Afghan police soldiers inspect the site of a suicide attack in Kabul earlier on June 20. At least a dozen Nepalese security guards of a foreign logistic company were killed. Photo: Rahmat Gul / Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying trainee policemen, killing 30 on Thursday about 20 kilometers west of Kabul, according to Afghan officials.
The police trainees were returning from a training center in Wardak province and were heading to the capital on leave, according to Mousa Rahmati, district governor of Paghman province.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent to The Associated Press by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry confirmed the location of the attack and said a loud explosion had been reported, but he did not have any further details on the incident.
Toy protest in front of Bangkok Remand Prison today.
BANGKOK — Ironman, Pikachu, The Little Prince and Puss in the Boots were out in force again for a second day today, holding placards urging the public to reject the junta’s constitution draft when it’s put to a vote in August.
As they gathered (set up, actually) Thursday in front of the Bangkok Remand Prison, they were challenged by a counterprotest staged by the likes of stegosaurus, raptor and triceratops.
Why the need for action figures to hit the streets in an act of civil disobedience? Because inside the prison were seven activists locked up for trying to do so under a law which criminalized campaigning for or against the charter.
At the least, the sudden emergence of a toy-based opposition movement has succeeded in capturing attention on social media, where some netizens have adopted the tactic, posting pictures of their own toys with “Vote No” placards under the hashtag “FreeDollsForFreedom.”
Even the cops were laughing, according to one activist.
New Democracy Movement activist Pakorn Areekul posted online about a humorous exchange he had with an officer at Thammasat University, where the toys first were fielded in protest Wednesday.
“[He said] I’ve been a cop for many years, I never thought that I would have to monitor a bunch of toys,” Pakorn wrote online.
But today one prison guard took offense at one of the toys – a soldier whose sign called for downfall of the junta – and confiscated its tiny placard.
“This is not appropriate,” the official said before handing the sign to the activists.
Despite its wackiness, the idea for the “toy protest” came from a very practical consideration, according to the woman who came up with the idea.
“Just by handing out leaflets, people were arrested,” said the woman, who declined to give her name, saying she has previously ran afoul of authorities for her actions. “So, instead of making people in our circle get arrested or intimidated, we use these figures. It’s something that we can do.”
Prison guard confiscating a toy’s placard.
She identified herself as a member of the League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy, a group that predates the New Democracy Movement and is known for pranksterish tactics.
“I thought it would be too cutesy for people,” she said.
Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn joined in the fun Thursday, posting a photo using the hashtag of himself holding a Star Wars Stormtrooper and text reading “May the Right be With You.”
Toy protests can be expected to continue at relevant sites until the Aug. 7 referendum.
Green Economy Game designed by Deschooling Games. Photo: Decharut Sukkumnoed / Facebook
BANGKOK — Board game enthusiasts and designers will gather at a Silom library to prove there’s more to gaming than just fun and games.
Master gamers and noobs alike are invited Sunday to The Reading Room, for the first in a series of month-long events taking a deeper look at the rich landscape of games that goes much deeper than Monopoly or Risk.
At the first event, Behind the Boards, archgamer Sarinee Achavanuntakul, author of “Board Game Universe,” will lead a panel discussion with writer Tomorn Sookprecha on the background of tabletop games, and how history, culture and economics can be understood through them. The talk goes from 2pm to 5pm on Sunday.
‘Super Millionaire,’ an early Thai Monopoly-alike. Photo: Coolswop
Things take an experimental turn July 17 at an experimental game workshop with board game hobbyist Teepagorn “Champ” Wuttipitayamongkoland and photographer Sirima Chaipreechawit. On July 23, join Teepagorn for a gaming session and discussion to be livestreamed for “Board Jockey,” a program on YouTube channel Salmon House.
Designers from indie gameshop Deschooling Games — Dechrat Sookkamnerd, Supavich Sanguankamthorn and Peerach Saranurak — will discuss the socially aware board games they make such as Green Economy, ASEAN Line and Drought games starting at 1pm on July 31.
All are welcome to try out their educational board games after the discussion.
All events will be held in Thai, but everyone is welcome to take the games for a spin.
