Foreigners Seek Bail After Warrantless Raid on Overstay

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31 October 2016, 17:11

The Overstay in a 2011 photo. Photo: The Overstay / Facebook

BANGKOK — At least six foreigners were seeking bail Monday after spending the weekend behind bars following a raid on a Bangkok guesthouse and music venue.

Yuval Schwok, owner of The Overstay, faced a serious charge of possessing drugs with intent to sell along with lesser charges relating to operation of the Bang Phlat guest house, the commander of Bowonmongkol police said Monday.

“He was also still fighting a previous charge of operating a hotel without permission we filed long ago,” said Col. Wiradol Tubtimdee said, saying Schwok failed to properly register foreign guests as required under immigration law.

Six people were charged after testing positive for marijuana in the raid carried out at dawn on Friday. One person refused to be tested and was charged with refusing to comply with a lawful order, he said.

Someone writing on Schwok’s Facebook claimed Sunday that one of the six, a German man, was already released after paying a 4,500 baht fine.

The rest were still in custody and were trying to seek bail Monday. Wiradol said he was unaware of the court’s decision.

The Israeli embassy said it was aware of the case.

“We are aware of the case and we are handling it under standard consular procedure,” Israeli Ambassador Simon Roded said Monday.

In a public message posted Saturday, an associate of Schwok’s dismissed reports there was a party going on at the time of the raid. In the message, Gili Back complained no warrant was presented during the raid carried out by military, police and other officers.

Police said it was legal under a junta order earlier this year granting warrantless search and seizure powers to soldiers without any judicial review if they suspect any criminal activity.

The order issued in March was heavily criticized as ripe for potential rights abuses, as it gave sweeping police powers to soldiers without review.

It also authorized detaining anyone for interrogation if they suspected any link to crimes involving drugs, gambling or weapons.

Read: Junta Grants Police Powers to Military

Back was unable to comment further Monday.

But Schwok wrote Saturday morning that police charged him with dealing drugs based on his possession of 20 grams of marijuana. He also expected to be granted release that day.

“The result is quite sad they found 20 grams of herbs under my cupboard and try to put me down for dealing … I’m about to go to court to be released on bail,” he wrote.

overstay.arrest — Police said they found a quantity of weed in the Friday morning raid of The Overstay in Bangkok

The Head of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau said Monday the raid at the The Overstay was conducted in response to complaints from neighbors. He insisted the charges against Schwok were reasonable, as officers found a scale in his possession, signifying intent to sell.

Back wrote that the scale was used in his kitchen for producing craft beer.

“If they are so suspicious of the case, I can try to press for their deportation,” police Maj. Gen Sommai Kongwithaisook said Monday. “If they want to play with us, we play back harder. We are not going to tolerate drug-dealing expats.”

Schwok denies selling drugs.

Friday’s operation was led by the military with four other agencies: the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, Immigration Office, Tourist Police and local police.

Wiradol said the raid with 100 officers fully armed along with police dogs may have scared the foreigners was necessary for the sake of national security and suspects themselves.

“Foreigners are the target as both the perpetrators and the victims. We were trying to explain to them the current circumstances in the country when we conducted the raid,” he said.“But sometimes they don’t completely understand due to the language.”

He said stricter measures have been put in place in response to the recent threat of car bomb attacks in the capital.

The head anti-narcotics officer said they are going after every place where they suspect drugs are used or traded.

“If they want to live in Thailand happily, don’t sell drugs,” Sommai said. “I once said it that I will make drug dealers poorer than even beggars.”

Reports Emerge of Army Attacks on Myanmar’s Rohingya

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Associated Press

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31 October 2016, 15:16

Migrants including Myanmar Rohingya Muslims sit on the deck of their boat as they wait to be rescued by Acehnese fishermen on May 20, 2015, on the sea off East Aceh, Indonesia. Photo: S. Yulinnas / Associated Press

YANGON — Just five months after her party took power, Myanmar’s Nobel Prize-winning leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is facing international pressure after recent reports that soldiers have been killing, raping and burning homes of the country’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims.

