Rimbunan Hijau under attack in PNG parliament

In Papua New Guinean ParliamentPruaitch grilled over US bank’s view on RH A UNITED States bank executive’s comments on Malaysian logger Rimbunan Hijau’s track record in Papua New Guinea came under scrutiny in Parliament on Friday. Huon Gulf MP and former environment and conservation minister Sasa Zibe told the House he was baffled at Forest Minister Patrick Pruaitch’s continued defence of Rimbunan Hijau despite Citigroup chief executive officer Chuck Prince’s recent comments about the logging company’s alleged illegal logging practices and human rights abuses in Papua New Guinea. “Minister, why do you continue to deny Rimbunan Hijau’s human rights abuse and illegal logging and unsustainable forest management in our country?� Mr Zibe said. “Do you honestly expect that the people of Papua New Guinea and the (Citibank) CEO Mr Prince is wrong about one of his company’s clients? If this man is prepared to risk his reputation and that of the largest bank in the world (by) making a statement about Rimbunan Hijau in Papua New Guinea, I think we can all assume he knows what he’s talking about. “There is something wrong in this country, Minister. When are you going to stop protecting Rimbunan Hijau and start caring for our people in East Sepik, our people in West Sepik, our people in Morobe? “When are we going to do that in order to get good revenue and good service for our forest resources? When are you going to acknowledge that Rimbunan Hijau is guilty of gross human rights abuse, treats its workers like slaves, is involved in illegal logging and of course trashing all our forest resources?� Mr Pruaitch said comments attributed to the Citigroup CEO was a “commercial decision� as global financial institutions were being pressured internationally to consider issues of governance and human rights when dealing with their clients. “It is a commercial decision that Citibank is taking, I am not going to defend anyone. One of the requirements of the bank now because of international pressure to consider transparent approaches to an operation, this is now a requirement that the bank asked RH group of companies to comply with,� Mr Pruaitch said.