Top: Officials on Friday honor King Rama X at the Royal Plaza in Bangkok. Story: Mourning and Ceremony Mark Birthday of King Rama X, Thailand Observes Birthday of King Vajiralongkorn (Photos)
From royal birthday well-wishers and black-garbed, junta-appointed reformers to the flooded latitudes of the north, people around the kingdom captured the week’s capture-worthy moments. Find more on our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
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BANGKOK — A somber mood overshadowed the first celebration of King Vajiralongkorn’s birthday as the monarch of the realm as Thais continue to mourn his father, King Bhumibol.
Contrary to the air of pomp and bright colors that marked the late king’s birthday – an important public holiday for the past six decades – state events held for King Vajiralongkorn’s 65th birthday Friday mostly involved religious rituals and pledges of fealty to the crown.
Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to praise His Majesty the King for his dedication to public service in his weekly speech to air tonight.
“As the head of state, His Majesty has conducted royal missions in the footsteps of his father. His heart is full of compassion,” Gen. Prayuth is slated to say in the speech, a script of which was released to the media on Friday afternoon.
It’s the first time Thailand is celebrating the birthday of its new king, who ascended the throne after the death of his father in October. King Bhumibol died at 88 after ruling the country for more than 60 years.
Friday morning, a public holiday, saw state agencies in each province hold merit making ceremonies in honor of both monarchs. In Bangkok, Prayuth attended the rituals along with other government officials.
At the Sanam Luang, the military fired 21 artillery rounds in salute near the site of a pyre being raised to cremate King Bhumibol in October.
Unlike royal birthday celebrations in previous years, there are no fireworks or military parades planned this year and no lighting decoration along major streets and intersections.
The government earlier this week urged participants of events honoring King Vajiralongkorn to dress in black or polite colors.
King Vajiralongkorn was born June 28, 1952. He’s the first son and second child of King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit. He has four siblings: princesses Ubol Ratana, Sirindhorn and Chulabhorn.
He was appointed crown prince in 1972, a title he held for the following 44 years. After a month of interregnum, he ascended to the throne in December 2016. However, His Majesty’s formal coronation ceremony is expected to take place after the cremation of King Bhumibol.
BANGKOK — Friday marks the 65th birthday of King Vajiralongkorn. State agencies around the country held events in honor of His Majesty the King.
LAMPANG — An accident involving an 18-wheeler truck and a car prompted police in Lampang province to disband one of their traffic checkpoints.
Witnesses said the crash on Monday took place because the truck could not make a stop in time for the checkpoint, located on the downhill slope of the road that runs between Lampang and Prae. A local police chief said Friday they were considering a safer location for the checkpoint.
“Our commander has ordered us to remove the checkpoint for now,” Krissada Pancharoen, head of Lampang City Police Station, said by phone. “We are to look for a safer location.”
The truck, which was reportedly carrying 48 tonnes of building material, slammed into the back of a fortuner on Monday at the checkpoint. An onlooker filmed the aftermath of the crash and posted the video on social media to criticize the police.
“The driver couldn’t brake in time,” the unnamed man said in the video. “Who’s going to be responsible?”
Col. Krissada said the truck’s insurance had agreed to compensate the Fortuner driver.
He also maintained that the officers manning the checkpoint did nothing wrong, and blamed the truck driver for speeding.
“The checkpoint was set up in accordance with the laws,” Krissada said. “[The driver] was driving at a speed that exceeds the legal limit. There were speed limit signs there, and there was a sign that a checkpoint was ahead.”
Krissada added that officers responsible for the checkpoint will not face any legal action.
Police routinely set up road checkpoints nationwide to fine motorists who violate traffic laws.
But some of these checkpoints have come under criticism for allegedly being organized without regard to road safety. In one viral video from 2016, a driver almost hit a police officer who attempted to stop oncoming vehicles without any warning sign.
JAKARTA — A conservation group says nearly a fifth of the forest in an orangutan sanctuary on the Indonesian part of Borneo has been taken over by people, threatening efforts to rehabilitate the critically endangered great apes for release into the wild.