The U.S. State Department joined activist and aid groups raising concerns about new reports of rape and murder, while satellite imagery released Monday by Human Rights Watch shows that at least three villages in the western state of Rakhine have been burned.

Myanmar government officials deny reports of attacks, and presidential spokesman Zaw Htay said Monday that United Nations representatives should visit “and see the actual situation in that region.” The government has long made access to the region a challenge, generally banning foreign aid workers and journalists.

But the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said serious violations, including torture, summary executions, arbitrary arrests and destruction of mosques and homes, threaten the country’s fledgling democracy.

“The big picture is that the government does not seem to have any influence over the military,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group that focuses on the Rohingya. Myanmar’s widely criticized constitution was designed to give the armed forces power and independence.

A three-week surge in violence by the military was prompted by the killings of nine police officers at border posts on Oct. 9 in Rakhine, home to Myanmar’s 800,000 Rohingya. There have been no arrests, and a formerly unknown Islamist militant group has taken responsibility.

Although they’ve lived in Myanmar for generations, Rohingya are barred from citizenship in the nation of 50 million, and instead live as some of the most oppressed people in the world. Since communal violence broke out in 2012, more than 100,000 people have been driven from their homes to live in squalid camps guarded by the police. Some have tried to flee by boat, but many ended up becoming victims of human trafficking or were held for ransom.

When Suu Kyi’s party was elected earlier this year after more than five decades of military rule, the political shift offered a short, tense window of peace. But that quickly ended as the former political prisoner and champion of human rights failed to clamp down on military atrocities.

The current crackdown has prompted an estimated 15,000 people in the Rakhine area to flee their homes in the past few weeks. Satellite images from Human Rights Watch show villages burning, and locals report food supplies are growing scarce as they are living under siege.

U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel has told Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry to follow the rule of law, investigate allegations of attacks and “take whatever actions against the perpetrators are warranted,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.

Families in Rakhine depend largely on humanitarian aid for food and health care, but that support has been cut off for weeks by officials who will not allow outsiders into the region. A government-sponsored delegation of aid agencies and foreign diplomats was supposed to visit the region on Monday, but local officials said they hadn’t seen anyone yet, nor had they been informed they were coming.

“The government should end its blanket denial of wrongdoing and blocking of aid agencies, and stop making excuses for keeping international monitors from the area,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Royal Medal for Crown Prince’s Bodyguard

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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31 October 2016, 14:52

Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn presides over the funeral of His Majesty the Late King Bhumibol on Oct. 24 at the Grand Palace.

BANGKOK — The government announced Sunday that Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn has granted a royal decoration to one of the officers in his royal guard unit.

Suthida Vajiralongkorn na Ayudhya received the Rattanabhorn Medal on Sept. 4, but the news was only made public on Sunday via the the Royal Gazette website, which publishes government and royal announcements.

Suthida has been serving in the Ratchawanlop Guards, a unit of bodyguards protecting the Crown Prince, since 2013. She was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in August 2015.

The Royal Gazette also reported that prince Vajiralongkorn has awarded the decorations of the Knight Grand Cross to 16 other officers serving in the guard corps.

Note: The content of this article has been been self-censored out of fear of prosecution under the lese majeste law. We regret the necessity.

Pattaya Policeman Denies Raping, Extorting Bar Worker

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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31 October 2016, 14:31

Pattaya City Police Station in an undated file photo.

PATTAYA — A policeman accused of ordering the extortion and rape of a bar worker in the resort town of Pattaya earlier this month said he had nothing to do with the crime, police said Monday.

Sgt. Maj. Kittikhun Fonrueng surrendered to police on Wednesday, seven days after the victim was allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted by his two underlings. Kittikhun, who’s been expelled from the force, isn’t facing any legal repercussions for defying the arrest warrant and is now free again on bail, according to an investigator.

Read: Pattaya Cop Remains Free Week After Alleged Rape

“He said he would contest his case in court,” Col. Chatchapol Pattarasiriporn said.

He added that the police’s decision to grant bail for the suspect is reasonable.

“I don’t think he would dare interfere with the victim,” Chatchapol said. “He’s just a low-ranking cop.”

