Thailand Live Sunday 23 Jan 2011

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Thailand Live Sunday 23 January 2011

News, Bits and Tweets

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Keep up to date with live updates from the news, hour by hour.

For breaking news,national, regional and international news updates on a daily basis only, this thread is closed to commentary sothat those who wish to follow the news can find it here...

Commentary is still open for Thailand news in the relevant thread posted in News Clippings.

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Related topic: Thailand Live Saturday 22 Jan 2011

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Army official concerned of possible clashes between two groups of protesters

BANGKOK (NNT) --The First Army Area Commander has warned security officers to be vigilant for possible clashes between protesters of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship and their opposing group on Sunday.

First Army Area Commander Lt.Gen.Udomdet Sitabutr said the police were fully ready to provide security for the protest of the UDD on 23 January with support from army forces in case the police needed assistance. However, the army area commander has expressed concerns over the protesters’ plan to relocate from Ratchaprasong Junction to the Democracy Monument for fear of clashes between them and the opposing group gathering around the Government House which is near the monument. Lt.Gen.Udomdet therefore advised the security officers to make sure the UDD protesters stay in their route away from the opposing group.

Spokesperson of the Internal Security Operation Command, Maj.Gen.Ditthaporn Sasasmitr said at 19.00 hrs on 22 January at the Army Headquarters, that Army Chief of Staff Gen.Daophong Rattanasuwan would preside over a meeting of representatives from the police, the National Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council and other related government units on the UDD protest on Sunday. The police would propose their security plans for the UDD protest as well as the planned protest by the People’s Alliance for Democracy on 25 January, the spokesperson said.

-- NNT 2011-01-23

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Press Freedom Group Criticizes Thai Plan To Deport Photojournalists

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AFP: Thailand poised to deport two journalists

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Deadly raid on Thai army base shows little has changed

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Thai Historian advocates joint control of Thai border heritage sites

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Panich is back in Thailand but is he still an MP?

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CIVIC GROUPS

Prachawiwat policy is 'superficial'

By The Nation

Policy 'not comprehensive, fails to tackle major woes'

The government's nine-point Pracha Wiwat policy has come under fire with civic groups calling it a "superficial" effort to tackle structural socio-economic problems that grassroots people face.

The Campaign for Popular Democracy (CPD) and other civic groups representing state enterprise unions and farmers said in a joint statement that the policy was primarily aimed at winning votes.

On January 11, the Cabinet approved a Bt9.1-billion budget for the populist policy as part of the programme, which covers youth development, quality of life improvement, social welfare and justice.

The populist policy includes benefits for 10 million workers, motorcycle taxis, loans for taxi drivers and street vendors, LPG subsidies, free electricity for households using 90 units or less, lower food prices, especially chicken eggs.

For example, the social security law will be amended to allow workers in informal sectors such as street vendors to join the social safety set via a co-payment system. In terms of food prices, the government will test if chicken eggs should be sold per kilogramme to reduce the retail price.

The government will also continue subsidising liquefied petroleum gas for household cooking while industries will have to pay a higher price, reflecting world market prices.

CPD secretary Suriyan Thongnoo-iad and other civic leaders said after yesterday's meeting at October 14 Memorial that the policy was not comprehensive and would not address people's real problems.

The measures would deliver temporary relief for the target groups so politicians would gain votes in the next election.

According to Suriyan and other leaders, the moves would not tackle poverty in urban and rural areas, as they do not cover farmland reform, farmers' debts and communities hit by major state development projects.

They also said that Pracha Wiwat is like previous populist policies in which there was no people's participation.

CPD and other civic groups also plan to hold more public forums to discuss the pros and cons of public policies and formulate counter-proposals for consideration by the government and political parties.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Thai Sect fights for 1.8 rai with dharma

By Pravit Rojanaphruk

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Reds to rally at 1pm then march

By THE NATION ON SUNDAY

Published on January 23, 2011

About 1,500 metropolitan police will be deployed at the red-shirt rally today while another 2,000 backup officers will be on standby, police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said via Twitter yesterday.

The red-shirt rally will start at 1pm at Ratchaprasong Intersection. At about 3pm, the group will march through Pratunam and Phetburi Road to Democracy Monument on Rajdamnoen Road. Their activities will end at midnight.

