South Africa Reports Drop in Rhinos Killed by Poachers

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15 February 2019, 11:13

Rhinos walk in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve in 2015 in South Africa. Photo: Schalk van Zuydam / Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG — The South African government is reporting progress in the fight against rhino poaching.

The environmental affairs ministry said Wednesday that poachers killed 769 rhinos last year, a 25 percent decrease from the number killed for their horns in 2017.

Authorities attribute the decrease to better security and other nationwide efforts to protect rhinos. The new data shows fewer rhinos killed in most provinces in South Africa, home to most of the world’s rhinos.

However, some conservationists speculate that the killing in past years has reduced poaching opportunities for traffickers.

Vietnam and China are key illegal markets for rhino horn. Some consumers believe it cures illnesses if ingested in powder form, although there is no evidence that the horn, made of the same substance as human fingernails, has medicinal value.

Indonesia Land-Burning Fines Unpaid Years After Fires

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Associated Press

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15 February 2019, 10:59

Pandu Wibisono, a conservationist of Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) carries a medical pack in 2017 as he walks on a cleared forest during a rescue operation for orangutans reportedly trapped in its disrupted habitat near a palm oil plantation at Tripa peat swamp in Aceh province, Indonesia. Photo: Binsar Bakkara / Associated Press

JAKARTA — Indonesian plantation companies fined for burning huge areas of land since 2009 have failed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties meant to hold them accountable for actions that took a devastating environmental and human toll.

The palm oil and pulp wood companies involved in fires owe more than USD$220 million in fines and the figure for unpaid penalties for environmental destruction swells to $1.3 billion when an illegal logging case from 2013 is included, according to separate summaries of the cases compiled by Greenpeace and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Indonesia’s annual dry season fires were particularly disastrous in 2015, burning 2.6 million hectares (10,000 square miles) of land and spreading health-damaging haze across Indonesia, Singapore, southern Thailand and Malaysia. The World Bank estimated the fires cost Indonesia $16 billion and a Harvard and Columbia study estimated the haze hastened 100,000 deaths in the region.

President Joko Widodo and other senior officials vowed action but repeated legal appeals by the 10 companies taken to court by the environment ministry have dragged the cases out for years.

The ministry has issued statements trumpeted progress in sanctioning companies involved in land fires. But the two companies mentioned in those statements that have paid fines totaling $2 million involved environmental damage from open cast mining, not fires, the ministry’s law enforcement director-general, Rasio Ridho Sani, told The Associated Press.

Greenpeace Indonesia said the unpaid fines are money owed to the Indonesian people that could pay for large-scale forest restoration and for health and emergency infrastructure for when the fires strike again.

“By not enforcing these laws the government is sending a dangerous message: company profit comes before law, clean air, health and forest protection,” forests campaigner Arie Rompas said in a statement Friday.

In a case that cited fires between 2009 and 2012, palm oil company Kallista Alam appealed its 336 billion rupiah ($24 million) fine all the way to the Supreme Court and then sought a judicial review of the Supreme Court decision against it.

Fires intentionally set by the company in 2012 to clear land for palm oil tore through the Tripa peat swamp in Aceh on the island of Sumatra, killing wildlife including endangered Sumatran orangutans and blanketed surrounding areas in a thick haze.

Tripa is part of the 2.6 million-hectare (6.4 million acre) Leuser national park, which is that last place on earth where endangered Sumatran orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos share the same wild environment.

When the Supreme Court rejected Kallista Alam’s judicial review, the company appeared to have exhausted all its legal options.

But it avoided payment by getting a legal protection order last year from the Meulaboh district court in Aceh which is responsible for enforcing the fine, according to a ministry document that details the court’s numerous instances of apparent non-cooperation in the case. The ministry said it has appealed the order to the Supreme Court.

Activists who said they’d gathered 200,000 signatures on a petition against Kallista Alam, protested outside the Meulaboh court in January, media in Aceh reported. Kallista Alam couldn’t be a contacted. The phone number listed for it in an online companies database is inactive.

Sani, the environment ministry official, said in seven cases enforcement of fines is held up because the local courts responsible for enforcement and the companies involved haven’t received copies of final rulings.

“The Ministry of Environment and Forestry is consistent in making efforts in environmental law enforcement, including forest and land fires, by filing lawsuits in civil, criminal and administrative courts,” he said.

In a case from 2014, the ministry sought a 7.8 trillion rupiah ($553 million) fine for fires on 20,000 hectares of land controlled by Bumi Mekar Hijau, a pulp wood company that is part of Indonesia’s Sinarmas conglomerate.

