Thai schoolgirl summoned for police interrogation

[Orac]

How about the name of the company? They don't have problem with giving the name of the child, SO how about the name of the company???

Then people can make informed choices as to which companies they chose to do business with and those they do not.

Also If there is proof of any pollution and it is attributed to the company, then stating facts should not be a crime.

There is a very big difference between mud slinging to hurt a person/company/business rival, and telling the truth about them.

The STUPID thing is that a person with some kind of intelligence would realize that this is not a good look for the company nor for the country that allows this.

The Company was the brainchild of Captain Edward T. Miles of Australia who felt he could develop equipment to mechanize the offshore mining industry, after observing the labor intensive methods of the Chinese at Phuket in 1905.

In 1906, he founded the “Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Company N.L”, incorporated it in Hobart Tasmania and, upon due arrangements with the local Governor, began offshore tin mining in Phuket Bay in 1907, utilizing the world’s first sea-going bucket dredge.

Following 1907, the Company put seven more dredges into mining operations in the Phuket area. The British firm, the “London Tin Group” (managed by Anglo Oriental), eventually gained control and transferred the Company’s domicile to Malaysia and renamed it “Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Ltd” which was later officially named “Tongkah Harbour Tin Dredging Berhad”. The London Tin Group was subsequently taken over by the Malaysian Mining Corporation (MMC). 1980: Shareholding was restructured to become predominantly Thai in response to the Thai government’s policy of encouraging domestic investment in the mining industry. On being registered in Thailand, the Company was renamed “Tongkah Harbour Ltd.”

1990: With the collapse of the tin market in the mid 80’s, the Company diversified into gold and base metal exploration in 1990, and property development in Bangkok where it undertook the construction of “Tongkah Tower”, now known as the “True Tower”.

1991: The Company’s subsidiary, Tungkum Limited (TKL), was founded and granted a concession in Loei province for the exploration and mining of gold and related minerals. 1993: The Company went public and started trading of shares in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). The Company was again renamed as “Tongkah Harbour Public Company Limited”.

1995: Pursuant to successful exploration, TKL submitted mining plans and six gold mining license applications to the Department of Mineral Resources, which approved the plans in late 1996.

Post 1997: The Company emerged from the financial crisis of 1997 with no foreign exchange exposure and no debts, and in a strong cash position. However, the SET ruled that the Company’s earnings from tin operations (considered by the SET to be the Company’s core business) were disproportionately lower than its other revenue and, accordingly, suspended (but later reinstated) from trading on the SET.

2003: The Ministry of Industry granted Tungkum Limited the gold mining license whereupon the Company could initiate the mine development process. 2004: The Company added to its land bank in Phuket by acquiring land which joined together two parcels already held. With this acquisition, the Company now holds some 39,745 sq m of continuous beach front property in a prime location for future development.

2005: The Company accumulated 83.7 % of Sea Minerals Limited (SML) which has subsequently filed mining leases over 50,000 rai (8,000 hectares) to mine an off-shore deposit in the Andaman Sea where evaluations based on some 1200 drill holes indicate resources of over 50,000 tons of tin in the area.

2006: A loan for USD 25 million was approved by Deutsche Bank. Part of the loan was utilized to refinance the local consortium banks. The remaining loans will be utilized for the further plant expansion and proving of reserves. During the final quarter of the year, TKL commenced production of gold.

2007: The Company controls 99.99% of SML which has proven reserves of some 60,000 tons of tin ore (72% Sn) at a cut off grade of 0.10kg/cubic meter

2008: A loan of USD 35 million was approved by Deutsche Bank. Part of the loan was utilized to repay the earlier loan while the balance is being used to finance current and planned expansions. Current gold production stands at 3000-4000 plus ounces every month.

2009: Currently, the Company is focused on flotation plant construction at its Loei gold mining operation and commissioning the facility for full operation and production. Meanwhile, exploration for more ore in the concession area is ongoing with recent drilling at Target T-1 indicating increases in sulfide ore resources. THL will also be pursuing licensing for its offshore tin ore resources in the Andaman Sea, and will be monitoring development prospects for its landbank holdings in Bangkok and Phuket. The company will also continue to monitor and following upon, any exploration and development prospects in Thailand and neighboring countries.

As you can see this company has an Australian connection and a connection with Deutsche Bank

I imagine Tongkah Harbour and DB are both on board with this action as they are probably fed up with the natives trying to defend their land and environment against their commercial interests.

Follow the money trail. If this guy at Deutsche Bank gets enough emails I'm sure he will realise that this was not the best move.

