Austrian embezzler busted

Joy points out Bela as the culprit who embezzled 200,000 baht from him.

Fifty-three year old Joy Panjajom led police to an Austrian national, Bela Rabel-Baver, and asked for his arrest on charges of contract violation stemming from a sour business deal involving money in exchange for jobs in Japan.
From questioning, police learned that Joy had met Baver in Payao Province last year. At that time, he asked Joy if he and 4 of his relatives would be interested in working in Japan. The fee for Baver’s services would be 200,000 baht. A short time later, Joy visited Baver’s office in Bangkok and gave him the money. They signed a contract at that time.
Two of Joy’s relatives were sent to Japan but then problems arose and Baver fled Bangkok and came to live in Chonburi. Joy had been seeking him for months and finally learned his whereabouts.
He asked Pattaya police to charge Baver with violation of contract and fraud but Pattaya police informed him that this was out of their jurisdiction and he would have to be charged in Bangkok. Police did arrest Baver for not having a valid passport, though. They will soon send him to Bangkok, where Joy may file charges.
All conversations about what kind of work was to be done in Japan was rather nebulous. Payao province has the rather sad reputation of selling female children, especially the Dork Kham Tai District. Most of these women are sent to Japan. Neither did anyone mention what sex Joy’s relatives were.

Crime clean-up nets an unbelievable catch

Police demonstrate some of the weapons confiscated in the early June crime clean-up.

The Chonburi regional police gave a news conference in which they told of the results of a crime ‘clean-up’ which lasted from June 4-8, 1997. The police were very satisfied with the results.
Following the central government’s policy of totally eradicating crime in all regions of the country, police managed to round up 1,644 wanted criminals who had been involved in vice, narcotics and other crime.
Thousands of illegal firearms and munitions were confiscated, including many AK47s, UZIs, and shoulder launched rockets.
Dealers and drugs such as heroin, opium, amphetamines, Krathorm leaves (which have a stimulant effect similar to cocaine), solvents and marijuana were discovered.
Pornography and venues for prostitution were closed or fined.

Kuwaiti held for illegal possession of drugs

Sama Fahad was arrested last week for possession and distribution of psychotropic drugs.

Police investigations revealed that Sama Fahad, a Kuwaiti national, was smuggling pharmaceutical tranquillisers out of the country, as well as selling them in Thailand.
Receiving full co-operation from the staff of the Cherry Inn in South Pattaya, police obtained the key to Sama Fahad’s room and surprised him as he was putting the tablets into plastic bags for export.
He had been coming to Thailand for over two years and bought the tablets from a Thai contact. In Thailand he charged foreigners 100 baht a tablet and Thais paid 40 baht. When in Kuwait, he charged 300 baht a tablet.
The drug confiscated was a registered licensed tranquilliser made by an international pharmaceutical firm. Fahad was charged with having psychotropic drugs in his possession without a prescription.

Golf course scam comes to an end

After enough complaints had come in to police, Kritsana was arrested for extorting money from golfers.

Bangkok resident Kritsana Kengthanakarn, 28, was arrested in Pattaya last week, bringing to an end his series of extortion crimes played out on local golf courses.
Kritsana, whose usual profession is waiting on tables, confessed that he had been posing as an employee on as many as five different golf courses. He would approach mostly Japanese golfers on the green and demand between 20,000-40,000 baht from them each time, telling his marks that these were usual green fees. He said he targeted Japanese golfers because they had the most money. He also said that the golfers believed his ruse.
Many golf courses had filed complaints with the police, and after his arrest, owners of the various golf courses at which he had been operating came to the police station to identify him.
Kritsana is being held on charges of extortion and fraud.

