whybother

They can't hurt car sales much more, can they?

Bangkok Post and others picking this up and running with it now. NCPO issuing denials....

Other possibilities are some reds abducting her (why? Unless she is changing her tune in court) or completely unrelated to this case situation (hmm).

The absolute denial of some that it could be the military on here is laughable. Read up on a bit of history from 1932 until now and you can see the army are not these paragons of virtue you make them out to be.

Prachatai suggested it might have been related to the recent court bombings. http://prachatai.org/english/node/4865

I'm not sure why she would need to be picked up 5 years after the wat deaths, 3 (?) years after the inquest and a year after the coup. The idea that the military would need to draw her out with a phone call seems a bit far fetched too.

Yes they would be questioned for details and make sure its not conjecture. But in any court case against an individual her story would not be taken as gospel and I would assume the defense would like a go at her story or not to turn up and present it. They just cannot take something from a witness at an inquest and present it as fact

They can present it as evidence. Even if they were cross examining her in a future court case, they couldn't take what she said as fact.

Well in any trail she would have to be cross examined I suppose . I wont pretend to know how they carry on with their Judicial process , if there is one , here

She would have been cross examined in the inquest. They don't just come in and tell a story without it being challenged in some way.

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Surely, given that the deaths in the wat have already gone through the courts, this woman already gave all her evidence in court?

Only for an inquest, Interesting Read , some Factw people find hard to fit in with their anti red shirt rhetoric

Yes. For an inquest. But it was in court under oath. So there would be no point making her disappear if she has already given evidence in court.

Surely, given that the deaths in the wat have already gone through the courts, this woman already gave all her evidence in court?

Sorry, but there were tens of thousands of witnesses to this event. Its actually not too hard to determine what happened. Its just hard for some to admit it.

Tens of thousands?

The latest trend in urban anti-guerilla warfare. Form in column and march forward. Impress and frighten the opponent with numbers and a monotone drum play and frequent shouts of "vive l'empereur". Step over shot and fallen comrades and march on to glory.

Anyway, the final day may have had 2,000 to 5,000 soldiers active in the Radchaprasong crackdown.

Rather than blank out my mistake, let me just acknowledge I made a mistake. I read 'tens of thousands of soldiers', but actually 'tens of thousands of witnesses' was written. Embarrassing, somewhat.

Anyway, it's difficult to guestimate the number of witnesses and the limit to what they saw and didn't see. I still don't think anyone witnessed who dumped a grenade on vanderGrift and a few soldiers. Nearby reporters and journalist did witness the effect though. Same with people dropping, see them drop, but don't see who shot.

Of course between sunset and sunrise no real witnesses except does involved. As some reporters wrote, the militants mostly emerged in the night.

Considering there wasn't even tens of thousands of protesters there in the last days, I doubt there were tens of thousands of witnesses to anything.

There is a suggestion that she was connected to the recent court bombings.

A volunteer medic during the 2010 military crackdown on the red shirts, Nattatida worked alongside Kamonked Akhad, another volunteer, who was shot dead in Pathum Wanaram temple on 19 May 2010. An unconfirmed report says she is connected with “Ms Dear,” a woman accused of planning an explosion in front of Ratchada Criminal Court early this month. Winyat said it could be either incident which led to the detention.

http://prachatai.org/english/node/4865

Yes, but who can believe those damn foreigners. Just because there are lots of video of Thai soldiers shooting protesters, and thousands of rounds were expended, and their are no pictures of red shirts with guns, alive or dead, doesn't mean the red shirts didn't concoct this whole story. Surely at the behest of Thaksin they were ordered to run into bullets to gain sympathy for the cause? And of course the Red Shirts, with Thaksin's backing, can operate anywhere in the country, and impersonate soldiers with impunity. We should all be very afraid...

Yet there are plenty of pictures of redshirts who are armed and they did kill people. Knowingly posting lies breaks the forum rules.

There are no pictures of armed red shirts shot dead by the military, but a hell of a lot of dead unarmed ones

There were photos of maybe 10 dead protesters. That leaves about 60-70 protesters that were killed where there was no photos, armed or unarmed. Many of those that were killed, were taken to hospitals by their friends. If they were armed, I am sure their friends didn't take the guns to the hospitals with them.

The MRT Blue Line isn't mentioned. I assume it's included in "the rest", but surprising it isn't specifically mentioned.

Mishandling of it how?

That temple is clearly Cambodian, heck, most of southern Issan was also...

Go back 200 or even 100 years ago much of the world had different borders than it is now, borders change all the time. The test I ask (assuming the land is populated) is what do the long term residents of the area consider themselves to be.... Thai or Cambodian (given two choices) I would suspect the vast majority of them would say Thai. I actually believe in self-determination vs being slave to the state. I have no real opinion about the temple itself, there are arguments on both sides -- but then the world recognizes as Cambodian, the current state of borders is it is in Cambodian territory and this group of people were trying to push Thailand into all out war - which is why I have no sympathy with them.

A lot of the issues over recent years hasn't been over the temple itself, but over land near it. The world court ruled that the temple and land it was on was Cambodian, but there is about 5 sq km adjacent to it that the courts specifically did not rule on, and so is still "in dispute". Of course the PAD think that the temple should be Thai, but they don't take much notice of the courts.

