Australian Shot In Thailand

[stumonster]

Australian shot in Thailand

June 29, 2006

ANOTHER Australian has been shot in Thailand just days after a Queensland woman died after becoming the victim of a drive-by shooting.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade today confirmed Thai police were investigating the case of a 22-year-old Australian man shot in Thailand on Tuesday night.

"A 22-year-old man from NSW was injured in a shooting incident at Chantaburi province, approximately 245km south-east of Bangkok, on the Cambodian border," she said.

The man was evacuated to Bangkok yesterday.

DFAT did not release the man's name, but The Australian newspaper said he was Lee Birkinshaw, from Wagga Wagga in southern NSW.

Full story here

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...24-1702,00.html

[Jai Dee]

Aust man shot during Thai study tour

A young Australian man who has been shot near the Thai-Cambodia border is about to undergo surgery in a Bangkok hospital.

It is believed the incident was the result of a business dispute.

Lee Burkinshaw from Wagga Wagga, in the Riverina region of New South Wales, was shot in the stomach on Tuesday night, in an area south-east of Bangkok known as the gemstone capital of the world.

He underwent emergency surgery at a nearby hospital to remove his spleen, before being evacuated the following day to the Thai capital.

His father Ian Burkinshaw says further surgery is required.

"The bullet is lodged in his abdomen, and a second operation obviously may be taking place as we speak to remove the bullet," he said.

Mr Burkinshaw says his son has a great interest in gemstones, and was in the area on a study tour.

He is the second Australian to be shot in Thailand in recent weeks; 26-year-old Queensland nurse Pam Fitzpatrick died after being shot in the neck outside a bar near Bangkok on June 19.

Source: ABC Online - 29 June 2006

[VanZam]

Is it just me, or are we seeing an increase in the shootings of farang here? Or are the media just taking up these stories more and more?

Hope this guy is okay, and that the shooter is caught.

[Prakanong2005]

Is it just me, or are we seeing an increase in the shootings of farang here? Or are the media just taking up these stories more and more?

Hope this guy is okay, and that the shooter is caught.

I do not know if it is an increase, our perception or that the information is more easily accessed.

My opinion is that it is an increase but that is only a gut feeling

[Backpack_thailand]

Thailand is not exactly covering itself in glory at the moment!!!

[DerringDo]

Well i hope the poor guy survives and makes a more or less full recovery.

Business dispute? Watch yourselves out there people. Assassination is still an acceptable business practice here.

[mikederson]

I can't believe he's from a place called Waga Waga

[apalink_thailand]

Business conflict? Callme a cynic but here is how I see the "conflict" going down.

Tout brings farang to dealer

Farang buys gems

Gems turn out to be of lower than advertised quality

farang returns to the dealer to complain

Dealer tells him to get lost

someone (most likely the farang) loses their cool

BAM !

Police shrug their shoulders and go back to sleep in their booths with nice fat wallets

The good old fashioned gem scam, this time with lethal results.

[kenjin]

It definitely seems there is an increase in shootings of Westerners and an increase in shootings generally. Thailand seems to be in the world news often of late but only the bad news.

I personally think they should start a "war on handguns" or weapons in public places in general. Like they had with the war on drugs and stamp out unlicensed handguns across the nation.

I live in Pattaya and almost weekly there are shooting incidents

[Artisi]

Wagga Wagga, it's a fair dinkum town and christ mate, it's so bloody dusty in Wagga Wagga the crows fly backwards to keep the dust out of their eyes.

[dotcom]

Chantaburi Khanchanaburi - are we seeing a trend? 2 places to avoid. IMHO.

[NordicMan]

Is it just me, or are we seeing an increase in the shootings of farang here? Or are the media just taking up these stories more and more?

Hope this guy is okay, and that the shooter is caught.

It's impossible to tell if there is a real increase in farang shootings based on anecdotes in the newspapers.

In England there has been a steady decline in violent crime, but the public actually perceive the crime to increase. Rarely is public perception of crime level in sync with the actual levels.

