News from Thailand – August 27, 2014
The police are fighting against the increasing number of car and motorcycle thefts. In partnership with the Thai General Insurance Association, Plan B Media Public Company Ltd and the Mirror Foundation, a Most wanted list distributed with names and portraits of suspects and news of their arrest. Seen on the Plan B billboards. Those who feed the police with useful information receive a monetary reward.
– Coupleider and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered the court-martial to restrict the application of martial law. He also instructed the security forces to use regular legislation and channels and to resort to martial law only in emergencies.
Prayuth said this yesterday at the first meeting of the NCPO (junta) since his election as prime minister was confirmed by the king on Monday. As long as there is no interim cabinet, the NCPO acts as cabinet, which is laid down in the provisional constitution in force.
Prayuth also called on the authorities to put into practice the policies he formulated. These relate to corruption and some pressing issues, such as the falling price of agricultural products and social issues. Prayuth will still make a policy statement in the NLA (National Legislative Assembly, emergency parliament).
– In 2011, a kilo of rubber sheets yielded 172 baht; on August 25, 51,3 baht and you can call that a dramatic price fall. Under the threat of a rally by rubber farmers, the NCPO has decided to postpone the sale of 210.000 tons of rubber from government stocks to prevent the price from falling further. Sales threatened because the sales freeze imposed by the Administrative Court in May expired today and has not been renewed.
The NCPO has further promised to stabilize the price and has earmarked an amount of 5,94 billion baht for restructuring the rubber sector. Of this, 977 million baht will be spent this year. The money will be used for inventory management, liquidity injections for farmers, processing and marketing and R&D to increase the value of rubber products.
Yesterday, the Rubber Council of Thailand negotiated with the deputy head of the NCPO. "If the NCPO keeps its word, there will be no protest," said chairman Uthai Sonlaksap.
The rubber that is now in stock has been bought for an average price of 104 baht per kilo. Ten potential buyers are interested; the best offer is 59 baht for a kilo of raw rubber sheets and 62 baht per kilo for smoked rubber sheets.
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and the Government Savings Bank are helping rubber farmers with low-interest loans totaling 30 billion baht. The money is provided to cooperatives that buy rubber from farmers to support the price.
– Apiwan Wiriyachai, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and a core leader of the red shirt movement, has undergone surgery for a lung infection in the Philippines. According to a source in the former governing party Pheu Thai, he is still weak.
Apiwan fled to the Philippines after he was reported in June for lèse-majesté and an arrest warrant was issued against him in July. The accusation relates to a speech he gave in 2012 at a rally of the Pitak Siam group.
– The Japanese Mitsutoki Shigeta, who would have fathered fifteen babies through an IVF treatment with Thai surrogate mothers, wants to pick up the babies and take them to Japan. Through his lawyer, he has filed that request with the police of Lat Phrao. That agency is investigating the man. The lawyer has suggested that the investigators hear Shigeta in Japan.
The Lumpini agency is also involved in the case. The police have asked six of the eleven women who have received IVF treatment at the All IVF clinic to make a statement. That clinic is owned by Pisit Tantiwutthanakul. Pisit is due next month.
Police spoke to two women yesterday. They received 300.000 and 400.000 baht for their work. Their IVF took place at Pisit's clinic, which also supervised the birth in July.
Furthermore, the report states that doctors have made the proposal in the bill on surrogacy that is currently under discussion, to prohibit surrogacy if the surrogate mother is not a blood relative of the intended parents.
And I don't understand that, because I think the whole bill is about that. The newspaper must have misunderstood or the wording indicates something else. In some cases, an exception could be made to the rule when couples who wish to have children cannot find a blood relative.
The Department of Health Service Support checked XNUMX birth clinics this month and last month. Only two complied with all the rules.
– Malaysia, the facilitator of the peace talks between Thailand and the southern resistance, wants a soldier who specializes in security matters to lead the Thai delegation. This is what coup leader and prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha says.
The current delegation leader of the talks is Thawil Pliensri, the newly-reinstated Secretary General of the National Security Council (NSC) by court order. Prayuth Akanit Muansawasdi, an adviser to the NSC, is reported to have charged Malaysia with discussing the continuation of talks, which have been stalled since Ramadan last year. Akanit would also lead the talks.
– Temporarily end the free first aid in case of accidents that hospitals have to provide, because in practice that help is not free at all, says the Thai Medical Error Network. It calls on the NCPO to come up with new measures to guarantee free aid.
The network yesterday counseled family members of three patients who filed complaints with the National Health Security Office (NHSO) and the National Human Rights Commission. They received a hefty bill from private hospitals.
The free first aid was introduced in 2012 by the Yingluck government. For example, if someone is seriously injured in a traffic accident, the nearest hospital is obliged to provide first aid. The victim no longer has to be taken to the compulsory hospital of his national insurance as before.
The hospitals receive a reimbursement of 10.000 baht from the NHSO, but that amount does not cover the actual costs in many cases, the private hospitals say. The complainants were confronted with bills of 459.000 baht and 480.000 baht, among others.
– The Narcotics Control Board (NCB) will hold a meeting next month with nine Asean counterparts about new efforts to combat drug trafficking in Bangkok. The purpose of the meeting is to exchange policy ideas and develop regional strategies. 'We can't do it alone. We need to work with our neighbors," said Permpong Chaovalit, Secretary General of the NCB's office.
The new attempts are described in a plan that will go to the NCPO next week. The core is the application of the American anti-drug model High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, in which all the authorities involved in a given area work closely together. According to Permpong, Bangkok accounts for 30 percent of the country's narcotics problems.
– Passengers on a ThaiAir Asia flight from Don Mueang to Phuket had to leave the aircraft in a hurry after landing because the company had received a bomb warning. Turned out to be a false alarm after the device was searched.
– A university lecturer in Phayao, who has been arrested on charges of kidnapping, assault and rape of underage girls, is not released on bail. He had confessed at the time of his arrest, but during interrogation he retracted his confession. He claimed to have only blackmailed the girls.
– A 19-year-old drug suspect imprisoned in Khon Kaen died in hospital on Monday after swallowing 61 methamphetamine pills and 3 grams of meth wrapped in condoms. The autopsy showed that one of the two condoms had burst.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
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