Thailand Live Tuesday 23 Aug 2011

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Thailand Live Tuesday 23 August 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 so that 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 Monday 22 Aug 2011

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Today's Thailand weather and forecasts:

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Ex-Thai PM Thaksin Enters Japan Amid Controversy

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La Nina to raise risk of flooding in Bangkok

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No bashing ex-PM Thaksin in debate, Thai govt whips warn

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Military reshuffle to be based on merit: Yuthasak

By The Nation

The new Defence minister promised yesterday that this year's transfer of senior military commanders would be based on merit.

General Yuthasak Sasiprapha said promotions should be based on ability and seniority, rather than an individual's network of school-class contacts.

"We will look to a person's capability and potential, rather than to the class from which he or she comes," the defence minister said, referring to the graduating classes at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School (AFAPS).

Military officers typically develop strong bonds with colleagues belonging to the same class at the AFAPS, and often favour their former classmates in the course of their careers.

The defence minister said he would examine the annual personnel transfer lists from the commanders of the three armed forces after the new government announces its policies in Parliament this week. He had yet to receive the lists, he said.

According to the Constitution, a new government cannot officially begin work without first announcing its policies to Parliament.

Yuthasak, who previously served as permanent secretary for defence, said he didn't think the military would stage another coup, and did not believe any military commanders had such thoughts.

In a related development, Army commander-in-chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha told a meeting of Army staff yesterday he had not pushed for promotions for former AFAPS classmates, according to Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

The Army chief explained that he did not have the power to personally order promotions, as the Army has a committee headed by a deputy Army chief to prepare the transfer list, Sansern said.

"The Army chief is not on the committee. If things fall into place, he does not concern himself with the details," the spokesman told reporters.

"There are many commanders in the Army. It's impossible for the top commander to do everything he likes. Personnel are promoted on individual merit. The Army chief cannot order the promotion of a particular person," he said.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Man dies in Bt1.60 gas argument

By The Nation

CHANTHABURI - A gas station worker who overfilled a customer's gas tank by Bt1.80 more than requested, and then allegedly shot the customer dead in an argument that followed, surrendered himself to police yesterday morning.

Chanthaburi police commander Pol Maj General Surapol Wiratyosin said the Rak Sugar gas station's security camera on Chanthaburi-Sa Keaw Road in Makham district captured the incident. It showed the customer, claiming to be retired policeman Pol Lt Col Phalangpol Pakdee, asking for Bt600 worth of gas refill but the worker, later identified as 37-year-old Rith Preedatham, filled it to Bt601.8.

Rith asked the victim to pay the total amount but the customer refused and reportedly scolded him, leading to an argument and chest-pushing until Rith pulled out a gun in the money bag and shot him three times before fleeing the scene.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Unit at low-income housing project collapses

By The Nation

Ayutthaya

A new home built as part of a partially state-subsidised low-income housing project collapsed in Ayutthaya's Bang Ban district on Sunday, dealing a blow to efforts to fix structural problems plaguing the units. No one was injured in the incident.

The project, operated by Luang Phor Sri Mueang community co-operative, is funded in part by the Community Organisations Development Institute (Codi).

Launched in 2007, the troubled project has 103 units. Buyers have already moved into 44 of them, but the house that collapsed on Sunday was still being decorated.

"No one was in the house during the incident," said Nirut Kamsod, 33, a member of the project's board.

Anchan Sinman, 40, bought the house for Bt217,676. Nirut said the house's location on the bank of a canal might have been a factor in its collapse.

"The water level in the canal has been rising, and soil under the house might have slid into the water," he said.

However, he said the most likely explanation was that the structure's foundation pylons failed to reach the solid subsoil level.

"To reach that level, the foundation poles must go down about 22 metres. But for most houses here, the foundation poles go down just 14 metres," the project's chairwoman Niramon Kamsod disclosed.

Locals were unaware of the required depth, and Codi only checked the length of the foundation pylons, not the depth to which they had been sunk, Niramon said.