Until I see some real statistics on farang shootings in Thailand, I would be very careful about judging an increase or decrease. Is the murder rate per farang capita increasing? There could be more farang living in Thailand now than 10 years ago? We need to see yearly murder rates, which I am sure is recorded (and available??), compared with farang population.

Who can remember how many farang was shot 5 yars ago? 10? 15? Killed by knife? I certainly don't remember.

Looking at photos of Pattaya, I don't think there's much doubt that more farang live there now than 15 years ago.

Cheers

NM

[castelleone]

Hi Artisi, just google Wagga Wagga and you will find the place in Australia

[veteran]

:Its sad that things like this happends in the land of smiles

[john b good]

I can't believe he's from a place called Waga Waga

And why would that be "I can't believe he's from a place called Waga Waga"

I am not really wanting to get into some hot debate on place names but there are stranger names than Wagga Wagga.

[castelleone]

folks, I don´t think we need to avoid neither Kanchanaburi nor other places. I think both incidents have their reason as already posted here and have nothing to do with the actual geographical location.

[Tompa]

I don’t know about Khanchanaburi so I can’t make any comments but I do know about Chanthaburi after having lived here for many years. Chanthaburi is as safe place as anywhere. I don’t think anything like this has ever happened here before compared to countless “accidents” that happens to Farangs pretty much each week in Pattaya and Bangkok. That said, if you get mixed up with the wrong crowd things can take a nasty turn wherever you live in Thailand.

I live in the same Moo Ban as the guy who was shot (his house is perhaps 50 meters from mine). I don’t know him personally but have seen him around from time to time. I didn’t hear the shooting when it took place but heard about it the following day.

This has nothing to do with a gem scam as some other poster suggested. He was in the gem business and knew his way around. Chanthaburi is not like Bangkok where you have thousands of tourists that the touts attack. The vast majority of all gem purchases takes place in the local gem market.

My guess is that he got involved with the wrong type of people. This is unfortunately something that can happen anywhere in Thailand

Hope he pulls through and fully recovers.

Tompa

[alan2076]

two shootings in thailand ...hhmmmm i live on murder mile in hackney and i feel totally safe there.

[ramidin]

Is there an increase? What are the comparable statistics??

See this site: http://www.murderuk.com/misc/stats.htm

In the UK, about 15 murders every week.

I 'acquired' this statistical information from an apparently reliable source, but I don't know how accurate this is:

THAILAND

1995 - 4,542 (only 2,075 arrested)

1996 - 4,474 (1,934)

1997 - 4,485 (1,091)

1998 - 5,717 (2,168)

1999 - 4,648 (1,802)

2000 - 5,135 (2,043)

UNITED KINGDOM

2000 - 850

So in the yr 2000 the per capita then the percentage is UK 1.42 murders per head of population, versus 8.38 in Thailand.

In the same period in the USA, it was about 5.51%, of which 71% were gun crimes!

So in Thailand in yr 2000, the per capita rate of murder is six times higher than the UK, since the populations are roughly equal. But, only about 30% of murderers in Thailand are arrested, so the clear up rate is very low.

Would be interesting to know how many out of the murders in Thailand were ferang.

[jaapfries]

Is it just me, or are we seeing an increase in the shootings of farang here? Or are the media just taking up these stories more and more?

Hope this guy is okay, and that the shooter is caught.

No: it's just you . . . . . . . . .

[dotcom]

Is it just me, or are we seeing an increase in the shootings of farang here? Or are the media just taking up these stories more and more?

Hope this guy is okay, and that the shooter is caught.

Right on mate. Slow news day. If some Aussie stubs his toe it will likely get published in the "Australian".

[Breema_Ken]

Maybe us expats should create a "society" that has it's own security.

Say, we hire some robust, highly-trained Israeli commandos as they backpack around SE Asia, and give them a chance to resolve our disputes in a calculated, disciplined, professional style.

Maybe hire the front-man Thai negotiator, who tries to make peace with the Thai businessman, while the two Israeli commandos stand behind him with all of their military toys to protect the negotiator.

