Myanmar gives Chinese life in jail for illegal logging (PHILSTAR)

YANGON A court in northern Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life in

prison on yesterday after convicting them of illegal logging in a case that has
already strained relations with Beijing.

Two Chinese minors received 10-year sentences for the same offense, while a
woman in the group received an additional 15 years on a drug charge, said Khin
Maung, the lawyer for the defendants. Life terms are generally treated as 20 years
in Myanmar's judicial system.

Myanmar's army in January arrested the Chinese and some Myanmar nationals in
Kachin state near the Chinese border, also seizing 436 logging trucks.

Chinese loggers in Myanmar send wood to China even though timber exports were
banned in 2014. Analysts say the timber can be exported because the loggers make
deals with local ethnic minority warlords and, according to some critics, local
Myanmar military officers.

"As China has risen to become the world's biggest importer of timber products, it
has also emerged as the leading destination for illegally logged timber, especially
logs and lumber," the British non-profit researcher, the Environmental Investigation
Agency, noted in a 2012 report. It said the quantity of timber shipped from
Myanmar to China had declined over recent years, but smuggling was continuing
and still a threat to Myanmar's forests, among the richest in Southeast Asia.

The loggers were sentenced under a 1963 law calling for jail terms of 10 years to
life for anyone who steals or otherwise misuses or abuses public property. Khin
Maung said one of the two judges in the court in the Kachin state capital of
Myitkyina announced that the maximum penalty was being applied because "he
deemed effective punishment should be meted out."

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He said his clients have 60 days to consider an appeal.

The verdict quickly attracted attention in China, where the defendants have been a
cause celebre since their arrests, with calls for the Chinese government to apply
pressure for their release.

The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar told the state-run Beijing Times that it protested
the sentences as too severe and that it had made solemn presentations with
Myanmar over the matter.

The embassy said the workers had been deceived by criminals from both China and
Myanmar to engage in illegal logging.

China is Myanmar's closest political and economic ally, but significant tensions exist
between the two nations. Chinese economic penetration is big and highly visible in
northern Myanmar, and some large infrastructure and mining projects have drawn
charges of being insensitive to environmental issue and local residents' concerns.

China is also seen as providing a safe haven for some Myanmar ethnic rebel groups
with which Myanmar's government would like to reach cease-fire agreements.
Fighting with the Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese, flared up this past year
and sent waves of refugees and Chinese workers fleeing for safety in China. What
was said to be accidental bombing by Myanmar air force planes just inside Chinese
territory made an uneasy situation worse, and led to an apology from the Myanmar
side.