A small installation of games based on books and films will run from the second week of July through the end of the month. Gamers are invited to bring like-minded friends to play.
On Board will take place at The Reading Room from this Sunday until the end of July at The Reading Room on Silom Soi 19. The library-gallery-shophouse is open 1pm to 7pm, Wednesday through Sunday.
The event is presided over by Teepagorn, who takes over the library for the July installment of its ongoing Sleepover series.
Writer-director Prabda Yoon will be the man to over the mini-library for August, with September seeing the Thai Netizen Network, Social Technology Institute and Boonmee Lab.
Internationally renowned director Apichatpong Weerasethakul will fly down from Chiang Mai to put on October’s installation.
BANGKOK — With five weeks to go before the scheduled charter referendum, more international groups have expressed concern about the lack of free expression to campaign for or against the junta-sponsored charter draft.
A group of Southeast Asian parliamentarians Thursday expressed disappointment at yesterday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court to uphold clause 2 of Article 61 of the Referendum Act, which outlawed attempts to influence voters. In Hong Kong, a regional rights advocacy group called the Asian Human Rights Commission on Thursday demanded charges be dropped against 13 activists recently arrested distributing flyers urging people to reject the proposed constitution.
The commission said people should write letters to both Thai authorities and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of free expression, seeking his urgent intervention.
Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, called the Constitutional Court’s ruling “another disappointing setback for freedom of expression in Thailand.”
“The decision by the Constitutional Court to uphold this overly broad statute, which has already been used to arrest and intimidate activists and stifle criticism, marks yet another disappointing setback for freedom of expression in Thailand,” Santiago said.
While the law may not violate the laws imposed by the generals who staged the coup, Santiago said, it “unquestionably” violates rights guaranteed under international law.
“It is distressing to watch as the Thai government becomes increasingly hostile to free expression, and continues to undermine the creation of an environment conducive to a free and fair referendum vote,” he said.
The military regime has promised to restore full democracy to Thailand after it achieves a series of reforms intended to immunize the political system from corruption. In the charter, it’s appointed drafters added various measures weakening direct representation.
The parliamentarians also voiced concern over the June 23 arrests of 13 activists in Samut Prakan province, with seven still in Bangkok Remand prison for violating both the referendum law and ban on political gatherings. The seven members of New Democracy Movement still in prison have refused bail as a symbolic protest against the junta’s legitimacy.
“These arrests underline the absurdity of the rules surrounding the upcoming referendum,” Santiago said. “These individuals were trying to promote responsible civic engagement, working to inform the public about the draft constitution and their legitimate concerns about its content. For them to be arrested and detained for such behavior is not only a violation of their fundamental rights; it’s utterly nonsensical. Ultimately, it just underscores the junta’s apparent desire to shut down all debate and force feed this charter into Thai people.”
A street stall selling fashion apparel at the end of the stairs leading up to BTS Siam.
BANGKOK — Owners of street stalls failed to win a reprieve from City Hall yesterday and have until the end of next month to end their occupation of Siam Square’s sidewalks.
The city signaled it won’t flinch in the latest bid to clear the footpaths made nearly unwalkable most evenings, telling about 200 vendors at a public hearing Wednesday they would not reconsider the Aug. 1 ultimatum for them to leave.
Vendors had asked for permission to continue selling, offering to set up later at 8pm when fewer people walk through the area and provide security.
Deputy Bangkok Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang said the deadline for them to quit would not change.
Authorities have told vendors they can relocated about 1.5 kilometers west to space set aside under the tollway near the Pong Pa Ram Junction and Rama VI Road. It can accommodate nearly 600 vendors who have encroached on the sidewalks in front of Siam Square for years.
Unlike other municipal campaigns to shut down historic and popular street markets, the eviction of street stalls in the Siam area enjoys wide support, partly because the street stall invasion there is a relatively recent phenomenon. People are not sentimental about the sellers there compared to Khlong Thom, Saphan Lek, Pak Khlong Talad and other shuttered markets.
Nor is it the first time that the sidewalk shops clogging the heart of Bangkok, from across MBK Center to the other side of Siam Paragon, were given a deadline to move out. The sidewalks have been contested since landowner Chulalongkorn University first tried and failed to clear the walkways 2010.
