News from Thailand – September 8, 2012

Thailand is one of the countries where terrorist suspects captured by the CIA have been interrogated and tortured. The controversial interrogation method waterboarding was used.

In a 154-page report, Human Rights Watch presents evidence that waterboarding has been practiced more often than the US would like to admit. The report is based on interviews with 14 Libyan ex-prisoners.

One of the suspects told HRW that he and his pregnant wife were apprehended by Malaysia with help from British intelligence and then handed over to the CIA in Thailand. There he was beaten on his bare body. After the interrogations he was taken to Libya and imprisoned.

An alleged al-Qaeda top man also ended up in Thailand where he was subjected to the waterboarding method. In waterboarding, the suspect gets a hood over his nose and mouth, then water is thrown over it until he gets the impression that he is drowning. The man is currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

– The planned metro connection between Bang Sue and Rangsit is in jeopardy. The Ministry of Transport is considering scrapping it because it would overlap too much with the planned extension of the Airport Rail Link from Phaya Thai to Don Mueang, as well as a planned high-speed rail line.

A working group will study the consequences, partly because the tender has already taken place. Italian-Thai Development Plc came out as the cheapest bidder with an amount of 5 billion baht above the budget allocated for it. The other planned extension from Bang Sue to Taling Chan is not in danger.

The government has earmarked 176 billion baht for investments in the rail network until 2014. The money will be spent on widening the track width from 1 meter to 1,435 meters. In the first phase, which has already started, 765 kilometers will be tackled. The second phase with 1.025 kilometers is planned for 2015 and the third phase with 1.247 kilometers for 2020.

– Another idea to combat the unrest in the South. Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has proposed that the three southern governors be elected. Earlier, the government opened a new command center in Bangkok.

The governors should have a degree of autonomy, analogous to the governors of Bangkok and Pattaya. Chalerm thinks that this way separation can be prevented. His colleague Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprasa is not enthusiastic. He wants to maintain the current system. [How that works, the article does not mention.]

The provincial police chief of Pattani already supports Chalerm's proposal. The provincial police chiefs and commanders of the military units should also come under the leadership of the governors, he thinks.

Artef Sokho, coordinator of the Youth for Peace and Development Academy in Pattani, also thinks it's a good idea, but it won't end the violence. 'The government doesn't deal with the core issue of negotiations or talks. It's time the negotiations were in the open and understood and welcomed across society. Security officials say they don't know who to talk to while the insurgents are not sure of the people they talk to can deliver anything.'

– The secretary-general of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), who was transferred against his will, has not left silently. At the last minute, he handed over documents to Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung about corruption in the spending of rehabilitation funds in six northeastern provinces, remarkably enough a power base of ruling party Pheu Thai. The corruption mainly concerns repairs to roads, which were damaged by the floods last year.

Chalerm has been tasked with leading investigations into corruption cases involving politicians, officials and individuals of influence.

Critics see Dussadee's transfer as an attempt to cover up corruption cases, such as duty evasion on the import of luxury cars from England, bank loans with forged collateral and illegal land use in Phuket. Minister Pracha Promnok (Justice) says that the PACC has no political interference in its investigations.

– The test of canals on the east side of Bangkok was canceled yesterday because it had rained for days in Bangkok and neighboring provinces. Some low-lying areas in Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani had already been flooded due to the heavy rains.

In the test, additional water would be forced into the channels to test their capacity. That did not happen, but the influence of the so-called water pushers was examined. They should increase the flow rate of the water. There are 29 such installations in Khlong Lat Phrao.

– Large parts of the provinces of Sukothai, Lampang and Phrae were flooded yesterday as a result of heavy downpours.

In the district of Phrom Phiram (Phitsanulok), 2.000 rai worth of fields were flooded from the Yom River. The water came 50 cm high. The district chief of Mae Sot has advised the residents of two tambons to take their belongings and livestock to a safe place as a precaution. In Tak province, the city of Umphuang has been flooded.

– Border control along the Ruak River in the Chiang Saen district (Chiang Rai) will be expanded. The river separates Myanmar from Thailand. Until now, patrols were only between the Sai Lom market and Ko Sai, the river itself is now added.

Drugs are smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar across the river. The drugs would be produced by the United Wa State Army with chemicals that come from Vietnam.

– Things are going to get tense for former Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, now a member of parliament for the Democrats. Did he violate the constitution in his previous position by asking the Minister of Culture to employ some party members in his ministry? The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) thinks so. Yesterday Suthep and the NACC gave an oral explanation in the Senate. When the Senate follows the NACC by a three-fifths majority, Suthep loses his parliamentary seat. It will be voted on on September 18.