The anti-government red-shirts plan rallies twice a month to commemorate clashes with the military during a big protest last year.

The red shirts' 'June 24 for Democracy' faction has announced it will rally on Tuesday, the same day as a mass rally by the yellow-shirt movement.

The group will gather at Democracy Monument from 7pm to midnight. Meanwhile, the People's Alliance for Democracy will hold a mass rally at the Makkhawan Bridge. PAD leaders vowed to prolong their rally until their demands are met.

The PAD wants the government to cancel the 2000 memorandum of understanding on settling border disputes, to withdraw as a member of the World Heritage Committee and to expel all Cambodians from Thailand.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Rohingyas nabbed on beach in Trang

By The Nation

Police in Trang arrested 91 Rohingya people yesterday evening for sneaking into Thailand via the Yong Ling Beach in Trang's Kan Trang district.

The people told police via a Burmese language translator that they had raised up Bt150,000 to buy a long-tail boat to escape the fighting in Burma and to request for refugee status in Malaysia. However, when the boat reach Tambon Libong yesterday, the boat malfunctioned and was unable to travel onward, so they swam ashore to ask the locals for food until they were arrested. They urged the Thai authorities to help be sent to Malaysia.

However Kan Trang district chief Wisit Tangpong said police and immigration officials were working on repatriate these people, who were charged with illegal entry in to Thailand, according to the law.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Thailand wants Preah Vihear signs removed

By The Nation

Thailand has asked Cambodia to remove a carved stone and a big sign accusing Thais of being trespassers near Preah Vihear mountain.

Lt-General Tawatchai Samutsakorn, commander of the Second Army Region, said Thai authorities had made the request because the stone and the sign - with golden Cambodian characters accused Thai soldiers and people of being trespassers in Cambodia - were in a disputed area.

The sign is in front of Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara, a temple near Preah Vihear mountain.

According to an agreement by the two countries, neither Thailand or Cambodia can produce anything to claim possession of the land.

The accusation refers to Lt-General Kanok Netrakavaesana, who led 20 soldiers to the temple on July 15, 2008 before others came to guard the place.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Bad reporting stirs hatred, panel says

Published on January 23, 2011

The mass media was partly responsible for generating violence through irresponsible reports about crime and violence, a meeting at the Thai Journalist Association (TJA) has concluded.

Police should also stop parading accused criminals in front of the media as it didn't help reduce crime, the meeting also concluded yesterday.

Pairoj Polpetch, one of the panellists and secretary of the Union of Civil Liberty, said the media has become a fully-fledged business and often sensationalised news to the detriment of the public. Pairoj said many television stations competed in sensationalising crime news in order to boost viewers ratings.

"The stress in news presentation today is one of having both facts and emotion but without anything that is knowledge-based. I am afraid that presenting news with hatred will in the long run, violate human rights," Pairoj said. "The media have become a party in generating hatred."

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Two Bangkok Schools shut after deadly brawl

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Suspect re-enacts motorway shooting

By The Nation on Sunday

A 26-year-old man who allegedly shot and injured Thai Airways pilot Phoolwit Ruengdej in a road rage shooting incident on January 12 was taken to re-enact the crime yesterday.

After the three-hour re-enactment, Prisorn or Natthapong Huayhong-thong, who was arrested while laying low in a Phang Nga hotel on Friday, was taken to Bangkok's Phra Khanong Court to be detained.

Police asked the court not to release him on bail as they said there was a serious risk he would flee.

At 6.30am yesterday, 20 police took the suspect to re-enact his alleged crime at nine spots - six of them between the 4km and 6km markers on a motorway when he allegedly flashed his car lights and cut in front of the pilot prior to the shooting.

Three other spots were the suspect's alleged escape route on the On Nut-Lat Krabang road, a hotel in Chachoengsao town where he, his wife and child checked in to "lay low", and a bridge 200 metres from the hotel where he allegedly dropped his gun into a river.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Bomb and more attacks in far south

By The Nation on Sunday

A motorist was seriously injured at a traffic junction in Narathiwat town early yesterday by a home-made bomb, believed to have been intended for a passing Army patrol.

