News from Thailand – January 19, 2014

Do not freak out. Not a military coup, but an image of the annual Royal Thai Armed Forces Day, yesterday in Bang Khen (Bangkok).

News from Thailand is short today. All the news about Bangkok Shutdown is in the Bangkok Breaking News of January 18 and reported today in a ditto section at the top of the homepage. What remains are the following messages:

– In two separate police operations in the provinces of Saraburi and Phrae, the police seized 2,5 million speed pills. [Aside: Could they have been counted by hand?] Police intercepted 2,24 million pills in Saraburi and 300.000 in Phrae.

The drug bust in Saraburi was reported in a press conference in the presence of the Deputy Chief of the National Police and the Secretary General of the Office of Narcotics Control Board. The pills were in a pickup truck, which had passed through a police checkpoint and crashed into a railroad fence after a 20-mile chase by police. The driver and a passenger managed to escape. In the vehicle, police found 12 bags of the pills.

According to police, the pills were smuggled into Thailand via the northern border and were destined for users in Bangkok. The police already have an idea where the two fugitives are. They will soon have an arrest warrant hanging on their pants.

The police in Phrae managed to arrest a suspect immediately. He was also in a pickup truck. The pills were hidden in hidden compartments. In addition to the pills, police seized 10.000 baht in cash and a mobile phone. The driver has confessed to receiving 30.000 baht for the drug transport. He said he was unemployed and needed money. The pills were destined for a customer in Nonthaburi.

– You may have missed it – and so did I – but at the beginning of this month, in a residence in the Paradise Hill 2 housing estate brutally murdered an 18-year-old woman and two boys aged 2 and 7 in Chon Buri. The suspect, 19 years young, according to Surapol Wiratkosin, head of the investigation team, is not 'insane', but he has a 'criminal streak'.

He poses a great danger to society. When he drinks, it increases his anger. Then he can no longer control himself and is capable of committing a crime.'

The suspect had gone to the house to wait for his girlfriend, who had gone out with the owner of the house, the mother of the two boys. There he found the niece of the owner, who was looking after the boys. Because she was rude to him, he knocked her unconscious and stabbed her and one of the boys to death. When the other boy woke up, he also died. Then he took off. He later turned himself in to the police in Kanchanaburi.

Arrest warrants were already pending against the man in Kanchanaburi for attempted murder, robbery and illegal detention [?].

– The government does not intend to consult with the Electoral Council about postponing the elections. That is a passing station after Wednesday's meeting with 70 representatives of various organizations. Conclusion of that meeting: the elections must go ahead. The five Electoral Commissioners did not attend the meeting and have asked Prime Minister Yingluck for a private meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister Varathep Rattanakorn said yesterday that such talks are pointless because the government has no power to postpone the elections. When the Electoral Council asks the Constitutional Court for a ruling on the powers of the government, it should do so. The government has no comment.

'All I can say is that the Electoral Council must continue its task of organizing the elections.' According to Varathep, the government has cleared two major obstacles in the past two weeks. It has solved the shortage of personnel for the polling stations and the Electoral Council is protected by the national police and the ministries of the Interior and Education.

– Rosewood is a sought-after type of wood, because it is worth a lot of money abroad, especially in China, so it is regularly felled illegally. Yesterday the police achieved another success. In Muang (Ubon Ratchathani) she confiscated 204 blocks worth 3 million baht. They were found in an abandoned pickup truck, which had driven off after police ordered the driver to stop. This month, a total of 2.000 blocks worth 20 million baht were seized in the Northeast.

– Rice farmers in Buri Ram have given the government until Saturday to come forward with money for their surrendered rice. If the government fails (again), they will go to court. Yesterday, about a thousand angry farmers blocked highway 226 in protest against the non-payment since October. The farmers demand the guaranteed price plus interest.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post