The victim said Kittikhun ordered two police volunteers to kidnap her and demand she pay 20,000 baht in ransom money. According to the victim, Kittikhun’s two underlings sexually assaulted her when she told them she had no money, and released her from detention a day later.

Kittikhun denied the allegations.

According to Chatchapol, the suspect said he stopped the victim and searched her for drugs, then told his subordinates to escort her to Pattaya City Police Station for a narcotics test. He said they took her to the hotel without Kittikhun’s knowledge.

Although arrest warrants for the suspects were issued on Oct. 22, Kittikhun didn’t turn himself in for four days.

Only one of the alleged accomplices has been identified by name: Pana Mekkhla, 26. Police have yet to learn the other’s identity, Chatchapol said. Both Pana and his unnamed partner in crime were on the run, he added.

Kittikhun has been charged with extortion and illegal detention. Per police regulations, he was fired from the force when his criminal case moved forward, Col. Chatchapol said.

Neither Heaven Nor Hell Keeps Farang From His Barbecue Pork

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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31 October 2016, 14:08

PATTAYA — Barbecue pork is best eaten hot. No one seems to understand this better than a foreign man who refused to let his hunger be interrupted by torrential rain Sunday night in Pattaya.

According to the story which went viral overnight, a couple was served at a barbecue buffet restaurant at about 8:30pm just before the sky opened up with a downpour. While other customers ran indoors, the unidentified man refused to budge. Not even his girlfriend could get him to leave the table, according to Padermchok Wongsiriyanon, son of the restaurant’s owner.

“It’s so tasty he didn’t want to move,” Padermchok wrote with a photo posted online.

He sat. He ate. It rained. He ate some more.

Someone eventually brought him an umbrella to enjoy the meal to the last bite.

Impressed with his customer’s indifference to the rain, Padermchok gave him another set of barbecue pork out of respect for his fortitude.

Cut Into Pieces: The Haunting of Wat Samian Nari

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Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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31 October 2016, 12:55

BANGKOK — Sutthipong “Noom” Eiamsa-ard was driving back to his apartment in Lat Phrao at 3am after a night partying on RCA. Along the way, two good-looking women dressed in black flagged him down for a ride.

Being a red-blooded guy heading home alone, Noom picked them up. They wanted to go to Wat Samian Nari, a temple in the capital’s Chatuchak district. One sat in the passenger seat; the other in the back. They barely spoke, giving only terse replies to Noom’s attempts to chat them up.

They looked sad, so Noom gave up asking for their numbers. He thought the pretty girls must have had a terrible day. Given their black clothing, he assumed they were going to grieve for a relative at the temple.

It’s what happened next, as later described by Noom on a paranormal radio program, that vaulted the story into the imaginations and created yet another ghost story for people to share and shudder over in a city with possibly the most hauntings per capita.

As Noom told Shock FM nearly 15 years ago, he was pulling up to Wat Samian Nari when he turned to ask where they wanted him to park. But they were gone.

Shocked, confused, and in disbelief, Noom looked around for the girls. That’s when he saw them about 10 meters away, crawling on the train tracks that ran past the temple. Well, not all of them – only their top halves, pulling their torsos along the tracks, their entrails dragging behind.

Noom passed out. Next thing he knew, he was waking up at Kasemrad Hospital. His parents said he’d been found unconscious. No one believed his story, including the doctor, who said he must have been drunk.

Afterward, Noom said he developed heart trouble and never returned to the area.

His story, told to Shock FM host Kaphol “DJ Pong” Thongplub, is one of many repeated time and again in the many media channels which comprise a thriving industry serving an insatiable appetite every day — not just Halloween.

On programs such as Workpoint Entertainment’s Man vs. Ghost, people call in with their own paranormal encounters, often involving contact with loved ones from beyond the grave.

Like other stories, Noom’s soon spread and became popular. It struck a chord with taxi drivers, and soon the original tale spawned copycats with similar tales of black-clad hotties haunting the same spot.

Taxi driver Jirawat Puengsang described a near-death experience after picking up two women at about 3am from the Rama IX Road. Both wore black, Jirawat said. He even described their outfits in some detail: one wore a spaghetti-strap dress and the other a scoop-neck T-shirt. Their destination? Wat Samian Nari.