Smoke is seen outside the Emporium shopping mall Thursday morning. Photo: @nidneung123 / Twitter
BANGKOK — A fire broke out in the basement of luxury shopping mall Emporium this morning.
Smoke poured from the Sukhumvit Road mall after the fire erupted at about 9am inside a document storage room on the mall’s basement level. It did not cause extensive damage and was quickly brought under control. No one was injured in the fire, police said.
“It was a separate room not connected to the parking lot as people thought,” said Lt.Col. Somsak Mongkolkunakorn from Thonglor Police Station. “Though it took long to release all the smoke as it was in the basement.”
The Thailand Creative and Design Center, located on the mall’s top floor, delayed its opening time Thursday to mid-day.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
Mocking the referendum law under which any campaigning is punishable by 10 years in jail, activists expressed their opposition to the charter draft Wednesday using toys to hold up placards for them at Thammasat University.
BANGKOK — The Constitutional Court today affirmed the legality of a draconian law barring campaigning before the charter draft is put to an August vote on a day which also saw the junta finally answer what will happen if it goes down in defeat.
In a brief statement to the media, the court said the law passed in late April is consistent with the provisions on civil rights and expression written in the interim constitution put in place by the junta following its 2014 coup d’etat.
“Therefore, it does not pose any problem pertaining to its legality under the 2014 Interim Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand,” the court statement read.
The court’s ruling provides a legal imprimatur previously unavailable to the junta, whose hand is seen behind the Election Commission’s law, which criminalized public campaigning in a level of public suppression unseen since Thailand was last under direct military rule in the 1970s.
According to the law activists had asked the court to overturn, any “rude” or “aggressive” remark that urges the public to vote one way or another is punishable by 10 years in jail.
Yingcheep Atchanont, a representative of the rights advocacy group that filed the lawsuit, said he will accept the verdict even though he believes it violates both the constitution and international human rights treaties.
“Because of this law, under the current circumstances, there’s very little campaigning. People can go to jail just because they hand out leaflets. It’s wrong,” said Yingcheep of the Internet Law Reform Dialogue, or iLaw.
The referendum on the charter is set to take place Aug. 7. The junta has urged the public to accept the new constitution, while critics of the regime oppose it and have campaigned against it.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha ended months of silence on what would happen if the public rejects the charter written by his appointees. He said they’ll begin the entire time-consuming process anew for a third time.
“If the constitution gets rejected, we will make a new constitution under the existing rules,” Gen. Prayuth said. “And when I talk to the people, I know that the people have expectations, and I will have to succeed in doing it for the people.”
The first constitution draft was rejected by a set of lawmakers appointed by the junta in 2015, pushing back the junta’s “roadmap” for restoring democracy to 2017.
If the present draft is rejected by the public, it could add years to the wait for Thailand to see an election.
North Korean men and women walk past buildings under construction Monday on "Ryomyong Street,” in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Wong Maye-E / Associated Press
PYONGYANG, North Korea — Hoping to show the world his country is doing just fine despite sanctions and outside pressure over its nuclear weapons program, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put his soldier-builders to work on yet another major project – a series of apartments and high-rises that are once again changing the Pyongyang skyline.
The project is intended to show “the spirit of the DPRK standing up and keeping up with the world, despite all sorts of sanctions and pressure by the U.S. imperialists and their followers,” and “the truth that the DPRK is able to be well-off in its own way and nothing is impossible for it to do,” state-media quoted Kim as saying when he ordered the beginning of construction in March.
Under giant red banners calling for “Mallima Speed” – a reference to a mythical winged horse that could travel tremendous distances at supernatural speed – his soldier-builders are now putting up the frames for each new floor at the reportedly breakneck-pace of 14 hours to get it all done by the end of the year.
The project comes as North Korea is mobilized on its second “speed campaign” this year and follows the recent completion of “Future Street,” a cluster of high-rise apartments, office buildings and riverside parks dedicated to the nation’s scientists.
In something of a defiant wink at all the international criticism of the country’s nuclear weapons program, that whole district has a nuclear motif. Its centerpiece high-rise is shaped like the classic illustration of an atom when seen from above, a metallic atom sculpture stands over the entrance to its main avenue and neon atoms glow from the sides of two of its larger buildings at night.
