BANGKOK — A survivor of the fatal ferry accident that killed at least 27 passengers posted a video Tuesday afternoon of the moment the vessel foundered and started to sink.
“Sit down, sit down!” two passengers shout after double-decker boat, overloaded with more than 100 Muslim travelers, struck a concrete berm and began listing.
Screams of terror can be heard as some are seeing trying to escape the boat before the clip ends.
BANGKOK — Lured from the water by a delicious fish, the large scaly park resident instead finds a rope over his head. Wrangling him into a position he cannot offer resistance, a group of men approach and tie his jaws and legs before putting him into a sack.
Dozens of water monit
ors, animals called hia that are also a verbal exclamation point, were captured in Lumphini Park on Tuesday and shipped off to spend the rest of their lives in cages.
At least the ones which didn’t run fast enough.
Kicking off a campaign to reduce the population of the landmark park’s most distinctive denizens, City Hall officials said they hoped to catch 40 of the 400 water monitors today because people complained the reptiles scared them. They also said the big lizards have damaged the park grounds due to their weight.
“They don’t hurt people, but they destroy the nature, all the trees and flowers we have grown. Also the lake’s banks have been ruined,” said Suwanna Jungrungruang of Bangkok’s Environmental Department.
The lizards removed from the park will be taken to the Khaozon Wildlife Breeding Center in Ratchaburi province where Suwanna said they will be put in cages “with enough space to live.”
Not all of the large lizards, which are a distinctive feature popular with tourists, will be purged from the capital’s downtown park.
Admitting the presence of the lizards indicate a healthy ecosystem, Suwanna claimed the population has increased through the years, resulting in complaints to City Hall.
“They appear to walk in unsuitable places,” she said.
Thailand’s top wildlife official, Thanya Netithammakun, said Monday that he had informed city officials that water monitors are a protected species that never initiates harm against humans.
Suwanna indicated there was no specific plan and the city was playing it by ear.
After today’s removal effort, she said her department will coordinate with academics and related agencies to devise a plan to limit the lizard’s population.
Asked how many water monitors can be removed without affecting the park ecosystem, Suwanna said it was an excellent question “but we don’t yet have an answer.”
Instead she said the hia reduction was part of City Hall’s ambitious development plan to raise Lumphini Park to “world-class standards’ in time for its centennial in 2025.
The morning chase was disrupted by park enthusiasts who came to protest the policy.
“Hia never hurt people,” said Niphon Boonyapattharo of the We Love Lumphini Park Foundation, adding that he’s cycled in the park for a decade. “They are friends with everyone, from security guards to vendors. City Hall has a lot of other work to do, why are they wasting their time with the hia?”
BANGKOK — A nephew of junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha received nearly 27 million baht in contracts from the army region his father once commanded, an investigative news agency reported Monday.
The revelations by Isra News that the contracts awarded to a firm owned by Pathompol Chan-ocha prompted fresh allegations of nepotism from critics of the junta, while Pathompol’s father, Gen. Preecha Chan-ocha, said there’s nothing wrong with the arrangement.
“I didn’t get involved at all, and I didn’t use any influence. It’s about what my son did. I didn’t get involved,” Preecha told reporters Monday.
Preecha formerly commanded the Third Region Army, which awarded the contracts to his son Pathompol this year and last. At the time they were awarded, he had moved up in the ranks to deputy army chief and later permanent secretary of defense.
He said he wasn’t worried about the disclosure.
“As for Isra News’ publishing the information, I’m not paying attention to it. If they want to reveal any information, they can do it. I’m not concerned,” he said.
Preecha is a younger brother of Prime Minister and junta chairman Prayuth.
According to documents published by Isra News on Monday, Pathompol’s company, called Contemporary Construction, won contracts from the Third Region Army in March 2015 and April 2016 worth a total 26.8 million baht.
For the first, the company took 13.6 million baht to build a meeting hall on an army base in Phetchabun province. The second was to construct family residences for 10 commissioned officers at an army hospital in Tak province, at a budget of 13.2 million baht.
After learning of the news, some critics of the junta faulted it for not taking its own anti-corruption pledge seriously when it came to its own kind.
“I remember that Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha once clearly pledged in his show ‘Returning Happiness to the People’ that he would deal with corrupt people,” former Yellowshirt activist Veera Somkwamkid wrote Monday. “He wouldn’t spare anyone. I urge him to do it. Please deal with your brother.”
Gen. Preecha – who in addition to his Defense Ministry post is also a junta member and lawmaker in its appointed legislature – said his son adhered to the law in securing the army contracts.
“Everything my son did followed every procedure. I didn’t interfere or use my power to force them, like, ‘This is my son, he has to have the project,’” Preecha said.
It was the second controversy to hit Preecha and his family this week, and not the first time he’s been accused of nepotism. Preecha drew ire in April for making another son, Patipat Chan-ocha, an army officer despite his lack of a military background.