The 1904 treaty clearly puts the temple in Thailand, but the maps added later (1908) clearly put the temple in Cambodia. Unfortunately for Thailand, they didn't reject the maps, so the courts ruled in 1962 that they stand. Because Cambodia only asked them to rule on the temple, they didn't rule on any of the other nearby land that was in dispute.

There aren't any people living on the disputed land, so there are no residents to ask. Most of the Cambodians living just over the border were put there by the government, so they probably shouldn't have a say either.

The only viable solution is compromise ... and given that this dispute is between Thailand and Cambodia, that's not really viable.

Does Thailand benefit if a lot of foreigners come here and become tourist guides ? Does every nation that recieves lots of foreign workers benefit ?

In Thailand, if lots of Thais become un-employed because lots of foreigners enter Thailand and take those jobs, does Thailand benefit ?? It appears to be that Thailand is very cautious when it comes to giving out work permits to foreigners.

The Thais, they're not that daft or silly. They're not going to let a load of foreigners enter their country and take-over. There was a bit of talk on Thai Visa about how the Thais would be f___ once ASEAN 2015 comes in. Yes, unlimited numbers of people entering into Thailand and working will mean that the Thais will be f___. But the Thais won't let it happen, they will simply not give out a stack of work permits to the foreigners.

The AEC will not allow unlimited people to enter Thailand (or any ASEAN country) to work. The rules will allow a small number of professions to work in other countries.

In related news, a woman was robbed at an ATM, and this also appears not to be related to the Pongpat case.

"the" insurance company? There are heaps. Google is your friend.

Has anyone else noticed the usual reply when you don't know or choose not to tell is ' Google is your friend'.

I don't know which insurance company that she uses, but I do know she always has travel insurance.

I googled "travel insurance 70+" and there are lots of options available.

He is 71 and he travels without insurance! Now that is what I call foolish!

It is difficult to find travel insurance if over 70.

My mum is 77. She travels quite a lot. She has no issues getting insurance.

whybother giving us this information unless you also tell us who the insurance company is.

"the" insurance company? There are heaps. Google is your friend.

same old shit suppress the poor,the elite use the military to do their dirty work, prayut is just a puppet of the elite, who will not accept democracy, due to the mentality of the thai people, whom they are spoonfed thainess and brainwashed by all this.i am not on anyone`s side, just saying what i see

Arisman? Poor?

How is the military involved in this?

He is 71 and he travels without insurance! Now that is what I call foolish!

It is difficult to find travel insurance if over 70.

My mum is 77. She travels quite a lot. She has no issues getting insurance.

What's the penalty for leading an illegal coup? this needs to be clarified

Which illegal coup? The last two were legal. It said so in the 2006 and 2014 interim constitutions.

Sarcasm aside, is there such a thing as a legal coup?

She faces criminal and civil lawsuits, not a political one, and the government is not discriminating against any particular party as opponents of Ms Yingluck were brought to justice too, Gen Sansern said.

Did I miss the news where the Mad Monk, along with his hired goons, and Suthep, along with his hired goons, all went to court to face charges?

And the leaders of the Yellows who shut down the airports? And the ones who took over and occupied Gvt House? Did I also miss their days in court?

Thai Basic Education 101 - "How to Lie your ass off with a straight face."

Yes.

Does anyone know what this authors sources are for the information in this piece of crap. This is written with such a lack of a <deleted> that it has come out like a 5 years old,. I did this and then this and then that and blah blah....

please writers at these papers..... fake it till you make it, otherwise stop writing such shit

You obviously haven't read anything from "The Nation" before. You become desensitized after a while.

So 90 people die and charges are dropped, in a manner that at least one Thai legal scholar finds inexplicable. 2 people die and a junta with an agenda files charges and the Prayuth fan club celebrate.

The CIVILIAN charges were dropped. The civilian court said that the courts for political office holders should deal with them. Seeing as Abhisit was the PM that seems to be the right place to deal with it, not the civilian courts.

The civilian charges were dropped, and replaced with what?

Apparently at this stage they haven't been replaced with anything.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/789426-nacc-stalls-over-difficult-prosecution-of-2010-crackdown/

Authorising the military to carry live ammunition to deal with protesters that were also carrying live ammunition is difficult to prosecute. Do you think he should have sent the army out their with riot shields to deal with people shooting at them?

Right, whoever is responsible for the army carrying and using live ammunition should be charged, be it Abhisit and/or a military commander. What are the chances of that happening?

Your definition of impeachment supports my other point, it's applied to officials, not former officials. It's a means of firing people, and you don't fire people who have already left the job. It's a bit simplistic, but the Thai legal scholar agrees:

"Ms. Somlak said she also opposed the impeachment of Ms. Yingluck, the former prime minister and sister of Mr. Thaksin. The National Legislative Assembly did not have the authority to impeach her, she said. The junta has also not fully explained how a person who is no longer in power can be impeached.

Somlak Judkrabuanphol, an adviser at the commission who is also a law professor and a former Supreme Court judge" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/asia/thailand-junta-drowning-the-opposition-in-paperwork.html?_r=3

Are people that are responsible for police carrying live ammunition charged with anything?

IF Abhisit has done something wrong in authorising the army to carry live ammunition, he should be charged AS Prime Minister, not as an ordinary civilian.

Yingluck is being charged with something WHILE she was Prime Minister. If you've done something wrong, it doesn't just get wiped away because you're no longer in the position.