Sutthipong ‘Noom’ Eiamsa-ard on Channel 7’s Horror Hour in 2004

As with Noom, Jirawat noticed his customers weren’t in a talkative mood. He parked outside the temple grounds and waited for his fare – but no banknotes were handed to him. Jirawat turned around. He saw no one.

Terrified and trembling, he put the key into the ignition, hit the gas pedal and sped away. As he passed over the rail crossing, his taxi stalled out on the tracks.

And there were the women, blood pouring from their foreheads and running down their faces. Jirawat tried in vain to start the engine. He couldn’t get out of the car either.

Smash! Something hit the taxi’s roof. Jirawat panicked, thinking the railroad crossing gate had come down and he would also suffer death by train. He hit the ignition one more time. It worked. He sped away. He didn’t look back.

Jirawat quit his job as a cab driver. He also never drove a car for years to come.

He chose Channel 7’s Horror Hour to tell his story, a few years after Noom gave birth to the story. He told the hosts he quit his job as a taxi driver and couldn’t bring himself to drive a car afterward.

The Power of Story

To one connoisseur of creepy chronicles, the story is a no-brainer.

“It couldn’t just be mass hysteria. There are many witnesses and everything goes together,” said Natthapan Boonlert, co-founder of online ghost story community Horror Club. “The story is very popular, and it’s become a Thai urban legend.”

With the proliferation of the internet and blogs, a new platform has since emerged for breathless discussion of ghost stories.

There, people poring over such stories claimed to solve the mystery of the temple’s haunted hitchhikers.

The consensus of the many ghost blogs out there say that back in the 1990s, two sisters were killed while riding a motorbike to their mother’s funeral there. A train hit them, cutting their bodies in half. Some even claim Khaosod newspaper ran a front-page story headlined “Horrible Death, Cut in Half!” with the two sisters’ names – Chulee Thipsuksri and Sulee Thipsuksri. (No such story could be found in Khaosod’s archive, which goes back to 1997.)

Sketches of two women hitchhikers as described by witnesses on a 2004 episode of Channel 7’s ‘Horror Hour.’

Thailand’s Wonderful Ghost Movie Posters (Gallery)

No Charges Over Fallen Crane at BTS Phra Khanong

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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31 October 2016, 12:41

Workers remove a fallen crane from across the sidewalk at BTS Phra Khanong on Sukhumvit Road on Sunday in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Police said Monday no one will face criminal charges over a giant crane which crashed down onto the footpath and exit No. 4 of BTS Phra Khanong.

Because no one was hurt in the incident, the matter will be settled privately between the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, or BMA, and the firm that managed the construction site, Piyawit Thongdech said, an officer at Klong Tan Police Station.

Read: Crane Topples Onto Sidewalk at BTS Phra Khanong

“There’s no wrongdoing under criminal law,” Lt. Piyawit said by telephone. “This is a civil case between the BMA and the company.”

The city government can seek compensation from United Construction Material Ltd., which oversaw the crane operation at the time, Piyawit said.

At about 11am Sunday, the crane at the site of a new community mall called Boutique fell onto the public street which would have been crowded during weekday rush hours. No one was injured in the accident.

Khlong Toei district officials and United Construction Material Ltd said they were unavailable for comment Monday.

According to Lt. Piyawit, the fall appeared to have been caused by heavy rain, which softened the ground at the construction site.

Cargo Plane Disappears With 4 On Board in Indonesia

By

Associated Press

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31 October 2016, 11:57

A Turbo Caribou model of the Royal Australian Air Force, similar to the one that disappeared Sunday in Indonesia, is seen taxiing in 2009. Photo: Bidgee / Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA — An official says a cargo plane carrying four people has been reported missing in Indonesia’s eastern most province of Papua.

Indonesia’s search and rescue agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo says the Turbo Caribou aircraft lost contact late Sunday on a flight from the town of Timika to the remote district of Ilaga. He says no signals have been detected from the plane’s emergency transmitters.

A rescue team has been sent to search for the plane, which was carrying two pilots and two passengers with goods, including construction materials.