Money’s tight, another bar girl rift with tourist

An altercation between a Kuwaiti tourist and a Thai bar worker last week prompted both parties to seek help at the police station.
The woman told the officer on duty that they had come to an agreement for sexual activity, for which the Kuwaiti would pay her 500 baht. But when they were in the lift of the tourist’s hotel, he suddenly changed his mind and tried to push her out of the elevator. Like all good business people, she tried to tell him a deal was a deal. The tourist became angry and told him to stop pestering him. He had a bottle of liquor in his hand which he threw backhanded against the wall of the lift. The vessel shattered and a flying shard of glass opened a 5 inch long laceration on the woman’s arm.
After having the wound cared for at the hospital, she requested the tourist pay her 3,000 baht in damages for the wound and lost work time at the bar.
Officers then asked the tourist for his version of the incident. He told police that he had not hurt the woman. He did not want to sleep with her. That’s why he threw her out of the lift.
He told police he had not gone to a bar and had seen her for the first time in the lift. She wanted him to engage her for sexual services. He wasn’t interested and she continued to badger him. He become angry and threw the bottle. She happened to be in the way of the flying glass.
The Kuwaiti said he came to the police station as he wanted to make sure that the problem was solved and the police had records of it so the woman could not fabricate more stories. He continued, saying he had been coming to Thailand for more than 10 years, but this had soured him on the country and he would not be coming back.
He gave the money to police and asked that they detain the woman at least 5 minutes before giving it to her, so he could get back to his hotel and lock him self safely away from his tormentor.

Slaughterhouse 9 detained for speed dealing

Police learned from a source that amphetamines were being sold in a slaughterhouse on Soi Mor Ngob Reu in Banglamung. This was being done in the most brazen fashion and had been going on for quite some time.
A special squad of police was formed to bring the dealers to justice.
Storming the abattoir, the squad was able to arrest the entire gang of 9 who had been selling this very dangerous drug to labourers, students, motorcycle drivers and young people.
The leader of the gang, Piak Pongsak, 30, was caught with 71 tablets of amphetamine on his person. He was also carrying 4.6 grams of amphetamine powder in a plastic bag.
Police then searched the gang’s residence, which was inside the slaughterhouse. They found a total of 44 more tablets on other gang members. Some admitted to using the drug themselves.
A full search turned up a total 205 amphetamine tablets. These and the suspects were all taken to the police station.
Police told the media that these arrests were a part of the government’s campaign to totally eradicate amphetamine use, which is permeating the whole country as it tries to keep up with the pressures of the modern world.

Eviction leads to arson

An evicted tenant is the prime suspect in what police believe to be arson at a local boarding house in South Pattaya last week.
In the apartment police found that the bed had been burned, the portable electric fan melted and the ceiling blackened by the blaze.
Witnesses, including Visit Watanatham, the owner of a row of shophouses divided into rental rooms in Bangla-mung, across from the Grand Hor market in South Pattaya, told police they saw a man known only as San run past them after they smelled smoke emanating from Apt. M-5 in the building. San previously had been evicted from the building for non-payment of rent.
After they extinguished the blaze, the four witnesses and Visit formed a posse to find San, but he had disappeared.
Police surmised that the young man, who was an employee of Boys, Boys, Boys, was trying to get revenge for being thrown out of the apartment.
Police are now searching for him.

News briefs from the police files

Police arrested an Aus-trian tourist with ap-proximately 10 grams of marijuana in his possession. He was sent for trial before he could follow what police refer to as his ‘natural inclinations’ and begin selling the drug.
***
Law enforcement officials closed 6 establishments which were showing motion pictures without a licence. The owners of the illegal theatres were arrested and fined 1000 baht per motion picture shown.
***
A police squad arrested a group of Kuo-Min-Tang Chinese or Jeen Hor who were acting as tourist guides at various attractions in Pattaya. The Jeen Hor, who fled from China to Thailand after the revolution, are known for their intelligence and education. They are being charged with acting as guides without a license.
***
A Norwegian fell from the 7th floor of a condominium and was rushed to hospital. Despite doctor’s efforts, the man died. The man’s wife was sleeping in the room at the time. Police are investi-gating the cause as there was a 1 metre awning extending from the building and an accidental fall seems very unlikely.
***
A Chinese tourist was robbed at his hotel. Police investigations showed the room maid had done it. The tourist left his room and when the woman went in to clean, she found approxi-mately 20,000 baht in Hong Kong Dollars and Chinese Yuan. She stuffed the money in the soles of her shoes and walked out of the tourist’s room. Canny police discovered the ruse and she was arrested.