In recent days, opponents of the junta on social media have taken jabs at Preecha’s wife Pongpan Chan-ocha being treated like royalty by the army.
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BANGKOK — A centuries-old fairy tale adapted into puppet animation by a legendary Czech filmmaker to oppose Soviet rule will show for free this weekend as part of a Czech animation festival.
Despite praise as the “Walt Disney of Eastern Europe,” Jiri Trnka was more experimental in style and technique, which helped him clinch several international awards during his 20-year film career.
In “The Emperor’s Nightingale,” adapted from Hans Christian Andersen’s story of a Chinese emperor’s taste for mechanical birdsong, Trnka portrays the post-war years of what was then Czechoslovakia under communist rule in an animated masterpiece that would go on to win awards internationally.
It’s among three of Trnka’s works to screen during Czech Animation Weekend, along with the 1962’s “Cybernetic Grandma” and the “Hand” from 1986, a year before Trnka’s death.
The fest will include works by Jan Svankmajer, Bretislav Pojar, Jiri Barta and Karel Zeman.
For more insights into Czech animation history, feel free to join a discussion led by Japanese film scholar Keiko Sei at 1pm on Sept. 24. The discussion will be in English.
The full schedule is online and admission is free.
Enjoy the weekend of Czech animation from 1pm to 7pm on Sept. 24 and 25 at the Reading Room on Soi Silom 19. It can be reached by a 10-minute walk or brief ride from BTS Surasak.
BANGKOK — Four Japanese women in their late 30s confront midlife when one of them reveals she is having an affair and fighting her husband in divorce court.
Watch the quartet of housewives and friends weather midlife crises in a five-hour-plus film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi which has won praise and awards for its four amatueur actors.
“Happy Hours” will show at 2pm on Saturday in the fifth-floor auditorium of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
Tickets are 60 baht and will be available starting at 11am on Saturday. There will be two intermissions and the film will be shown in Japanese with Thai and English subtitles.
BACC is located next to BTS National Stadium.
“Happy Hours” was selected by Pimpaka Towira, director of 2015’s “The Island Funeral,” a drama set among the conflict in deep southern Thailand. She will host a post-film discussion in Thai with an English translator.
The event is a part of an annual program of foreign films selected by Thai directors.
BANGKOK — A journalism nonprofit said Tuesday it is still waiting for responses from the military and national graft agency after it sued for details about the cost of royal monuments built by the army last year.
Months after the army said its own internal investigation found no graft after scandal hit Rajabhakti Park, believed to have cost 1 billion baht, investigative nonprofit ThaiPublica announced Sunday it had sued the army to disclose more information about its spending process.
“We are using the 1997 Official Information Act as our tool,” Executive Editor Boonlarp Poosuwan said. “They had a press conference, yes. But they never exactly answered the questions and never gave the estimated costs we requested.”
Boonlarp was referring to requests for information made 10 months ago she said the army never satisfied. The investigative news site filed suit in the administrative court on Sept. 9 to reveal the the original cost estimates before the project to erect seven king statues went to bid.
Those estimates were cited by another review by the Anti-Corruption Commission, or NACC, which later determined the project was free of corruption. The army told ThaiPublica it did not have them.
Boonlarp said her team also asked the NACC for its results.
Questions about the park’s lavish spending became an embarrassment for the army soon after it opened in November 2015. Excessive costs and allegations of dodgy commissions paid to middlemen were reported. The army, who oversaw its construction, soon ruled its process transparent and free of graft.
Nearly a year later, the NACC weighed in with its unanimous findings earlier this month on Sept. 8, one day before ThaiPublica filed suit.
ThaiPublica said it first requested on Nov. 24 the cost projections for the statues’ construction. Boonlarp said the army flatly refused to provide the information six months later.
After ThaiPublic appealed the decision, a government body responsible for public information requests ruled last month the army must reveal the information to the public. It responded by saying they didn’t exist.
The problem with that, Boonlarp said, is that a source within the NACC said it had received many of the same documents from the army.
“The army said they didn’t have the estimated costs, but the NACC said they did,” she said.
The editor said Tuesday they are still waiting for responses from both agencies. She believes disclosure of the spending process would help determine whether any corruption occurred.
Whatever happens, Boonlarp said they didn’t expect the disclosure to lead any further formal review or legal process, but that wasn’t ThaiPublica’s purpose.
“We just want the truth to come out,” she said.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story said Boonlarp believed the 14-meter statues were the most expensive cost of the project. After publication she called to say she did not recall making that statement and was not sure it was accurate.
BANGKOK — Silpakorn University announced it would investigate students who recently dressed as German Nazis and Chinese Red Guards and apologized for the incident.
University Rector Chaicharn Thavaravej announced late Monday night that the university had sent an apology to the Israeli Embassy after students in Silpakorn’s Faculty of Decorative Arts dressed in Nazi costumes for activities to welcome freshmen.
“Silpakorn University regrets what this group of shameless and irresponsible students did,” he announced via Facebook alongside a link to Monday’s story by Khaosod English. “A committee will be appointed to review what happened, and people involved will all be disciplined.”