A provincial court in 2016 imposed a far smaller than demanded fine of 78 billion ($5.5 million) but it remains unpaid.

A spokeswoman for the Asia Pulp & Paper arm of Sinarmas, owned by one of Asia’s richest families, said a director dealing with the case was on sick leave and couldn’t immediately respond.

“As citizens, if we don’t pay our taxes we get sent to prison,” said Rompas, the Greenpeace campaigner. “So why aren’t the owners of these big companies being forced to pay what they owe or sent to prison if they don’t pay?”

Story: Stephen Wright

Jimmy Carr’s ‘Weird Honking Goose’ Laughter to Return to Bangkok

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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15 February 2019, 10:56

Update: The show was rescheduled to March 29 instead of its original date April 6.

BANGKOK — Get ready to be heckled by the comedian with the funniest – or most annoying – laugh in the world.

Notorious British stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr will return to Bangkok in ~~April~~ March to play with his hecklers and deliver sex and Mum jokes with a straight face, The Comedy Club Bangkok announced Thursday night.

The show is a part of Carr’s latest “The Best of Ultimate Gold Greatest Hits World Tour.” Tickets range from 1,800 baht to 3,500 baht and can be reserved online.

The show will take place ~~April 6~~ at 8pm and 10:30pm on March 29 at The Grand Ballroom of The Westin Grande Sukhumvit. The five-star hotel is located on Soi Sukhumvit 19 and can be reached by a short walk from BTS Asok.

Carr, 46, is a comedian of British and Irish citizenship. Apart from his dark humor, unapologetically controversial jokes and interaction with hecklers during shows, Carr is known for his unique and unnatural laughter, which has been compared to the sound of a “weird honking goose.”

High Stakes: Thai Party Plants Seeds for Pot Revolution

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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14 February 2019, 18:20

Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul has gone all in on legalization of cannabis. He leads the largest party to call for full legalization.

BANGKOK — The party which has covered Bangkok with images of cannabis leaves says not only is full legalization a core campaign policy – it won’t join a ruling coalition that supports anything less.

Though not alone in advocating for full legalization, Bhumjaithai, which won 34 seats in the 2011 general election, is the most viable one to go all in on Thailand’s decriminalization push, literally framing the issue as a win for the people in campaign posters everywhere.

“Marijuana is not a drug that should be illegal,” party leader Anutin Charnvirakul said Wednesday night at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, adding that, unlike alcohol and cigarettes, marijuana has great health benefits such as treating cancer, Alzheimer’s and insomnia.

“This policy will surely improve a lot of people’s well-being,” Anutin said, cautioning it will take time to put the policy into action – and change attitudes.

The party has proposed allowing every household to grow six plants that could only be sold to state agencies. Anutin estimated it could generate 420,000 baht per family.

Cannabis is a campaign issue going into the March 24 election. These widely distributed Bhumjaithai Party posters promote it as a boon to Thai farmers. Photo: Bhumjaithai Party

On Thursday, party policy advisor Julpas “Tom” Kruesopon said that cannabis has the potential to become a more lucrative cash crop for Thai farmers if its growth and sale is legalized. Julpas said the combined worth of the five largest cash crops – rice, tapioca, sugarcane and rubber – would be worth less than that of cannabis. He cited California as an example.

“If you look at the state of California, they collected 4 billion US dollars in taxes last year from cannabis sales,” he said.

The party is supporting not only the medical use of marijuana, but recreational as well. Asked if Bangkok could turn into Amsterdam with many “coffee shops” selling cannabis, Julpas said “Bangkokians would then be very happy.”

Julpas said the policy is one of the tangible policies set forth by the party alongside legalizing Airbnb and Grab services.

“We want to introduce policies that are helpful to people instead of policies that cause more infighting,” Julapas said.

The advisor, who is not a party member, said no major parties have come out against Bhumjaithai’s proposal.

That doesn’t mean everyone’s on board, however. The Democrat Party’s deputy leader said the party would only support the cultivation and use of cannabis for medical use, not recreational.

“The party doesn’t support smoking marijuana freely,” Nipit Intarasombat said. “Marijuana is the beginning of drug addiction. It’s okay to use it for medical purposes but there must be limits to its use.”

According to Julpas, legalizing marijuana doesn’t mean anyone can just smoke it for fun. Like alcohol, he said, its sale and use will be restricted to those of legal age.

