Lao-American Couple Shot In Nong Khai

[Patex]

McAfee is refering to "guerrillas who come across"... laotian warlords and their marauding hordes around Nongkai? BS.

[ColPyat]

McAfee is refering to "guerrillas who come across"... laotian warlords and their marauding hordes around Nongkai? BS.

Further up in the golden triangle you do have private armies and drug caravans crossing from Wa held territorries into Thailand, Laos and back. Don't forget - lots of the Labs shifted from Wa areas to Laos during the drug war. You also have Hmong insurgents still using Thailand as a safe haven from which they carry out raids and ambushes in Laos.

Up in the real golden triangle there still are pockets of warlord land.

[sriracha john]

UPDATE.... and a significant one at that

Death sentence ordered for McRowan couple's killer

NONG KHAI, THAILAND - The man charged with the murders of Phillip and Ashley McRowan, the Fairview couple who were shot a year ago in Thailand, has been tried and sentenced to death.

"The Embassy has just received word from the court in Nong Khai that the judge returned a guilty verdict this morning against Arthit Thinchanh for the murder of Philip and Ashley McRowan," Laura Stone, deputy press attaché for the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, said via e-mail early this morning. "The judge has imposed the death penalty. We are attempting to contact the family."

Stone said a second suspect in the slayings is being sought.

"He is believed to have fled to Laos, but according to Thai authorities his wife has been taken into police custody," Stone said. "The Embassy continues to follow the case closely."

Luke Siharath, Phillip McRowan's brother, said this morning that the State Department had notified him about the sentence. He knows the death sentence cannot bring his brother or sister-in-law back, but he sees the court proceedings as some measure of justice.

"I have mixed emotions about it," said Siharath, who lives near Raleigh. "I don't know what other crimes that person has done. I believe in the court system, whether it's here or over there. They're all modeled to bring justice. Beyond that, I wouldn't know what to say."

Phillip and Ashley McRowan, who had lived in Fairview for more than a decade and claimed to be of royal Lao heritage, were shot Jan. 18, 2006, in daylight by men in dark suits and sunglasses, with several witnesses nearby. In May, police in Thailand arrested Thinchanh.

- Asheville Citizen-Times (USA)

[sriracha john]

This report seems to be in conflict with the one above regarding the accomplice in the murder:

Sentenced to death

Nong Khai Provincial Court yesterday sentenced to death a man convicted of murdering two Lao-American social activists one year ago.

Gunman Arthit Klinchan received the maximum punishment after the court heard he killed United States citizens Anouvong Sethathirath and his wife Oulayvanh Sethathirath at a temple in Nong Khai.

The couple claimed they were descended from Laos' Lan Xang dynasty.

Arthit was arrested in May last year with Suwat Suthang but the court said evidence against Suwat was not conclusive and found him not guilty.

Arthit was dubbed "the butcher of the Mekong" and told police he was paid to kill the pair and other Lao dissidents.

- The Nation