If all of us expats throw in 2000 Baht for the year, we'd have plenty to run the program without additional costs per incidence.

Maybe call it "Scores R Us." (I just bought the domain name scoresrus.com). So, whose in?

If it is a successful program, I know expats in many countries would love to buy franchise rights for such an endeavor (expats in India have been begging for such a program!).

[BigSnake]

Playing in the Gem buisness in Thailand is like play with fire, soon are later you will get BURN!! Good Luck, my friend wish you a speedy and full recovery

[rocky]

Violent crime and killnigs are on the increase in thailand includnig farangs, the recent hike in oil has left many thai people with less money to live on, in the Pattaya area more mad robbery crimes happening, more people killed and injured for a few thousand bht.

This is like the Butterfly effect, China and India need more oil, farangs get killed in Thailand.

[Arkady]

I hope the guy pulls through.

I don't know what the stats look like but Thailand seemed more dangerous for tourists in the early to mid 80s. I remember a lot of news reports of tourists shot on the beach or murdered in their bungalows in Phuket and Samui in those days usually by thieves. Since there wasn't much development then, there were more isolated stretches of beaches and tourists may have been more tempting targets. The roads were more dangerous too. Most were only two lanes and highway robbers would stop buses at night with a log. Probably the percentage of tourists assaulted or murdered is much less because there so many more of them now.

Crack down on illegal handguns, the root of the problem. A good idea but there is a huge number out there - litterally millions and gangsters obviously pay off the police so that their henchmen can freely pack guns.

[taxin]

Maybe us expats should create a "society" that has it's own security.

Say, we hire some robust, highly-trained Israeli commandos as they backpack around SE Asia, and give them a chance to resolve our disputes in a calculated, disciplined, professional style.

Maybe hire the front-man Thai negotiator, who tries to make peace with the Thai businessman, while the two Israeli commandos stand behind him with all of their military toys to protect the negotiator.

If all of us expats throw in 2000 Baht for the year, we'd have plenty to run the program without additional costs per incidence.

Maybe call it "Scores R Us." (I just bought the domain name scoresrus.com). So, whose in?

If it is a successful program, I know expats in many countries would love to buy franchise rights for such an endeavor (expats in India have been begging for such a program!).

Count me in !! I also have another 47 people who are interested with at least 26 more to follow, could you please send me your bank details so I can submit the cash ? That is 2,000 each yeah ?

[Virgil]

I can't believe he's from a place called Waga Waga

You've gotta be joking mate ... everybody knows Wagga Wagga. It's about 150km west of Canberra.

If you're having trouble finding it on the map its in the middle of the triangle formed by Walla Walla, Grong Grong and Murrumburrah, right on the Murrumbidgee River.

Cheers

Virg'

I like the laws in Texas - where Gun Control means hitting what you aim at!

[WideWheels]

This post got me thinking about world murder rates so I had a surf around and found a site with a bunch of crimes (and other) stats for different countries. I think it may be a little out of date (up to year 2000?) but should still give some indication.

This table:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_...ders-per-capita

has Thailand as #14 in the world for murders per capita.

this one:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_...arms-per-capita

has Thailand as #3(!) in the world for murders with firearms per capita...

[jaingor]

Business conflict? Callme a cynic but here is how I see the "conflict" going down.

Tout brings farang to dealer

Farang buys gems

Gems turn out to be of lower than advertised quality

farang returns to the dealer to complain

Dealer tells him to get lost

someone (most likely the farang) loses their cool

BAM !

Police shrug their shoulders and go back to sleep in their booths with nice fat wallets

The good old fashioned gem scam, this time with lethal results.

Hmmmmm, is this inside information ? i wonder ! or am i being synical, which happens with age

[Postie]

Re- Ramadin's thoughts on this incident.

I wonder if any Farang have paid for the extermination of a Farang in Smileyland?

Wife/husband/pain in the ass that just won't go away...

There must be loads of reasons why this is/has been entertained.

Have any of you pursued a quote on this sort of arrangement?

..."When in Rome"...and all that.