The spokesman of a progressive fringe party said Thursday it supports a similar push to fully legalize marijuana.

Pakorn Areekul of the Commoner Party said it would want to ensure big agribusiness could not monopolize production. It will also consider limits on how much farmland can be used to grow it.

“It’s a measure to protect monopolization,” Pakorn said, adding that anyone should be free to grow marijuana in their backyards, like a small vegetable garden.

Some other parties have taken internal, pro-cannabis positions but don’t see it as a winning issue with voters. The party that has struck some of the most aggressively progressive positions, Future Forward, has not stated a position.

Additional reporting Chayanit Itthipongmaetee

Bangkok Biker Bowls Over Pedestrian With Temerity to Warn Him

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JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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14 February 2019, 16:49

BANGKOK — A man waits for a bus. Seeing a motorcycle trespass on the sidewalk, he warns the rider. Moments later, the bike returns and plows into his body, knocking him to the ground before speeding off.

That was the incident described online by someone whose security footage of the assault baffled netizens and quickly spread through the Thai net on Thursday. It was revealed later that it happened Feb. 1 in the old royal quarter on Lan Luang Road.

“They just turned around to hit him. It’s my friend’s brother. I don’t have more details,” user Prasert Sae-ung wrote in the video’s caption.

The man who was hit said today that he had warned the rider not to ride on the sidewalk before he was hit, which injured his hip. He added that police contacted him yesterday to say his attacker offered 5,000 baht to withdraw the charges, which he refused.

The video had been shared more than 16,000 times and watched over 1.2 million times as of Thursday afternoon. Most comments condemned the rider.

City Hall in October announced it was doubling fines for sidewalk riders as hundreds of checkpoints set up across Bangkok haven’t discouraged them.

ขี่บนทางเท้า บอกว่าบีบแตรทำไม ขี่ย้อนกลับมาชนเลย ครับ น้องชายเพื่อนครับ ไม่มีรายละเอียดครับ

โพสต์โดย ประเสริฐ แซ่อึ๊ง เมื่อ วันพุธที่ 13 กุมภาพันธ์ 2019

Court Accepts Request to Disband Pro-Thaksin Party

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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14 February 2019, 16:27

Reporters take photos of a statement by the Constitutional Court declaring that it has accepted a request to disband Thai Raksa Chart Party.

Update: The Constitutional Court postponed the next hearing for the Thai Raksa Chart Party to 3pm on March 7.

BANGKOK — The Thai Raksa Chart Party appeared headed toward oblivion Thursday after a court with the power to disband political parties agreed to take up the case against it.

The Constitutional Court said representatives of the accused party must report to the tribunal within seven days and state their wish to fight the case. Failure to appear will be considered the same as declaring no contest to the charge, the court said in a statement released Thursday.

Read: Facing its Demise, Thai Raksa Chart Demands Fair Trial

Thai Raksa Chart, part of a faction loyal to former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, said it’s confident of proving its innocence in court.

“I cannot see any allegation that we cannot explain,” Surachai Chinchai, the party’s head attorney, told reporters moments after the news broke.

If found guilty, the party will be disbanded and its executives banned from politics for up to 10 years. More than 200 candidates fielded by the party for the March 24 election would also be removed from the race.

Other pro-Thaksin parties have been dissolved by the same court in the past decade, including the governing People’s Power Party on alleged counts of vote buying in 2008. Two parties in the Thaksin-led coalition were also disbanded in the same year.

The complaint was filed to the court Wednesday by the Election Commission, which argued that Thai Raksa Chart broke election law by nominating princess Ubolratana Mahidol as its prime minister candidate last week.

Hours after the nomination became public, His Majesty the King decreed Ubolratana cannot run for office because she’s part of the royal family despite resigning from the nobility in 1972. Ubolratana herself has disputed the king’s interpretation in an Instagram post.

The commission accused the party of drawing the monarchy into politics, which election regulations prohibit.

The first hearing against Thai Raksa Chart is set for ~~Feb. 27~~ March 7.

Candidates Say ‘Be Mine’ as Valentine’s Day Sweeps Kingdom (Photos)

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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14 February 2019, 15:32

Sealed with a kiss: Alan Smith and Nareerat Saenrum hold their marriage certificates today at the Bang Rak district office in Bangkok. — Sealed with a kiss: Alan Smith and Nareerat Saenrum hold their marriage certificates on Feb. 14, 2019, at the Bang Rak district office in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Love is in the air as Valentine’s Day is celebrated across Thailand by state and private organizations.

