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52 see Miksic, Old Jav. Gold [[newspaper clipping]] Malaysia's Blue Lake, though poisone[[cutof]] By Leslie Lopez BAU, Malaysia (Reuter): It looks like a set for a World War II movie. In a lunar landscape lies a huge crater. The air is rent by explosions and the roar of tracked vehicles. Once the crater was a placid lake known as Tasik Biru (Blue Lake), steeped in mystery and teeming with life. The scarred surroundings were dense with tropical vegetation spreading to the nearby sleepy town of Bau. Now the area is an environmentalist's nightmare. The lake has been drained. The area is poisoned with cyanide. Dynamite and bulldozers gouge the earth. The reason? Gold. Defeated Japanese soldiers were reputed to have dumped bullion in the lake after World War II. But there has always been gold in Bau. It was first discovered by Hakka Chinese immigrants at the beginning of the 19th century. Officials in Malaysia's Sarawak state, on the island of Borneo, believe the state's biggest deposit of gold lies here. Production in the area has risen to 185 kg (408 pounds) in 1985 from under one kg (2.2 pounds) in 1982, mining officials said. The Sarawak government and miners have promised to refill the lake and restore the area after the gold has been exhausted. But Bau's 13,000 residents fear the damage may be irreparable. They say the cyanide used by the miners threatens their water source and the draining of the lake has deprived them of their sole tourist attraction. Treasure chest "We fear that the cyanide can kill us if gets to our water," said a Bau resident who declined to be named. Opposition leaders say politically-powerful timber merchants had moved into gold mining in anticipation of a fall in timber profits. In Bau lies their new treasure chest. "What we have here is really the diversification of the rape of the state's riches by a few well-connected people," said Sim Kwang Yang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party in Sarawak. Bukit Young, the company awarded the five-year mining concession for Tasik Biru, is owned by Amar Ling Beng Siew, one of the state's richest timber tycoons. His company and 20 others belonging to Sarawak Chinese timber tycoons, control other mining concessions around Bau. Bukit Young officials declined to discuss the project. "We don't owe anyone any explanation," Roger Ling, a senior company official, said when contacted by telephone. Environmentalists say the damage caused by the mining is incalculable as no proper study was made before the prospectors began pumping out the lake's water three moths ago. "The government has to conduct an environmental impact study and make sure that the discharge does not contaminate the waterway," said Gurmit Singh, president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia. Abuses The crater stretching over 13 hectares (32 acres) has been boarded up and patroled [[patrolled]] by guards with shotguns. Environmentalists say the mine adds to a long list of alleged abuses of the environment in Sarawak which as been accused of causing ecological havoc by indiscriminately felling its tropical rainforest. Scores of Hakka Chines migrants first trekked through the rugged jungles of Borneo to prospect in Bau in the last [[cutoff]] They dug the cra[[cutoff]] later, filled with w[[cutoff]] ing Tasik Biru. Many Chinese m[[cutoff]] killed in 1857 byth[[cutoff]] adventurer James [[cutoff]] Sarawak's White Ra[[cutoff]] [[image]] [[caption]]Curious residents of B[[cutoff]] Lake) where a mining[[cutoff]] cyanide and [[cutoff]] [[/caption]] Later,[[cutoff]] and gave them documents[[cutoff]] [[image]] 53 July [[strikethrough]] 2 [[/strikethrough]] 19, notes from phone conversation with Shawn Foley, Harvard consultant to Ministry of Finance before 1989 there was a 'positive list of industries in which investment was allowed in 1989 the system was changed; now use a negative list [[strikethrough]] in [[/strikethrough]] of industries in which investment is restricted in some way; list is much shorter the turn of opinion in favor of deregulation happened about 1985-86 neg list was drawn up in May 98 & revised [[strikethrough]] on [[/strikethrough]] June 3, 1991 called 'New Neg. List for Licensing' he feels village industries like blacksmithing will continue to be protected for sake of employment list he sent me casts doubt on this importation of things like hand tools restricted to 6 State Trading Companies, own by the State & Dept of Trade
