the help of the Kachin rebels after hiding in the forest for days.
The Chinese loggers left behind hundreds of vehicles, cranes and other heavy equipment worth a of 300 million yuan, the firm owners said.
“We feel too ashamed to go home, because we left China with expensive vehicles and equipment and returned with nothing but debts [for our vehicles loans],” a Chinese driver who fled Myanmar told the paper.