About 200 trucks brimming over with timber from Burma's northern Kachin State are ready to move tonight to Tengchong in China's southwestern Yunnan province after crossing the Sino-Burma border, said local sources.
The timber trucks, which can carry between six and 10 tons of wood, are allowed to move mostly at night by authorities of local Burmese Army bases because they do not want the log-trucks to be seen by civilians moving along the logging track, said sources close to timber traders.
Now, the trucks are lined up at the Jubilee timber camp in the Triangle Areas, situated between Mali and N'Mai Rivers also called Mali Hka and N'Mai Hka in local Kachin language. The timber carried by the trucks is hardwood, said eyewitnesses.
All the logging forests in the Triangle Areas are controlled areas of the 1st Brigade of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
The hardwood being carried by the trucks are owned by five timber business people including the well known Chinese timber businesswoman Ali Chye, who lives in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, according to Jubilee timber camp sources.
After the trucks negotiate the N'Mai River Bridge at 59 Mile from the KIO controlled areas, it will head for Tengchong by crossing the controlled areas of the Burmese ruling junta and another Kachin ceasefire group the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), said local timber traders.
To transport timber to China, timber businessmen have to pay both tax and grease the palms of the junta's Northern Command commander Brig-Gen Soe Win, Burmese Army bases, the KIO and NDA-K, said those in the timber business.
Contrarily, the junta takes action against civilians imposing fines and sentencing people to prison when they take required timber for the construction of their houses and farms, said residents of Myitkyina.
From November last year, Chinese timber businessmen started to transport hardwood from the Triangle Areas to Tengchong, said loggers.
Chinese firms buy timber from northern Burma for domestic markets and export.