Michael Golden

Deputy Global Head of Communications, CSR & Public Affairs

[email protected]

I am sure Deutsche Bank wish they had never heard of these miners. Not sure if it has been resolved yet but they have been fighting through the courts in London to get their money back for years.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2011/2251.html

Edited December 25, 2015 by Orac

[Broeno]

The dark ages have made their entry into this country.

[Norvid 1950]

The girl and probably hundreds of others should file the case against this gold company to seek compensation for the damages done by this mining operation. The lawyers representing this girl should know better, unless this might turn as Kho Tao case did; innocent are guilty and guilty are .........unidentified.

[empireboy]

The same tactics go on in the "developed" West.... Doesn't make them ok but, it's worth noting!

ok I'll bite... please provide a link where a 15 year old schoolgirl is taken in by Police for interrogation and will get a civil/criminal law suite for making a video about pollution by an established huge company. US? France? UK? Germany? anywhere?

and as you like "noting things" IF any such nastiness occurred the government and the company would be annihilated by the free press much, much more than is allowed here and "it's worth noting" there would be demos on the streets.

wake up - smell the coffee - this is not about the "developed" West (sic) but about using the might of the elite machine against the unprotected and weak and in this case a 15 year old schoolgirl here in Thailand

recently in the US where a black boy brought a self made radio to school, he was put in hand cuffs and arrested

[Norvid 1950]

I think it could be a good idea to send this to a law firm representing this young girl:

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[diehard60]

who really owns the mining firm????? I think someone in the government at a very high position.

[tbthailand]

maderaroja

Poor attempt at sarcasm!

I would think that even in the US, children have nothing to fear from the police.

I would also suspect that they (the US police) would treat a libel suit against a 15-year old girl (by Thung Kham Ltd) with the contempt and disdain that it deserves.

comparisons to western countries and to the US are off-base WRT this case.

Sure, police around the world sometimes do things that they should not.

But in the US, the freedom of information act and a free press with an investigative journalism tradition, uncovers a lot of corporate and state misdeeds. That is the way the system is designed to work and designed to address corruption and wrong-diong when it happens.

In Thailand, the law is bent to allow corporations, which have clearly done bad things, to attack the people who call them out...

And if they don't get attacked in the courts, then maybe they just get shot or disappear... this girl is lucky... so far.

[gemguy]

Wouldn't ' interview ' be a more suitable headline as ' interrogation ' has connotations of heavy handedness ?

Will reps of the mining company be interviewed or interrogated ?

Will reps of the mining company be interviewed or interrogated ?

Hmmmmm...let me think awhile about that possibility.

About 1 second will do.

Nope ..Will not happen...This is Thailand.

No need to explain further.

Cheers

Edited December 25, 2015 by gemguy

[ggt]

The bogus lawsuit against the teen girl is just a sideshow...to divert attention away from the real issue...are people and the river being polluted by the mining operation...

Let the government call in a 3rd party who does not have a dog in this fight...to do an unbiased appraisal of the situation...

Hopefully, the determination of pollution or not...will be completed before the attempt to corrupt them takes place...This is Thailand...

I think we all know in our hearts what the outcome of an honest analysis will be...the mining company does also...millions of baht are at stake here...let's see how low the owners and operators of the mining company can go before this is resolved...

[Patje55]

Shoot the messenger first, all will be ok after that

[tbthailand]

so this is not the first scum-bag manoeuvre from this company,

Here is when they attacked to local activists...

They have also been intimidating the locals using the courts for a long time

The self-appointed "government", aka military junta, has already been doing favors for these guys...

Then there was the time that the police kept the public out of a public hearing about the mining operations (on the bkk post)

So the exclusive mining rights that they have in Loie were given to the company in 1991 - under another military regime,

Oh, and some people have asked who is involved, and while I don't have an exhaustive list, the multi-millionaire police chief Somyot, appointed by the self-appointed "PM" Prauyth is a board member...

Here is a nice overview story of how things began and it shows how the pollution has been going on for nearly 2 decades http://transbordernews.in.th/home/?p=4609

[NongKhaiKid]

Wouldn't ' interview ' be a more suitable headline as ' interrogation ' has connotations of heavy handedness ?

Will reps of the mining company be interviewed or interrogated ?

They are legal terms, interviews are for the victim or witness, interrogations are for the accused.

Thus, unless she counter-sues the mining company, they are interviewed.

Interrogation implies ' rigorous questioning ' and witnesses can be put through it if thought to be lying.o not as clear cut as you suggest.