Codi, a public organisation, has financially supported more than 900 low-cost housing projects aimed at allowing low-income families in cities to own their own homes. To be eligible for such projects, candidate communities must demonstrate a high degree of cohesiveness.

Structural problems with units in the project operated by Luang Phor Sri Mueang community's co-operative were first detected in August last year, Codi director Tiprat Nopladarom said yesterday.

"Seven houses partially collapsed. So we approved a Bt1.6-million budget to fix the problem and asked Kasetsart University's Geotechnical Engineering Research and Development Centre to check the structures of all the houses in the project," she said.

The centre concluded that the foundations of 33 houses required improvements, Tiprat said.

"Following the conclusion, we approved Bt5.7 million in additional funds to fix the problem," she said.

The improvement efforts started in May. The house that collapsed on Sunday was among those earmarked for structural improvement, Niramon said.

"In collaboration with the community, we have provided temporary housing for the owners of the affected houses. Owners of other at-risk houses have been relocated to safe units in the same project," she said, adding that a panel would be set up to find long-term solutions to the project's problems.

"The panel will include representatives of Codi, the community and relevant agencies," she said.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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BURNING ISSUE

Peace in the South govt wistful thinking

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Migrants tell of 'ruined lives' in Thailand

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Police root out blackwood smugglers

By The Nation

KALASIN - Police have arrested a total of 21 suspects along with 559 blackwood logs worth Bt10 million in the past three months, Kalasin Governor Wiroj Jiwarangsan said yesterday.

Reporting on the activities of criminal gangs and a blackwood trade that had villagers cutting down trees in the Phu Phan National Park from May to August, Wiroj said the authorities managed to capture 21 suspects along with the 559 logs and 19 trucks.

Wiroj said the gangs paid villagers Bt80 per centimetre. If they smuggled the logs out, they could sell them for as high as Bt240 per centimetre, putting the country's last source of blackwood at the Phu Phan National Park at risk. While authorities continued to crackdown on these wood smugglers, he urged the public to alert authorities of anything suspicions.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Labour centres for Thai fishing industry

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Income contingent loan may be revived

By Chuleeporn Aramnet

The Nation

The Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) will next week propose setting up a loan regulation draft committee to revive the income contingent loan (ICL) for students, Sumate Yamnoon, secretary-general of Ohec said yesterday.

He was responding to Education Minister Woravat Auapinyakul's demand to revive the ICL and use it instead of the current loan scheme.

Woravat said on Sunday the current scheme had problems with debtors, such as the Student Loan Fund (SLF), that had to sue students for not paying off their debts. He also had an idea to announce a debt moratorium to retard the process of filing civil cases against them.

The minister told Ohec to study details of the ICL and report to him.

Sumate said he would propose Woravat set up the committee to draft regulations and operations for the ICL. Moreover, he would explain obstructions and problems related to the ICL, especially debt repayment via the tax system, as the Revenue Department was not ready.

They would push to re-start the ICL, initiated by Thaksin's government, in the next academic year. It gave loans to students in the 2006 academic year but stopped them for new student borrowers in the 2009 academic year. It now lends only to students who were part of the scheme before 2008 until they graduate. The current loan scheme only gives loans to students in poor families, while the ICL focuses on lending to students in educational fields the country needs, regardless of their family status.

Sumate said he could not identify which educational fields the ICL may be available for. He would check those many graduates were recruited from.

He believed reviving the ICL would not affect students as borrowers in the current student loan scheme would be allowed to get loans under the same conditions until they graduate.

As unemployment was a main cause for debtors unable to repay their loans, Woravat planned to have the Office of Non-Formal and Informal Education offer occupational training so students can work.

The student loan scheme has given loans to 3.7 million students since 1996 with a Bt357 billion budget. About 2.4 million are in deals to repay the debts and 1.8 million or 75 per cent have paid off their debts. Around 160,000 borrowers who have not repaid their debts worth Bt15.9 billion may be sued.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Rally against mega-projects blocks traffic in Chumphon

By The Nation

Chumphon

More than 300 people gathered on Phet Kasem Road in Chumphon's Tha Sae district yesterday to express opposition to the government's planned mega-projects in the South.