Kim’s late father, Kim Jong Il, also had a penchant for big buildings.
One of them, the pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong hotel got bogged down in various problems and, decades after construction began, has yet to open. But the other, an impressive high-rise apartment district near the city’s iconic Kim Il Sung Square, has become one of Pyongyang’s most impressive sights, though it’s unclear how good life in the apartments is since foreigners are rarely allowed to visit and never without prior notice.
Because of its modern look, fancy restaurants and upscale shopping centers that sell brand-name products, the district has been unofficially dubbed “Little Dubai” within the small foreign community here. Some others have nicknamed it “Pyonghattan.” It was completed in 2012, after Kim Jong Il’s death.
Pyongyang’s new Pyonghattan, officially called “Ryomyong Street,” is to have the country’s tallest apartment building, at 70 stories, along with a 50-story building and a handful of smaller ones in the 30-40 story range.
It will reportedly provide more than 3,000 apartments — all air-conditioned — and have a nursery, kindergarten, laundry, post office and other public buildings and “service amenities” for its residents. Kim has directed it be a “green street,” with lighting and heating systems that use solar panels and geothermal energy. Buildings will also have rooftop hydropic greenhouses and rooms that make maximum use of sunlight.
Along with the stated goal of being more modern, there’s a practical reason for such designs — power outages are a longstanding problem in North Korea.
Pyongyang has a more reliable power supply than any other city, but solar panels on apartment balconies have become a common sight in the capital and elsewhere over the past several years. And while apartments in tall new buildings are often conferred as rewards for hard work or loyalty, scenic views from top-floor apartments are undoubtedly less attractive when elevators can’t always be relied on to work properly.
The construction push comes as North Korea is mobilized on a 200-day drive intended to boost production and energize the economy in a show of devotion to their leaders. Such speed drives, which were also common in communist countries during the Cold War, are held every so often in the North.
A 70-day drive was held in the run-up to the May ruling party congress.
BANGKOK — Whether Oasis, Sweet Dreams or Promising Star, their names often telegraph the ideal or fantasy.
While karaoke bars are often looked down for their seedy, red-lit associations, one artist sees them as refuges for people seeking escape and recovery from long days of toil in a capitalist society.
When photographer Taweewit Kijtanasoonthorn set out to document their interiors, he became part of their transactional ecosystem.
It wasn’t different from the other customers trading money for catharsis inside. He got photos; they got money.
And that made him realize that, in the end, it’s just another part of a society based on exchanges.
“People don’t really look at things thoroughly, while there are so many aspects in one thing,” he said. “If we try to understand things from different perspectives and get rid of bias, we could live peacefully together.”
See the colorful neon bursting from dim streets and other charms of Thailand’s karaoke joints in an exhibition of the Silpakorn University professor’s work launching Saturday.
Seven photos made during a year he spent touring various karaoke parlors, along with videos and neon displays, make up “Karaoke Twilight” on Saturday.
“When I was a teenager, my friends and I felt like it was an adventure to go to karaoke bars,” said the 34-year-old artist from Yala. “But when I moved to Bangkok, my feelings changed as the place grew more mysterious to me. Hidden under daylight, those bars unveil themselves at night to free marginalized people.”
Taweewit will be on hand Saturday to talk about his work starting at 3:30pm. The exhibitionruns through July 31 at People’s Gallery on the second floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. Get there via connecting skywalk from BTS National Stadium, exit No. 3.
Simple Plan in 2011. Photo: Simple Plan / Facebook
BANGKOK— The sound of many misspent youths are queuing up to play live in Bangkok through the five guys that are Simple Plan.
Best known for “Shut Up!” and “Welcome to My Life,” the French-Canadian pop-punk act is heading to Bangkok on their “Taking One for the Team Tour” on Sept. 8 at Moonstar Studio in Soi Ladprao 80.
The concert is to promote their latest studio album of the same name released in October.
The band formed 17 years ago in Quebec has twice visited Bangkok: once in 2005 with Avril Lavigne and 2008 with Travis. This is their first time headlining in the Thai capital.