If you tip the bottle, pay your bill

Police received a report that an American tourist, Radford Reed had been drinking in a local bar and had skipped out on his bill.
The manager told police that the American had drunk 150 baht worth of beer. When an employee asked him to pay his bill, the tourist ran out of the bar. Luckily, a patrol car happened to be passing by and staff wailed for help.
They asked police to arrest the man, who lives on the ground floor of the Diana Estates Condo.
When asked why he did not pay his bill, the man told them he had no money. When asked if he had a passport, he denied that also.
He was charged with being in the country without proper travel documents and non-payment at the restaurant.
He now awaits process of law.

June 26 - Anti-Drug Abuse Day

Naval Commander Chalita Vithwan, Head of the Public Relations for Somdej Hospital, which is a part of the Department of the Navy, told reporters that June 26 would be official ‘Anti-Drug Abuse Day’, with many consciousness raising activities to be held between June 19-26.
The HM Queen Sirikit Hospital realises the importance of the drug abuse problem in the navy and public sectors. The hospital will have exhibitions dealing with addictive and controlled substances and their abuse, special attention being given to solvents and amphetamines, the abuse of which has reached epidemic proportions in Thailand.
The exhibition will be held on the ground floor of the out-patient building. It will include slide shows, free flyers and informative documents.
On June 19th, a special lecture will be held in the meeting room of the hospital, with experts from government departments providing information. Attending the lecture will be government officials, nurses from various hospitals, teachers from 45 schools in the area and Buddhist monks.
The general public is invited to attend these informative meetings at no cost.

YWCA continues community support

Sansak Ngarmphiches, the Head of the Government Committee on tourism, presided over the installation of the new board of directors of the YWCA. Mrs. Vilawan Hengtrakul was appointed managing director for Chon-buri.
After the ceremony, Mrs. Vilawan told reporters that her appointment was a great honour and responsibility. She said she would do her utmost to continue to implement the YWCA’s various community projects to the best of her ability. She has a special interest in the projects which are aimed at preserving the unity of the nuclear family. Another of her interests is disadvantaged children in the various communities in Pattaya. She believes that education is the foundation of all progress.
Mrs. Vilawan stressed that a concerted effort by the com-munity must be made in ensuring all children receive proper education. She believes that first, people must learn about education and the value of it, as some sectors of society believe that children working and bringing home a bit of money is more help. She said this is a very short-sighted viewpoint and shows when the adults who missed education are not able to function in society.

40th Muslim Youth Day

The Muslim Society of Pattaya is presenting scholar-ships to young people in the area.
Mr. Faruk Wongborisuth and Pairat Suthithamrong-sawat, Mayor of Pattaya will preside over the 40th Muslim Youth Day, which is organised to gather funds for scholarships, expansion of school buildings and the purchase of school supplies for the Deenul Islamiya School.
The school was opened 2 years ago and has 50 students. There are also 80 students doing Koran studies. Most of the students come from poor families. Many activities are planned to help raise funds to keep these young people in school.
There will be a lecture on ‘Young People and Drugs’, and various exhibitions.
A total of 130 scholarships will be presented to young people.

Mayors meet to change current system

by Kittisak Khamthong

The question of regional identity in Thailand is a very sensitive one for the central government. Being a country with four dialects as different from each other as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, there are considerable differences between the regions. This has often caused resentment, as the government’s line on “we’re all Thai” is not generally accepted as being totally true.