The demonstrators wore green crab masks and staged a "mass-planking" event - in which groups of people lie motionless, face down, with their arms by their sides - on the road, blocking traffic for several hours.

They rallied under the name Network of People from 14 Southern Provinces.

"How could the project to construct a deep-sea port in Chumphon's Pathiu district receive approval from the authorities without any public hearing?" Supanat Duangklom asked yesterday.

He chairs the Pathiew Conservation Network, which joined the event organised by the network yesterday.

Supanat said the deep-sea port would destroy the local environment, which is home to a great variety of crabs and clams.

The deep-sea port project, he said, was just one of many industrial mega-projects the government planned to launch in the southern region.

"Although these projects have received financial support from the Asian Development Bank, we are against them," Supanat said.

He said such mega-projects involved high-polluting, heavy industrial facilities like petrochemicals and coal-fired power plants.

"These projects are similar to those polluting [Rayong's] Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate," he said.

Supanat described these pollution-heavy projects as "mobile industries", because they had to keep moving to new bases after locals realised they would have adverse health and environmental impacts.

"They even move from country to country," he said. "They serve foreign investors."

The demonstrators said they staged the rally to make it clear that southern residents intended to formulate their own policies for their region.

They would not accept big industrial projects that would destroy their quality of life, they said.

Chumphon Deputy Governor Chayawut Jantorn travelled to the site to hold negotiations with Sunthorn Rakrong, who heads the Network of People from 14 Southern Provinces, after the mass-planking caused serious traffic congestion on Phet Kasem Rd.

After the negotiations, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Bomb disposal robot

By The Nation

Police ordinance officers in the deep South were given new bomb disposal and defusing equipment yesterday, similar to that already in commission but in larger numbers.

The devices, worth around Bt200 million in total, included bomb disposal robots, bomb suits, devices to jam mobile phone signals, and radio frequencies, scanners for explosives and a mobile signal-jamming station.

The hand-over ceremony was held yesterday at the police anti-insurgency headquarters in Yala province.

Pol Lt General Pheera Phumphichet, who accepted and inspected the equipment in the ceremony, said it could help make police work easier and bomb disposal operations safer.

Meanwhile, an Army ranger was shot dead at his home in Narathiwat's Ra Ngae district. Nirohsuenan Jehnu, based in Muang district, was on leave in his home district tapping rubber when two suspected insurgents approached and fired three shots at him, killing him instantly.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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ALRO seeks legal remedy that would accommodate farmers

By Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

The Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) will study legal measures that would allow developers who illegally built resorts on land-reform plots in Nakhon Ratchasima province's Wang Nam Kheow district to rent the land on a long-term basis, instead of having to demolish the structures.

ALRO found that 99 landless farmers in Wang Nam Kheow district had used land-reform plots -- which cannot legally be bought or sold - for other than agricultural purposes. Some had transferred their land to developers, who built resorts on the land.

ALRO deputy secretary-general Sathidpong Suchikiat said a panel would be set up by the end of this month to study the 1975 Agricultural Land Reform Act and find a way to resolve the dispute over land in the forest reserve in Wang Nam Kheow district.

The panel will look at legal measures that would allow landless farmers who built small resorts on the land to rent the plots or otherwise continue to stay in the areas.

A provision of the ALRO law allows landless farmers to use the land for other purposes in cases where it is deemed unsuitable for farming.

Sathidpong said some landless farmers had built structures for use in agricultural research.

ALRO recently conducted a second round of investigations into a group of 2,009 landless farmers who occupied about 3,461 land-reform plots in Wang Nam Kheow district.

The investigation found that 99 of the farmers had transferred land to developers for the purpose of building resorts, restaurants, private homes, petrol stations and non-organic farms with home-stay resorts.

Earlier, ALRO found that 21 farmers had transferred land plots to developers for building resorts.