The usual stunts are back – mass marriage registrations in unusual places and police handing out roses instead of fines – but the candidates standing in next month’s election are also jumping on the romance bandwagon to win a little ballot box love.

Leading the charge is Democrat Party chairman Abhisit “Mark” Vejjajiva who posted on his Facebook with a multilanguage pun, “If you still have no one for this year’s Valentine, can you please ‘mark’ me in your heart?”

Not to be outdone, 25-year-old Democrat MP contender Parit “Itim” Wacharasindhu offered free hugs to passers-by as he campaigned at a park in eastern Bangkok this morning. Parit is one of the party’s newgen hopefuls.

Candidates for the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat and Action Coalition for Thailand parties also dropped their usual belligerent tone and donned pink on the campaign trail today.

But not everyone was feeling the love, such as Thai Raksa Chart Party official Chayika Wongnapachant.

“This is the saddest Day of Love in my life,” tweeted Chayika, a niece of former leader Yingluck Shinawatra. Her party may be disbanded for alleged election law violations.

Provinces throughout Thailand also hold activities to observe the international day of love and promote their local identities at the same time:

In Bangkok, hundreds of couples, Thai and foreign, flocked to the Bang Rak district office to register their marriages. The venue is considered auspicious because Bang Rak sounds similar to “Place of Love” in Thai.

In Korat, Highway Police offered a “grace period” for motorists who broke the law today. Instead of fines, officers were handing out warnings and red roses for those caught with minor traffic violations. Over 150 motorists were caught today.

“We want to show that we warned them out of love,” Maj. Wissanu Kamnonmuang told reporters.

In Suphanburi, worshipers at Wat Then Plai gave pink religious offerings to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The tradition matches a Buddha statue there which was sculpted in hot pink.

In Trang, 10 scuba-loving couples showed each other how deep their love is by registering their marriages under the sea – strapped to pink oxygen tanks.

In Krabi, eight Thai and four foreigner couples-turned-daredevils registered their marriage certificates on the side of a cliff.

In Phayao, 35 couples were rowed onto the vast Phayao Lake to seal the deal. They also swore oaths of faithful love in front of a 500-year-old Buddha figure built in the middle of the lake.

In Chiang Rai, sky is the limit of couples who sign their marriage certificates on hot air balloons.

In Surin, aka the home of Thai elephants, wedding certificates were handed out on the back of the big beasts. It’s a tribute to the wedding traditions of a local mahout tribe called Kui that dates back centuries ago.

In Chonburi, a “giraffe couple” called Tawan and Bin Laden (yes) were the romantic stars at a zoo there.

And in Pattani, the region torn by sectarian violence found peace today as hundreds of Buddhists and Muslims registered their marriages side-by-side in a state ceremony.

Cheatin’ Hearts: When Infidelity Strikes, ‘Club Friday’ Answers the Call

Bangkok Gets an Outdoor Rock Fest This May

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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14 February 2019, 15:28

PATHUM THANI — Feeling a little left out of the festival scene since you’re not into electronic music or hip-hop? Head north to a lakeside venue in northern metro Bangkok this May to rock it under the sun with a number of local and foreign acts.

Local indie gig promoter Wildest Youth is rolling out its first festival to celebrate music, art and subculture. It’s called the Pink Cloud Music and Art Festival.

Calling itself a “utopia for outcasts, underdogs and alt-rock lovers,” the one-day festival’s highlights are Brisbane’s “hyperactive stone cunts” the Dune Rats, Aussie surf rock duo Hockey Dad and American indie rockers Turnover.

Also joining the stage are Hong Kong shoegaze group Thud, Reggae and dub collective Srirajah Rockers, and Death of Heather, an up-and-coming shoegaze and dream pop group.

The organizer will announce more acts on a later date.

Pink Cloud Music and Art Festival will take place May 25 at Thai Wake Park in Pathum Thani province, a 45-minute drive from downtown Bangkok. Tickets are available online now for 2,300 baht. They go up to 2,900 baht after April 5.

Journalist and Duterte Critic Posts Bail After Libel Arrest

By

Associated Press

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14 February 2019, 14:58

Maria Ressa listens to a reporter's question after posting bail at a Regional Trial Court following an overnight arrest by National Bureau of Investigation agents on a libel case Thursday in Manila, Philippines. Photo: Bullit Marquez / Associated Press

MANILA — The award-winning head of a Philippine online news site that has aggressively covered President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration was freed on bail Thursday after her arrest in a libel case.