People thought to have migrated from other parts of Indonesia have occupied part of the sanctuary, cut down trees and planted crops including palm oil, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation spokesman Nico Hermanu said Thursday.
The human activities are near a “forest school” where more than 20 orangutans live semi-independently and learn how to find food, build nests and other skills they need for survival – a crucial part of their rehabilitation from trauma often inflicted by people, who take babies for pets or kill the animals for wandering into plantations.
The foundation bought the land for the 1,850-hectare (4,571-acre) sanctuary from locals over several years and restored its forest. The facility now cares for 170 orangutans overall.
Hermanu said the foundation told the residents they were encroaching on the Samboja Lestari sanctuary, “but their activities keep continuing.”
Local police have refused to prosecute and recommended talks instead “which won’t solve anything,” he said. The foundation is now seeking the help of the local government in East Kalimantan province to ensure its rights over the land.
Nearly 340 hectares (840 acres) of the sanctuary have been encroached, and Hermanu said some of it may have stemmed from dry season fires in 2015 when part of Samboja Lestari burned. Plantation companies and villagers often deliberately set the fires to clear land for planting.
The number of orangutans in Borneo and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, recognized as separate species and both classified as critically endangered, has fallen precipitously since the 1970s.
The orangutans are protected species in Indonesia and Malaysia but deforestation has dramatically shrunk its habitat, with about 40 percent of Borneo’s forests lost since the early 1970s and another huge swath of forest expected to be converted to plantation agriculture in the next decade.
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, one of several groups focused on orangutan conservation, also has 60-year concession rights to about 86,000 hectares (212,000 acres) of forest in Borneo that it bought from the government in 2011 for 12.9 billion Indonesian rupiah (USD $1.5 million at the time). About a quarter of it is suitable habitat for releasing orangutans after their years-long rehabilitation.
BANGKOK — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday wrote a well-wishing statement to His Majesty the King Vajiralongkorn to mark the occasion of the monarch’s 65th birthday.
“On behalf of the American people, Melania and I send you our warm greetings on the occasion of your 65th birthday,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on the Facebook page of the US Embassy in Bangkok early this morning.
The letter reiterates the long-standing relations between both nations, dating back to the reign of King Rama II in the 19th century.
“The friendship between the United States and Thailand spans almost 200 years, dating back to the early days of the Chakri Dynasty when King Rama II first wrote to President James Monroe. The United States deeply values our enduring alliance and friendship with Thailand,” the letter read.
“We look forward to building on our successful partnership to enhance our collective security, deepen ties between our peoples, and promote increased trade and investment between our two great nations,” Trump’s letter continued, before ending with his best wishes for King Rama X and the royal family.
SHAH ALAM, Malaysia — A Malaysian judge set an Oct. 2 trial date Friday for two women accused of murdering the North Korean leader’s half brother.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. He died about 20 minutes later.
The women, who face a possible death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera TV show.
Judge Azmi Ariffin estimated the trial will last for two months.
The women appeared in court wearing traditional Malay dresses, smiling at their lawyers and embassy officials. They were handcuffed as they were led to the dock.
But after the judge left the room, Aisyah was in tears as her lawyer debriefed her.
The two women are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea’s spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Malaysian police have said four North Korean suspects fled the country the same day Kim Jong Nam was killed.
North Korea has a history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his status as eldest son in the current generation of North Korea’s founding family could have made him appear to be a danger to his half brother’s rule.
Pyongyang has denied any role in the killing and has not even acknowledged that the dead man was Kim Jong Nam.
Story: Eileen Ng
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea’s ruler in a bizarre airport assassination are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said.
Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam’s face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.
They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea’s spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.
The women’s lawyers say their clients are expected to plead not guilty at the High Court Friday.
Here’s a look at the significance of Kim’s death and the two suspects:
WHY WAS KIM JONG NAM ASSASSINATED
North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger. Kim had also spoken out publicly against his family’s dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation.
North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other “hostile forces” in blaming Pyongyang.
Kim Jong Nam died while en route to a hospital after he fell ill at a budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a flight to Macao. He told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray that Malaysian officials later identified as the deadly VX nerve agent.
Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
INDONESIAN SUSPECT
Siti Aisyah, 25, was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows, according to her lawyer Gooi Soon Seong.
The two met at a pub in downtown Kuala Lumpur and over the course of several days, James had Siti rub oil or pepper sauce on a victim’s face from forehead downwards which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said. They practiced at malls, hotels and airports. Gooi said Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort.
In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia where James introduced her to Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing. Hong had introduced himself as Chang, a Chinese who produces video prank shows for the Chinese market, the lawyer said.
Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked. He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand.
James, identified by police as Ri Ji U, was among seven North Korean suspects wanted by Malaysian police. Four fled the country on Feb. 13 and the other three, including James, hid inside their country’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid questioning.
The three were later allowed to fly home in exchange for nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang, as part of a deal to ease a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Gooi said James was key to Aisyah’s defense and that his absence could weaken her case.
Aisyah, who has a son, has wrote to her family telling them to pray for her “so that the case will be over soon and I can go back home.”
VIETNAMESE SUSPECT
Huong, 29, was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters “LOL” — acronym for laughing out loud.
Security camera apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal.
Little is known about Huong. Raised in a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago, aged just 18 years.
She made postings on a Facebook page under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, Dinh Thi Quyen.
Photos on the page show Huong wearing a white shirt that appears to say “LOL,” like the one seen on security camera video during the attack. It shows her posing for selfies in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the attack and in January in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Her last post was on the morning of Feb. 11, two days before the attack, from an area near the airport.
“I want to sleep more but by your side,” she wrote above a photo showing her with her eyes closed.
Story: Eileen Ng
SUPHANBURI — Bommin Natthongin recalled Thursday that when he arrived on the scene to find more than 80 pigs drowned and dozens more struggling for air, it reminded him of a slaughterhouse.
He was among rescue workers to rush to the scene Wednesday where a truck carrying 100 pigs had run off the road and into a khlong, causing 82 of them to drown in the central province’s Don Chedi district. The driver, who sustained an injury, said the steering wheel became stuck.
“They were crying out like they do when they’re killed at the slaughterhouse,” Bommin, of the Suphanburi Rescue Foundation, recalled Thursday.
A crane was used to tow out the truck. Bommin estimates the worth of the dead pigs to be in the hundreds thousands of baht.
CHAIYAPHUM — A land-rights activist believed to have been forcibly disappeared over a year ago and the wife who has campaigned to learn what happened to him were both sentenced by the Supreme Court on Thursday to six months in jail.
The court upheld a lower-court decision to sentence Suphab Khamlae, 67, and her husband Den Khamlae, who has been missing since April 2016, for trespassing on protected land six years ago.
Suphab, who has campaigned about forced disappearances since Den’s disappearance, will immediately go to prison.
“We are all now giving her support,” said Thanomsak Rawadchai, her lawyer. “She will be sent to the Phu Khiao Prison in Chaiyaphum province this evening.”
Den became a prominent activist in 1985 after his Chaiyaphum farmland was taken by the government. They were promised land to use elsewhere, but Den and his neighbors later found the area designated for them was already occupied.
Since that time, Den led the local residents via the Essan Land Reform Network to fight their eviction and regain the land.
In 2011, Den and Suphab were charged with trespassing in the contested forest for working some land there, despite a 2010 cabinet resolution that gave them permission. The court ruled that resolution was not legally binding, according to Thanomsak.
The issue became more contentious under the military government, which made reclaiming public spaces a core policy. In 2014, authorities ordered Den and his neighbors to leave.
On April 16, 2016, Den, then 65, went out in the jungle to look for bamboo shoots and never came back.
Suphab has campaigned to call attention to his disappearance ever since. She believes evidence in the case proves her husband was murdered.
In March, evidence including a human skull was found that might have been linked to Den’s disappearance. Thanomsak, the lawyer, said the Central Institute of Forensic Science would not confirm the skull came from Den, saying only that it belonged to someone related to his sister.
In the court’s reasoning, Den could be convicted until it could be proven he was dead, Thanomsak said.
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