The people of Isan, for example, technically do not speak Thai, but a dialect of Lao. They call their language Lao, refer to themselves as Lao and can communicate with a native of Vientiane much easier than with a Bangkok native, who speaks central Thai.
The one thing that binds all Thai citizens together is their loyalty to His Majesty the King as their sovereign.
In the recent past, the government’s policy has been to de-emphasise the cultural differences between the regions. This has been done by setting up various ‘security’ agencies, which monitor the activities of groups in the various regions. It has all become so complex that there are now six different methods of governing used in the various regions.
There are 7,640 different areas, divided into 147
municipalities, 987 sub-muni-cipalities, 75 ‘Provincial Administrative Organisations’, 6,397 ‘Special Sub-District Administrative Organisations’ and the City of Pattaya, which is a special case, and Bangkok, which has its own government. These names are all rather arbitrary and it is not easy to find an exact English equivalent.
All these organisations are controlled by the all-powerful Ministry of the Interior which in turn is controlled by one governor. So, in fact, all these different organisations derive their power from one person in Bangkok.
A new approach was proposed at a very important meeting of mayors from the various regions. This was the meeting concerning another organisation, the Office for the Administrative Governing of the Various Regions.
The mayors from the 4 regions would like this mind boggling array of organisations reduced to ‘The Regional Department’, which would be the only organisation overseeing regional affairs.
Rather than helping the regions develop, as is the purported aim of all these various organisations, the result is a tangle of bureaucratic red tape which puts many regional affairs on hold or causes them to be lost in a bureaucratic limbo. When a region wishes for something to be done, it seems that one office must receive permission from all the others before a request can be implemented. But these offices often must go through bureaucratic contortions and unbelievable double backs which cause frustration and suspicion.
The convocation of Mayors, representing their respective regions, thus feels that the Ministry of the Interior should untangle all these organisations and streamline them into one department.
Each Regional Department would communicate directly with the Ministry of the Interior.
Some of the present regional organisations now have more staff than the whole Ministry of the Interior itself.
One example is the Department for Regional Development which on the provincial level has a staff of 100,000. This one provincial department has more staff than the entire Ministry of the Interior in Bangkok.
The Ministry of the Interior is aware of the problems this causes with administration. Changing it would reduce the ministry’s power in provincial affairs. It would also reduce any benefits the Ministry enjoys from the present system.
It could be compared to a child demanding that an adult act in a proper and reasonable fashion. The adult knows the child is right and what it asks is reasonable, but the cannot allow itself to admit that a child is right and do what it says.
So far, the Ministry maintains that the provinces are not ready to govern themselves and must go through a learning process. The people in the provinces are still not properly educated.
May we ask, who accepted the duty of supervising provincial education if not the Ministry of the Interior itself, with its labyrinth of organisations, which trip each other up and cancel each other out?
It is a very tricky catch 22 situation. The Ministry of the Interior is saying they will educate the provincial people, at which they have been very unsuccessful. Then when the provinces ask to try and reduce bureaucracy, so education may be conducted more efficiently, the Ministry uses its own failings as an excuse for not giving people the power to do what the Ministry could not.
It is hoped that those who read this article are confused. Readers will then have a clue as to how confused and frustrated the provincial people who are governed by these laws are.

Biofication is effective in cleaning polluted water

The before and after of Pattaya Khlong.