[slipperylobster]

The same tactics go on in the "developed" West.... Doesn't make them ok but, it's worth noting!

ok I'll bite... please provide a link where a 15 year old schoolgirl is taken in by Police for interrogation and will get a civil/criminal law suite for making a video about pollution by an established huge company. US? France? UK? Germany? anywhere?

and as you like "noting things" IF any such nastiness occurred the government and the company would be annihilated by the free press much, much more than is allowed here and "it's worth noting" there would be demos on the streets.

wake up - smell the coffee - this is not about the "developed" West (sic) but about using the might of the elite machine against the unprotected and weak and in this case a 15 year old schoolgirl here in Thailand

recently in the US where a black boy brought a self made radio to school, he was put in hand cuffs and arrested

Difference is that the boy in the USA won...this girl is losing.

I don't see any similarities

[dominique355]

Next move will be to jail babies for imitating politicians ...

You know...lot of blabla on one end and no responsibility for the other end.

[empireboy]

The same tactics go on in the "developed" West.... Doesn't make them ok but, it's worth noting!

ok I'll bite... please provide a link where a 15 year old schoolgirl is taken in by Police for interrogation and will get a civil/criminal law suite for making a video about pollution by an established huge company. US? France? UK? Germany? anywhere?

and as you like "noting things" IF any such nastiness occurred the government and the company would be annihilated by the free press much, much more than is allowed here and "it's worth noting" there would be demos on the streets.

wake up - smell the coffee - this is not about the "developed" West (sic) but about using the might of the elite machine against the unprotected and weak and in this case a 15 year old schoolgirl here in Thailand

I didn't mean to provoke your ire by conveying the idea that the specific event action mentioned was the same as in developed countries... but rather the general notion that developed countries are equally heinous in so many things they do against innocent humanity. The motivations are the same, money, power, avarice, etc. I also mention it was NOT ok!

[tbthailand]

Wouldn't ' interview ' be a more suitable headline as ' interrogation ' has connotations of heavy handedness ?

Will reps of the mining company be interviewed or interrogated ?

They are legal terms, interviews are for the victim or witness, interrogations are for the accused.

Thus, unless she counter-sues the mining company, they are interviewed.

Interrogation implies ' rigorous questioning ' and witnesses can be put through it if thought to be lying.o not as clear cut as you suggest.

given that Somyot, the recent chief of the RTP was/is on the board of the company, it begs the question of the police being impartial...

The police were not acting impartially in the past when they blocked the public from attending a public hearing on the gold mining operation...

[Nobb]

This young lady just spoke the truth and called in for interrogation. I invite people from any country in the world to come and see the Thai rivers. If you think they are okay just jump in and swim for 10 minutes! 15 year old girl has more wisdom than the Thai government! The problems is that money talks and the poor farmers lives do not matter!

Edited December 26, 2015 by Nobb

[Plutojames88]

The TFV pro Junta lobby minority here often ( amongst pathetic rational ) use old worn out statements .

Some which are ignored mostly by the sheer obviousness of the reality before us daily.

Stories like this that drive home the poor Thais plight.

A girl in this case.

Remarkable thuggery.

But I digest.

The pro Lobby sometimes insist some of us want blood and civil war.

I am usually pro passive stuff.- but they are picking on girls

So I wouldn't care if America invaded them if needs be .

After thinking about this for some time .

I can come to no other conclusion that taking down the established Elites ( if they don't relinquish power) may be necessary for the ""real"" Thai reformation to occur on a substantial level.

And the Army be made accountable to the "" people""

As in the whole Nation not just Bangkok.

So privately I reluctantly must no longer deny that this might be the only solution.

A purge .

Complete and ever lasting.

This other system where children are called forth .

Innocent children.

Provokes the justice of the old communists .

"" It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees""

Slowly , the Thai people may see just those sentiments if this continues.

Edited December 26, 2015 by Plutojames88

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

I find it hard to believe a minor -- she's 15 for crying out loud -- can be sued in any civilized country. So how can this Thai legal charade even get started? Probably for the same reason RTP can open an investigation into the statement by the US Ambassador who has diplomatic immunity. It truly is a medieval kingdom. (I really can't write any more as I felt I had to self-censor. This is when you realize many things are not right.)

Regarding some posters having left or planning to leave Thailand: I've been struggling with this issue for about 6 months now. There are many things here that work for me. But day in and day out, I see more and more negatives, and some scary ones, after five straight years here and 11 years of multiple visits per year. All I can say is I'm sitting on the fence but the last few months, my feet have been dangling on the other side, wherever that may be.

[Arkady]

Sick.

[metisdead]

An off topic nonsense post has been removed.

[KhaoNiaw]

It's a good thing that this story is being played out with full public attention as it puts the spotlight on a number of issues. It brings the story of contamination by the mining company to a much wider audience than it would otherwise have received and it's probably to the girl's own advantage that the story has received so much publicity. This is a country where local environmental activists are frequently murdered.

[FangFerang]

In this matter they have no face left. There is no skin, nor bones....nor eyes that focus on the greedy lies in this.

In this matter, they have no face left at all.