National Bureau of Investigation agents served the warrant against Maria Ressa late Wednesday afternoon and escorted her from the Rappler Inc. office to NBI headquarters, where she stayed overnight in an office. The move against Ressa, who was one of Time magazine’s Persons of the Year last year, was denounced by her outfit, Rappler Inc., and media watchdogs as a threat to press freedom. Duterte’s government said the arrest was a normal step in response to a criminal complaint.

“What we’re seeing is death by a thousand cuts of our democracy,” Ressa told reporters after posting bail in the Manila regional trial court that issued a warrant for her arrest.

She accused the government of abusing its power and of using the law as a weapon to muzzle dissent. “I’m appealing to you not to be silent … you have to express outrage.”

Duterte has openly lambasted journalists who write unfavorable stories about him, including about his anti-drug campaign that has left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.

Rappler’s 2012 article included allegations that a businessman was linked to illegal drugs, human trafficking and a murder case, citing an unspecified intelligence report. The story also said a car registered in his name had been used by the country’s chief justice, who was later ousted in an impeachment trial.

Wilfredo Keng denied the allegations in a statement and welcomed the justice department’s indictment of Ressa and a former Rappler researcher, Reynaldo Santos Jr., adding he was determined to see the legal battle through. He said he has no criminal record.

“Rappler, Ressa and Santos continue to hold themselves high above any accountability to provide credible and justifiable reason for why they continue to harass an ordinary private citizen and businessman despite having absolutely no basis for their claims,” Keng said in a statement.

“With one click of a button, they destroyed my reputation and endangered my life,” Keng said.

Amnesty International Philippines said Ressa’s arrest was based on a “trumped up libel charge.”

“This is brazenly politically motivated, and consistent with the authorities’ threats and repeated targeting of Ressa and her team,” it said.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the arrest was “merely part of any criminal procedure.” Duterte’s spokesman said the charge against Ressa was based on facts which she should simply answer and had “nothing to do” with press freedom.

Rappler is one of several local and international news agencies deemed critical of Duterte’s policies.

Duterte had already banned a Rappler reporter from his news briefings after the government’s corporate watchdog found that the news site violated a constitutional prohibition on foreign ownership of media when it received money from an international investment firm. Rappler, founded in 2012, rejected the ruling.

In its selection of Ressa as a Person of the Year, Time magazine cited her and several other journalists as “guardians” in what it said was an effort to emphasize the importance of reporters’ work in an increasingly hostile world.

Ressa, who has worked with CNN, also last year received a Press Freedom award from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, and the International Center for Journalists’ Knight International Journalism Award.

Israel Refuses to Let UN Council Visit Palestinian Areas

By

Associated Press

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14 February 2019, 13:51

In this Thursday Jan. 11, 2018 photo, Palestinian children play in an alley at the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Photo: Khalil Hamra / Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — Israel has refused to allow the U.N. Security Council to visit the territory that the Palestinians claim for a future independent state, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.

Last week, the council authorized Its current president, Equitorial Guinea’s U.N. Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba, to consult the Israel and Palestinian ambassadors about a trip.

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour immediately responded, saying a council visit would be viewed “in the most positive way.”

But Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi said Ndong Mba reported to a closed council meeting Wednesday that “Israel categorically refused the council visit,” though Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said the government would welcome visits to Israel by individual ambassadors.

A council visit requires support from all 15 council members and approval by the countries concerned. Several other members confirmed Danon’s rejection.

Al-Otaibi, the Arab representative on the council, said he expressed regret that the visit won’t take place, noting there have been many requests for the U.N.’s most powerful body to visit the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital – all unsuccessful.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said there is no record of the Security Council ever visiting Palestinian areas.

“We want to continue our consultation,” Al-Otaibi said. “Hopefully we reach a consensus, because we said this issue has been on the council agenda for decades.”

“We want an official trip – this is what we asked for, not to go illegally or not to be invited as tourists,” Al-Otaibi said.

Equatorial Guinea’s deputy ambassador, Job Obiang Esono Mbengono, told reporters: “We’re still working on it.”

The Security Council asked the council president to meet the Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors to discuss a visit after the United States blocked an Arab-backed Security Council statement put forward by Indonesia and Kuwait expressing regret at Israel’s suspension of an international observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Temporary International Presence in Hebron was established in 1994 following Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city, which triggered riots across Palestinian areas. The mosque is located at the site that is also revered by Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Israel’s Danon accused the Hebron mission of acting as “a violent, biased” force, which its members strongly denied.

Story: Edith M. Lederer

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