However, ALRO will invite all stakeholders, including villagers living in disputed areas in Wang Nam Kheow district, to find a resolution to the problem, which the agency hopes will serve as a model for resolving other land disputes.

ALRO plans to conduct additional investigations into disputes involving land-reform plots in Saraburi and Kanchanaburi provinces.

BOX

Results of investigations conducted by the Agricultural Reform Land Office into the misuse of land in Nakhon Ratchasima's Wang Nam Kheow district.

Tambon Thai Samakkee

180 of 522 landless farmers violated regulations and used land-reform plots for purposes other than farming.

Tambon Wang Nam Kheow, Tambon Udomsap and Tambon Wang Mee

649 landless farmers violated regulations and used land-reform plots for purposes other than farming.

Source: Agricultural Land Reform Office

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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Phuket drug tip-offs lead to four arrests, 6,000 pills seized

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Two-day government policy debate by joint Parliament session opens with PM Yingluck delivering government policy statement /MCOT

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Eight soldiers, one novice Buddhist monk wounded in Pattani roadside bombing Pattani /MCOT

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Policy debate kicks off

The parliamentary debate on the new government's polices kicked off Tuesday morning with the policy statement read by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Yingluck delivered the policy statement at 9:18 am in line with the requirement of the Constitution.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

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PM Yingluck has finished talking abt govt's 16 "urgent" policies to be started within 1yr. /via@Aim_NT

PM Yingluck starts announcing the policies to be implemented within 4 yrs. First is protecting the monarchy. /via@Aim_NT

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Transport Min to begin building 3 more BTS skytrain lines this year

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Mortar Shell Found at Chiang Rai City Hall

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Thai stock index opens on Tuesday at 1,067.28, down 0.56 points /MCOT

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Industrial Sector to Launch Mobile Disaster Unit

The Industry Minister has ordered all industrial operations in flood-hit provinces to set up a mobile disaster relief unit to facilitate effective aid distribution.

Permanent Secretary for Industry Withoon Simachokdee said that he has ordered all industrial operations to assess flood damage at all factories in flood-hit provinces to allocate adequate aid.

The Industry Ministry has set up donation centers for flood-hit victims in which all proceeds and donated goods will be sent to affected communities nationwide.

In preparation for flood disasters, the ministry has ordered Provincial Industrial Offices and factories nationwide to setup a mobile disaster relief unit to be on stand-by to tackle any flood-related problems that may arise.

Provinces that are receiving special attention are those with large industrial estates including Rayong, Chon Buri, Ayutthaya, Samut Sakhon, Samut Prakarn and Nakhon Pathom among many others.

Withoon went on to say that the Green Industry Policy has been put into effect and will provide a more eco-friendly industry.

More than 70,000 factories have taken part in 984 projects .

The auspicious number of 984 was chosen as a symbol for the 9th monarch and His Majesty the King's 84th birthday.

-- Tan Network 2011-08-23

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Abandoned baby rescued in Phuket

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Red-shirt Village Vows to Keep up Activities

Red-shirt members are insisting they will continue with their activities, claiming there is no rift among the group's leaders.

Red-shirt Village President Phetsak Kittidusadikul said that his movement would continue its activities despite many recent attacks on the village over the past months.

He explained that the red-shirt village will not hit back, but will continue to promote its ideology, claiming the group's activities are within the law.

Phetsak also downplayed rumors that a rift has emerged among its leaders, though he admitted that some of the group's leaders have some difference of opinions.

He reiterated that the red-shirt village regularly organizes many activities to strengthen the relationships between members and that they are aiming to do good for the nation.

He added that the red-shirt village will carry on its support for the Pheu Thai Party, though this would change if the Pheu Thai Party doesn't back democracy or the red-shirt movement.

-- Tan Network 2011-08-23

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Phuket taxi cartel grants US Military safe passage

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Dutch diplomat warns of Phuket tourism 'landslide'

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BREAKING -- 5.5-magnitude earthquake strikes 3 miles west of Cokedale, Colorado /via@mpoppel