Arranged Marriages

[bannork]

This is a story from The Daily News today.

Police were called to a house in subdistrict Bantamniap, Surat Thani province just after midnight ( May15\16) where they found the corpse of Mr Khongprapan Kaeowprasit aged 26. An injured woman,Miss Sawitree Sangkhon, aged 26, was sent to hospital still wearing her white wedding dress but later succumbed to her injuries.

In the pocket of Khongprapan's trousers, police found 3 letters: the first was to his relatives and referred to his assets, the other two were written to the parents of Sawitree. In the letters Khongprapan complained about the family's placing of obstacles and barriers to the love between himself and Sawitree, also known as Nong Kae.

He also claimed in the letters that the decision taken (to kill her and himself) was a joint decision and asked for the families to pray for both his and her souls.

At the time of the murder Miss Sawitree was arranging her wedding to Mr Sayan Saebang, the bridegroom whom had been chosen by the family to marry her. His home was only 800 metres from the murder site. Miss Sawitree had gone back to where she was staying with 2 relatives to change her clothes when Khongprapan, who had been her previous boyfriend, rushed into the house, brandishing a gun and dragged Nong Kae into the kitchen.

Gunshots soon rang out and hurrying into the room the relatives foung Khongprapan dead and Nong Khae near to death.

Relatives of both sides, especially the parents of Nong Kae, believed the letters were written by Khongprapan, they said because he didn't have a regular job they opposed his relationship with their daughter, but they found the two were still secretly meeting in spite of their ban.

Consequently they decided to look for a husband for Nong Kae, never expecting things to end in a tragedy like this.

[a2396]

There was no arranged marriage, YET, only talk of finding the lady a husband. It is interesting the guy had no regular job & presumably little or no money, but was able to obtain a gun. Who knows if the parents had reasonable objections against him or if it was only about money. Personally, I have seen way to much parental meddling in the romantic affairs of their daughters here and it's usually only about money.

[kmart]

Sad. A lot of problems in Southern provinces end in death, and I'm not talking about the recent insurgency and separatism.

I have spent a lot of time working in Khanom, and the locals always tell me that disputes in the rest of the country end up settled in court or the police station. In S. Thani, they end up settled in the Wat.