– The Ministry of the Interior will prohibit its officials from using Facebook and other content during office hours that have nothing to do with their work. From October 1, it is no longer allowed.

– In an explosion at an ice factory yesterday morning in Nakhon Ratchasima, four workers were injured, including one seriously. Several houses in the area were damaged. The damage is estimated at 60 million baht. The explosion may have been caused by too high a pressure in a cooling water tank.

– Four dead and five injured was the sad balance after a minivan crashed into a tree on the Phetkasem bypass between Pran Buri and Cha-Am yesterday. The van was on its way to Bangkok.

Economic news

– Because Russian tourists speak Russian, only 2 percent of Thais working in the tourism industry speak Russian against 70 percent of their Vietnamese colleagues, Thailand risks losing the fast-growing Russian tourist flow to Vietnam.

Sounds logical, this ironclad reasoning from Kubilay Atac, director of Pegas Touristik, the country's largest tour agent for Russian tourists. He also points out that Vietnam is serious about developing its travel industry, recommending tourist destinations to Russians.

But the current figures contradict Atac's story. Last year, 1 million Russians arrived in Thailand, an increase of 62 percent. And this year, the Tourism Authority of Thailand expects 1,15 million Russians. Those are even different numbers than the Vietnamese, because 100.000 Russians arrived there last year. But they can also do creative calculations in Vietnam: in 2014 there will be 300.000. In short: Thailand, watch your count!

– President Bakery Plc (PB) of the well-known Farmhouse bread and pastry will build a third bakery in Bangkok within 2 years. Now Farmhouse bakes them brown (or white) on Bangchan Industrial Estate (Min Buri) and in Lat Krabang. According to director Apichart Thammanomai, this third bakery is necessary because the demand for bread and pastries is growing. The changing lifestyle demands greater convenience. The daily sandwich products are doing particularly well.

PB has also set its sights on other countries. At the top of the wish list is the construction of a bakery in Myanmar. In addition to Myanmar, the brand name has already been registered in Laos and Cambodia and will soon be registered in Vietnam, whose 88 million inhabitants regularly eat baguettes.

The turnover of Thailand's bread and pastry market is estimated at 10 billion baht with an annual growth of 5 to 6 percent. Farmhouse's turnover increased by 9 percent in the first half of the year. At the end of the year, PB hopes that its turnover will have increased by 10 percent to 6 billion baht.

– A buffet with corruption as 'dishes'. This is how Pridiyathorn Devakula, former finance minister, describes the mortgage system for rice. Speaking at a round table organized by the Anti-Corruption Network, he said that corruption occurs at all stages of the program: farmers, millers and exporters are guilty of it. But he does not expect the government to end the program for that reason, because politicians and millers benefit greatly from it.

Pridiyathorn estimates that the program will result in a loss of at least 81 billion baht. But this amount could rise to 150 billion baht if the rice has to be sold below market price due to reduced quality [because it has been stored too long].

Because the mortgage system pays prices 50 percent above market prices, the program has led to the smuggling of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of paddy from neighboring countries, says Pridiyathorn. Bought for 7.500 baht per ton, the rice is mortgaged in Thailand for 15.000 baht. [Usually 40 percent is mentioned.]

Pridiyathorn also addressed another form of corruption. Because warehouse space is limited, the millers manage to push the price down to 12.000 baht, while the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives pays 15.000 baht. The difference goes to the miller.

[There are many other ways to commit fraud, but they are not mentioned in the article.]

– The price of diesel, LPG and CNG (compressed natural gas, natural gas) will remain unchanged until the end of the year, but energy prices will be 'restructured' next year, so that they better reflect actual costs. [This seems like a complicated way of saying prices are going up.] But for low incomes, gas prices remain subsidized. This has been announced by Minister Arak Chonlatanon (Energy).

The price of LPG has already been released this year, with the exception of LPG for domestic use, but households will also have to believe it next year.

The ministry is sticking to its plan to phase out the use of petrol and to promote the use of ethanol and CNG, says the minister.

Phichai Tinsuntisuk, chairman of the renewable energy section of the Federation of Thai Industries, does not believe very much in phasing out gasoline and releasing the price of CNG. He thinks those plans will be postponed.

He is not pleased with the minister's first year in office. The ruling Pheu Thai party has pledged to put Thailand on the map as a regional hub for biofuels. But so far, the use of ethanol petrol remains at 1,3 million liters per day.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post