Soelistyo said bad weather and dense jungle were hampering the search efforts by a rescue plane on Monday.

Air travel is an important means of transportation in the jungle-clad mountains of Papua, the country’s most remote region geographically and politically.

1st Zika-Linked Microcephaly Case Reported in Vietnam

By

Associated Press

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31 October 2016, 11:34

In this Monday, May 23, 2016 photo, Aedes aegypti mosquitos sit inside a glass tube at the Fiocruz institute where they have been screening for mosquitos naturally infected with the Zika virus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: Felipe Dana

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has reported its first case of microcephaly likely linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

The 4-month-old girl with an abnormally small head was born in central Vietnam to a mother confirmed to have had the virus when she was pregnant.

The Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine said on its website Sunday that the case had a “high probability of being linked to Zika virus and also the first in Vietnam.”

If confirmed, Vietnam would be the second country in Southeast Asia after Thailand to have microcephaly case linked to Zika.

The virus generally causes a mild flu-like illness, but a major outbreak in Brazil last year revealed that it can result in severe birth defects when pregnant women are infected.

The statement warned women who are pregnant or planning pregnancies to use precautions such as mosquito nets and mosquito cream and to seek timely medical treatment if they develop a fever or rash.

Powder Sprinkled Into Opera Pit May Have Been Human Ashes

By

Associated Press

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31 October 2016, 10:37

Police respond to New York's Metropolitan Opera which halted a performance after someone sprinkled an unknown powder into the orchestra pit, Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. Photo: Dylan Hayden (AP)

NEW YORK — A powdery substance a man sprinkled into the orchestra pit at New York’s Metropolitan Opera may have been an opera lover’s ashes, police say.

The freakish incident during a Saturday afternoon performance of Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell” forced Met officials to cancel the rest of the show as well as an evening performance of a second opera.

John Miller, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner in charge of intelligence and counterterrorism, said several audience members said a man told them he was there to sprinkle the ashes of a friend, his mentor in the opera.

Miller said the man was in front of the first row of seats when he sprinkled the powder into the orchestra pit during the second intermission when most of the musicians were not present.

He said the powder will be tested, but the possibility that it was in fact human ashes “is certainly an area that we are pursuing.”

Police know who the man is and are reaching out to him, Miller said, adding that the man does not live in New York.

Miller said the disposal of ashes at an opera house may violate city codes but, “I don’t believe at this point that we see any criminal intent here.”

Met General Manager Peter Gelb said, “We appreciate opera lovers coming to the Met. We hope that they will not bring their ashes with them.”

Police initially said one person at the opera house requested medical attention. Miller said no one was injured.

The Met canceled Saturday night’s performance of “L’Italiana in Algeri,” another Rossini opera, because of the investigation.

Audience members at “Guillaume Tell” described confusion as the intermission went on longer than usual.

A Met representative at first announced that a technical issue was causing the delay, then returned a few minutes later to announce that the fourth act would not be performed. The audience was told to go home.

“Everybody kind of slowly walked out,” said Dylan Hayden of Toronto. “As we were exiting the building, I noticed the counterterrorism unit going into the building.”

Hayden, who was seated in the 11th row back, added, “The idea that they said that it was a technical error, when I was maybe 15 feet away from a potential dangerous substance, that kind of irks me a little bit. But at no point did I feel an actual threat.”

Micaela Baranello, a musicologist at Smith College in Massachusetts, said some audience members booed when the cancellation was announced and one man chanted, “I want my money back, I want my money back.”

Gelb said people who had Saturday tickets to either opera should call the Met and make arrangements to see a later performance.

Baranello, who spoke by phone from a train headed back to Massachusetts, said that’s not so easy for opera fans who don’t live in New York. “It’s too bad because most of the best music in ‘Guillaume Tell’ is in Act 4, in my opinion,” she said.

“Guillaume Tell,” Rossini’s opera about folk hero William Tell, had not been performed at the Met in more than 80 years before this season. The opera’s overture is known to many Americans as the theme music to the 1950s TV show “The Lone Ranger.”

Story: Karen Matthews and Julie Walker

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