It also said the university’s deputy rectors as well as the dean of the faculty would meet with representatives from the Israeli Embassy today.
To prevent similar incidents in the future, the university said it would raise the topic at an administrative meeting and plan an exhibition to further educate students and the public about genocide and world history.
Writing by email, Israeli Ambassador Simon Roded said it was important to note the university took action to “rectify the absence of teaching about the horrors of the Holocaust, by organizing events to raise the awareness of their students.
He said the embassy he leads would collaborate “in any possible way.”
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Thai University Students Cosplay as Red Guards and Nazis, Again (Photos)
Director Defends ‘Hitler Scene’ in Thai Junta Film
University ‘Hitler Mural’ Leads To Flurry Of Apologies – And Gag Order
AYUTTHAYA — The skipper of a ferry which sank in the Chao Phraya River was charged with four crimes including fatal recklessness Monday as the death toll from the accident rose to 27 today.
Six more bodies were recovered Tuesday morning from the Chao Phraya River in Ayutthaya province about five kilometers away from the where the accident occurred at Wat Sanamchai. Two passengers remain missing from Sunday’s accident.
Read: Death Toll in River Ferry Accident Rises to 18, Search Goes On
Boat operator Wirat Chaisirikul was charged with recklessness resulting in death and injury, operating the vessel without a valid license and overloading it with too many passengers, officials said.
Wirat was arrested Monday and remains in custody, according to Col. Surapong Thampitak of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya police.
The boat on Sunday was carrying more than 100 Muslims heading to Ayutthaya from a mosque in Nonthaburi province. A video clip of the accident shows the two-level ferry founder after crashing into a concrete berm.
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Death Toll in River Ferry Accident Rises to 18, Search Goes On
BANGKOK — Migrant rights activist Andy Hall was found guilty Tuesday of defaming a fruit company in a 2013 report for a Finnish NGO on abuse of its workers.
In a ruling that Human Rights Watch said would have a chilling effect on other whistleblowers and activists, the court found Hall guilty of criminal defamation and violating the Computer Crime Act for the report he researched for Finnwatch group.
Hall, who had won two previous court battles over the same offense in 2014 and 2015, was also ordered to publish an apology to Nature Fruit Ltd. in local newspapers and news outlets for up to 30 days. He was given a nominal sentence of four years in prison, but the sentence was suspended so he will not serve jail time.
Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch said the verdict confirmed the fears of many that they could face jail time for speaking out against abuses.
“The consequence is this: Even before today’s ruling, there was already a choking effect and climate of fear,” Sunai said Tuesday. “Today’s verdict affirms that fear.”
Natural Fruit filed charges against Hall for Finnwatch’s 2013 report “Cheap Has a High Price,” in which Hall reported the company’s pineapple plant abused the rights of its migrant workers. The company denied the allegation.
Two lawsuits filed by Natural Fruit against Hall were previously dismissed in 2014 and 2015.
”We are shocked by today’s verdict. The report was authored and published by Finnwatch; we take full responsibility for it. Andy has been made a scapegoat in order to stifle other voices that speak out legitimately in support of migrant worker rights,” said Sonja Vartiala, Executive Director of Finnwatch, in an online statement.
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BANDARDUBI, India — Two people were killed and several others were injured Monday as police tried to stop protests against the demolition of homes near an Indian rhino sanctuary, police said.
Authorities had ordered the demolition of around 300 houses in three villages to evict people living on the periphery of Kaziranga National Park in northeastern India to stop rampant poaching of the rare rhinos, said Mukesh Aggarwal, a top police official.
The villagers pelted the police with stones, injuring around 10 policemen, and security forces responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesting villagers, said Mukesh Sahay, police chief in Assam state. Two people were killed in the skirmish that followed, Sahay said.
The bodies of two protesters have been sent for an autopsy, police said.
Around 40 people who were injured in the clashes were in hospitals, he said.
Park and district authorities used bulldozers and domesticated elephants, guided by mahouts, to pull down the thatched houses.
Community leaders and conservation groups have long demanded that the boundary areas of the park be cleared of human habitation. Local residents say many of the villagers have illegally settled in the area. Some of the settlers face charges of aiding and abetting poachers to kill rhinos inside Kaziranga.
“Fourteen rhinos were killed by poachers in Kaziranga this year. Last year, 17 rhinos were victims of poaching,” said Subhasis Das, a forest official at the Park, which has the largest number of rhinos in the world.
All five of the world’s rhino species are under constant threat from poachers seeking their horns to sell on the black market. Demand is high in countries such as China and Vietnam, where people mistakenly believe consuming rhino horns can increase male potency.
Kaziranga is hailed by wildlife activists as a conservation success. The reserve had 75 rhinos in 1905. In 1966, the number of rhinos in Kaziranga was put at 366. According to a 2015 estimate, the number has risen to 2,401.
Story: Anupam Nath
