News from Thailand – March 29, 2012
Thaksin will be joined by about 50.000 red shirts from the Northeast during Songkran in Vientiane next month, says red shirt leader Nisit Sinthuphrai. They will gather at the stadium of Nong Khai on April 11 to depart for Laos the next day journey. Asia Update tv will broadcast the visit live. Supposedly 10.000 red shirts travel to Siem Raep in Cambodia, where Thaksin is on April 14 and 15.
- Private hospitals expect 'chaos' when a scheme for free emergency treatment comes into effect on Sunday. They find the definition of 'emergency patient' unclear, which can lead to confusion if patients need help first.
Currently, each health insurance company has a different scheme for emergency care in private hospitals. Civil Service Medical Benefits Scheme insured persons and family are required to pay in advance. Employees insured under the Social Security Scheme must start paying from 72 hours after the first treatment unless they want to be transferred to another hospital. Patients insured through Universal Healthcare Coverage can go anywhere for free.
– Pasit Sakdanarong, adviser to the health minister, says assistants to top public health officials are involved in the smuggling of pseudoephedrine-containing cold pills from hospitals, which are processed into the banned drug methamphetamine in Laos and Burma. The ministry is currently conducting research in 875 hospitals that fall under the ministry.
Yesterday, a large number of packages of the pills in question were found in a forest in Sam Kamphaeng (Chiang Mai). Some had been shredded. The police estimate that there were 5 to 10 million pills in the packages.
The pharmacist at Soem Ngam Hospital in Lampang has resigned. Research has shown irregularities in the purchase of 4.000 pills.
350.000 pills have disappeared from the Kamalasai hospital in Kalasin. The hospital pharmacist is cooperating with the study.
– Four scientific institutes and the Thai Journalists Association will organize forums in the next two years with the aim of promoting national reconciliation. These should provide a platform for academics and scholars to discuss the problems facing society and to offer constructive and unbiased opinions and solutions. According to one of the organizers, politicians are only focused on increasing their voter base and are neglecting the country's social and political problems. Another says that the forums can have an educational function for society.
– The Democratic party demands from the tax authorities that they charge former Prime Minister Thaksin and his ex-wife for 12 billion baht in taxes for the sale of their shares in Shin Corp to a company in Singapore. Those shares were held by two Thaksin children who acted as trustees. Initially, the tax authorities imposed an assessment on the two children, but it was withdrawn because they did not own the shares. The tax authorities have until tomorrow to impose an assessment on Thaksin and ex. After that, the period within which this is possible expires.
– According to the Department of Special Investigation, an 'academy' has been set up where students can learn how to cheat people over the phone. That said DSI head Tarit Pengdith yesterday after the arrest of 22 Chinese and Taiwanese suspects at their headquarters in Pak Kret (Nonthaburi). The gang called victims in China and Taiwan and persuaded them to transfer money. During the raid, the police found telephone lists and scripts, among other things. The scammers were on a tourist visa to Thailand come.
– Akara Mining is prepared to carry out an environmental and health impact assessment for its gold mines. The Administrative Court of Phisanulok ordered the company to do so under penalty of losing its concessions, which it acquired in 2008. These reports have been mandatory since 2006, but it was not until 2010 that the government announced the activities to which they apply. Akara has a year to make things right. The lawsuit was brought by local residents who have been complaining about air and water pollution and noise for years.
– This Sunday, all minibuses and buses of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, the public transport company of Bangkok, must be equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The Department of Land Transport can control the speed of the vehicles in this way. The maximum speed for minivans is 90 km. The measure was taken in response to a number of serious accidents. This year, BMTA minivans have already been involved in 17 accidents, resulting in 27 fatalities and 137 injuries. Most minivans operated by the Transport Co are already equipped with RFID.
– A Thai teenager and six young Burmese were killed yesterday when their pickup truck ended up in a canal in Ban Phraek (Ayutthaya). Fourteen other Burmese were injured. They were on the run from police who wanted to stop the car because it was speeding.
– In three separate operations, the police in Chon Buri arrested a gang of Cambodians who used kidnapped children as beggars.
– With money from companies, 1.300 surveillance cameras have been installed on Ratchaprasong. Ratchaprasong was occupied by red shirts for weeks in 2010.
– The Lam Ta Khong dam in Nakhon Ratchasima will discharge less water to prevent too little water in the dry season. Less water is also discharged from the reservoir in Sikhiu district. Earlier, water discharge had been increased to prevent the reservoirs from overflowing at the start of the rainy season, which exacerbated flooding last year.
– Last year, more than 300 people died in traffic during Songkran. Yesterday, some 80 activists from the Stop Drink Network delivered an open letter to the government demanding strict measures against drunk driving this year.
– Local radio stations disrupt air traffic. In 2010, 1.100 incidents were reported and now pilots have already reported 700 times that they are affected by those stations when communicating with air traffic control. Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co is urging legal action with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
– When the government issues an amnesty law based on the report on reconciliation of the King Prajadhipok Institute, opposition party Democrats will go to the Constitutional Court. It can make use of a legal trick, because the KPI report has not been approved by the parliamentary committee on national reconciliation.
According to MP Suthas Ngernmuen (Democrats), the government is abusing its parliamentary majority by wanting to push through an amnesty law so that former Prime Minister Thaksin can return to Thailand. Thaksin was sentenced in absentia to 2008 years in prison in 2 for helping his then-wife purchase government land below market value.
Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprasa yesterday defended General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, who led the military coup in 2006 and is now chairman of the House Committee on National Reconciliation. 'I believe that Sonthi really wants to dissolve the political divide and achieve national reconciliation. Helping Thaksin could be his next step. But at this stage all he wants is reconciliation.'
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post