The natural environment in Thailand is degenerating at an alarmingly fast rate. Population increase and industrial ‘progress’ have strangled the environmental cycle which can not respond to human desires quickly enough.
This has caused a ‘green revolution’.
Pattaya was once famous for its beautiful beaches, blue water and unspoiled tropical environment. Blinded by the potential profits, the area was quickly turned into a tourist centre, with no forethought or planning given to long term environmental protection.
Some would say this ‘get what you can, now’ is a part of the Thai psyche. As the Thais have historically been a migratory people who only stayed in Siam when there was no other place to go, there might be a small bit of truth in this. In the words of the Vietnamese and Chinese, ‘What can you say of a race which builds houses on poles? They have no roots in or regard for the earth.’
The Thai ethos of using a temple and not maintaining it is a prime example of this. The reclining Buddha at the very important Wat Pho in Bangkok is a blatant example. Not more than 700 metres from the Grand Palace, this colossal Buddha Image, of which the Thais are purportedly very proud, is in such a state of disrepair, with the gold leaf hanging off of it in huge sheets, that visitors from other countries are quite shocked. In the past 40 years this, one of the most important religious images in Thailand, has not had one hour of maintenance done on it. Instead of conserving these valuable works, the philosophy is ‘build a new one.’
Many believe that Pattaya’s biggest problem is water quality. Once beautiful canals and the sea have become oily cesspools which make the water totally unusable for any purpose.
There are six main areas with extremely polluted water. The Naklua community, North Pattaya, Central Pattaya, South Pattaya, Na Jomtien and Larn Island.
Raw sewage and other unmentionable things are often poured directly into the sea. The canals suffer from rubbish, raw sewage and chemical dumping.
Pattaya has three waste water treatment plants. These three plants treat 33,000 cubic litres of water per day. This is not much help as the per day amount of waste water has been calculated to be 54,362 cubic litres. The ‘one rotten apple spoils the barrel’ adage applies here, as the water which cannot be treated is enough to make the treated water unusable. This is destroying tourism.
A group of professors from Rangsit University have been in Pattaya and are using a new technique which is a type of germ-to germ biological warfare. The technique, called biofication, introduces ‘good’ bacteria into the water, which kill ‘bad’ bacteria, leaving water in the state it was before humanity got into the act.
The professors used Pattaya canal as their testing ground for this biofication. The khlong was full of ammonia and hydrogen sulphate. A slimy ooze of oil covered the water’s surface. Anytime the water was moved, malodorous gases were released. In 1996, no form of life whatsoever was found in this khlong. After introducing the ‘good’ bacteria the canal’s condition showed signs of improvement within 20 days. Today, the canal is a clear brown colour and its bacteria count is almost within acceptable standards.
Mayor Pairat Suthithamrongsawat told the media that the results were very encouraging, but there was a problem with budgets to buy the healing bacteria, as it must be imported and would cost many hundreds of thousands of baht. If the project were to continue, it would have to be presented to the Pattaya city council for consideration.
The people still wait and no decision has been reached by the city council. Biofication can be used in canals, wells, and any bodies of fresh water, moving or still, which need reviving. The results seem to justify the cost.
The present council’s tenure is over on June 27th of this year. We hope that a decision will be made by some governing body soon, as everyone would like to see nature in balance again. Even though many people in Pattaya’s bank accounts are ‘in the black’, nature’s is still ‘in the red.’

Working to prevent AIDS

The Community Relations Office of Chonburi Province reported that the first case of full blown AIDS in Chonburi was found in 1986. The victim was a homosexual. It then spread through various groups, such as male drug addicts, foreigners, prostitutes, and then was discovered in the heterosexual com-munity.

Chonburi’s Governor, Sujarit Pajchimanan speaks out against
the spread of AIDS.
According to local, and somewhat controversial, statistics, in February of 1997 there were 2,103 infected males and 415 females. The district with the highest number of people infected was Chonburi City, with 25.53%. Following are Banglamung and Sattahip with 30.06% and 19.35% respectively. AIDS infection is increasing every year in Chonburi.
Chonburi’s governor, Sujarit Pajchimanan, is officially in charge of the AIDS prevention and help committee for the province. The province is therefore mobilising and using all methods possible to prevent the spread of the virus.
A seminar for Buddhist clergy has been organised, in which 400 monks from Chonburi will attend. The monks will be given a working knowledge of the diseases aetiology and the various outreach and prevention methods. They will be asked, in their positions as an integral part of community life and respected cultural figures, to warn their parishioners and give them all possible assistance in preventing and coping with the condition.
The monks are being requested to make sexual self control and AIDS awareness an integral part of their sermons.