The injured man, Preecha Dorloh, 37, was rushed from the Ruea Korlae intersection on Narathiwat-Ban Thon Road to Narathiwat Ratchanakarin Hospital, before police inspected a hole 4-foot-wide and two-foot-deep at the scene and collected pieces of the bomb.

The incident occurred at 7.20am. A patrol of six soldiers passed the spot on three motorbikes just before the blast and it is thought separatists used a cell phone to detonate the bomb to try to harm them. But it apparently went off slower than expected, injuring Preecha, who was on a motorbike coming up behind the soldiers. He was hit by shrapnel in the right leg.

Half an hour later, a village defence volunteer was shot dead on the Pattani-Yala Rd (no 410) near Ban Kahong Mosque in Tambon Barahoh in Pattani town. Waehibrohim Mudrudin, 38, was shot four times in the back by a two men on another motorcycle as he rode his motorcycle home. The attackers also took Wae-ibrahim's 9mm pistol.

In a third attack yesterday morning, rubber tapper Maya Jehwae, 52, was injured while working at her rubber plantation in Tambon Tha Nam in Pattani's Panare district.

Meanwhile, a special taskforce arrested a male suspect in Nakhon Si Thammarat's Bang Khan district yesterday evening with three M16 rifles, allegedly stolen during the raid last Wednesday night on the Ror 15121 Army outpost in Narathiwat's Ra Ngae district, in which outpost commander Capt Krit Khampirayan and three other soldiers were killed.

In related news, HM the King graciously sent Privy Councillor Kasem Wattanachai to preside over the cremation at Wat Nopwongsaram in Pattani town of 38-year-old maths teacher Manote Chabarat, who was shot dead on January 15.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Charter changes should take just a day

By The Nation

The House-Senate joint meeting on changes to the Constitution should be finished within one day, House Speaker Chai Chidchob said yesterday.

The second reading for the charter amendments is due on Tuesday.

Only a few speakers will speak on the change to Article 190 on the need for parliamentary approval for international agreements, as many speakers were satisfied with the current draft and had withdrawn requests to speak, Chai said.

"For Articles 93 to 98 on the source of MPs, I don't think there will be any problem. I think the discussion will be around the same topics, as to which formula to use for the number of constituency and party-list MPs: 375+125 or 400+100. Only one MP wants to talk about the formula 400+125. He is Sataporn Maneerat, Lamphun MP from Pheu Thai," he said.

Chai also said his son Newin Chidchob, de facto leader of Bhum Jai Thai Party, had nothing to do with the formula proposal. He was an outsider from the Parliament and had no authority.

Newin is serving a five-year ban from politics following dissolution of the Thai Rak Thai Party several years ago.

In regard to criticism the Democrats abused the premier's power by threatening to dissolve the House if the draft was not accepted, Party spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was not using the charter amendment as a condition to dissolve the House. Any MP saying so was expressing his own opinion.

Pheu Thai Party secretary-general Supon Fong-ngam said the party's MPs and executive would meet tomorrow to discuss the party's stance related on Constitution amendments.

Pheu Thai resolved earlier to boycott the amendments unless the 1997 Constitution is brought back. The party would also finalise decisions on who will lead the censure debate, Supon said.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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CentralWorld remains open to shoppers despite red-shirt rally

The management of CentralWorld announced at 11:45 am Sunday that the shopping mall will not be closed when the red-shirt demonstrators gather there in the afternoon.

By noon, many red-shirt protesters have already gathered at the Rajprasong Intersection.

The will rally there from 1 pm to 3 pm before marching to the Democracy Monument.

-- The Nation 2011-01-23

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Two foreign tourists dead in Phuket today

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Red Shirts gathering at Ratchaprasong; police tighten security, ban blocking government offices /MCOT

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Buddhist man shot dead in Narathiwat /MCOT

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Red Shirt leaders Jatuporn, Thida lead protestors from Ratchaprasong to Democracy Monument to disperse midnight; traffic heavy /MCOT

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Red Shirts rally in Bangkok

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AFP: Thousands of 'Red Shirts' rally in Thai capital

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[Maestro]

to be continued

Thailand Live Monday 24 January 2011