'Encroacher' back from Myanmar to speak

BANGKOK: -- Kriengkrai Seutrong, who was accused of leading a group of Thais to encroach on Myanmar forestland, said that today he and 100 villagers from Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat and Krabi would explain what happened and who was behind it.

After being released on Friday from a seven-day interrogation to a Thai Army special task force in Ranong, Kriengkrai went straight to Surat Thani. He said he would explain everything today, along with 100 people who were working on rubber plantations on Myanmar territory and weren't arrested.

Kriengkrai maintained that he wasn't involved in marijuana growing and war-weapons selling, which were discovered in the area in Myanmar recently. He said such allegations tarnished him and his family's name.

Myanmar authorities detained the 92 Thai land-encroachment suspects at an army camp in Koh Song.

-- The Nation 2012-07-15

More than a few people will be interested to hear how these Thais can go to a neighboring country cut down the forest there, some of which may have occurred in a wildlife reserve, and expect to be treated leniently by the Myanmar authorities!!

They got off leniently.

If it had been Cambodia, they would have been charged with espionage and sentenced to a half dozen years in Cambodian prison for spying on scrubland.

They got off leniently.

If it had been Cambodia, they would have been charged with espionage and sentenced to a half dozen years in Cambodian prison for spying on scrubland.

If it had been Cambodia, they would probably have had their legs blown off by old land-mines.

More than a few people will be interested to hear how these Thais can go to a neighboring country cut down the forest there, some of which may have occurred in a wildlife reserve, and expect to be treated leniently by the Myanmar authorities!!

Their confusion is understandable - it is accepted practice in Thailand. They are probably wondering why they weren't offered a deal on a dodgy deed.

Thai-Myanmar border trade in Ranong not affected after arrest of Thai citizens

RANONG, July 15- Cross border trade between Thailand’s southern province of Ranong and Myanmar’s Kawthaung ‘Koh Song,’ opposite Ranong's Kra Buri district, has not been impacted after the detention of a group of Thai nationals earlier this month, according to local businesspersons.

Khin Win, president of the Myanmar’s Kawthaung Chamber of Commerce, on Sunday said that the arrest of Thai citizens for encroaching into Myanmar territory earlier this month has not impact relations and border trade between the two countries, particularly in Ranong and Koh Song.

He explained that the trade still run normally and smoothly, adding that the two towns has close relations and depend on each other.

Meanwhile, Ranong Chamber of Commerce president Nareumol Khoraphum said that the Ranong-Koh Song border trade remained lively, saying that the residents from the two countries continued their business activities as usual.

If the ongoing situation does not worsen and lead to an open conflict, cross border trade will not be affected, she added.

According to the Ranong-Koh Song cross border trade from June through July, purchase orders from Myanmar traders for consumer products have doubled as they intended to stockpile goods in preparation for the rainy season, when the transportation can be difficult.

Rising demand has also been attributed to the economic and investment expansion on the Myanmar side as well.

The top ten products exported to Koh Song included fuel and lubricants while other heavily traded products were cooking oil, beverages, chocolate milk powder, trawling nets, ropes, metal and plastic products, and tyres. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-07-15

Someone in Myanmar was getting a kickback,

and this guy would be very, very dead soon after uttering the name.

But someone above the unnamable person wasn't getting their cut.

So now it's partly public. Influentials doing what they do.

rape and pillage the land and use the poor to do it.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Burmese officials have been selling illegal land concessions inside the Burmese border to Thais for dozens of years. I am pretty sure some Thai locals didnt just sneak in to Burma unnoticed, cut down a bunch of national park, wait for the rubber trees to mature (7 years) and begin harvesting without anybody noticing until now. Obviously somebody in Burma was involved.

I would tend to agree with Animatic... somebody probably didnt get paid and the operation got shut down... and as usual it is the little guy that bears the burden.

He said such allegations tarnished him and his family's name.

Som nam na

Murdering humans, murdering the earth... it's the same thing as far as I see it. Should punish them equally.

by now the little guys would have worked out

not to fall for the big guys?

the definition of insanety is ;

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a diferent outcome.