Nang Nual Restaurant first to get official notice

Officials from the Chonburi Provincial Court’s Litigation Enforcement Department in the Ministry of Justice, accompanied by Pattaya officials, delivered the notice.

The legal wrangling with the 101 Walking Street businesses identified for removal has been a long and dragged out affair. Plans and threats continue to surface and change. But now an official employed with the office of litigation enforcement, Prasit Pothanon, has signed his name to notice order #872/2543. The notice identified Pattaya’s city manager as the plaintiff and Bunchuay Suwanakhotorn as the defendant. The notice specified that the defendant was to remove the remodeled reinforced steel concrete structure located at 214 Moo 10, Nong Prue (Nang Nual Restaurant) prior to December 14. Specific dimensions identified a 10 x 20 meter area protruding over the coastal water at the rear of the restaurant.

The litigation enforcement official presenting the notice, Mr. Ning Mamutipong said that normally in cases such as this, removal should be completed within seven days, but special consideration was given to this case and the deadline was extended to cover a period of 30 days.

The notice stated that the owner tear down the structure at his own cost. If he does not do this within 30 days, Pattaya City is required to take appropriate action and tear down the structure, after which the owner would be liable for all costs.

There’s a new police chief in town

Pinit transferred to Chonburi

Pattaya’s municipal police have a new chief: Police Col. Phadungsak Ubekhanon. Pattaya’s previous police chief, Police Col. Pinit Satcharoen, has been transferred to Chonburi Provincial police region 2.

Until taking up his new position in Pattaya, Police Col. Phadungsak Ubekhanon was formally the chief of police in Banglamung.

Pattaya’s new police chief, Police Col. Phadungsak Ubekhanon

The “changing of the guard” took place on November 14 when the new police chief conducted an official ceremony offering a garland of flowers to the statue of H.R.H. Admiral Prince Chumphorn Khet-Udomsak in front of the Pattaya municipal police station.

The new police chief then called a meeting with the police officers under his command to identify his objectives. His former position having been in close proximity to Pattaya has kept him well abreast of the activities and situation at hand, but he admitted that the duties and responsibilities of the two jobs are completely different and that Pattaya would be a much more demanding job. Pol. Col. Phadungsak gave assurances that he was well aware of the important role Pattaya has in the country’s tourist industry.

Pol. Col. Phadungsak stressed three main guidelines as his personal policies: providing security for members of the royal family residing in the area; stressing strict law enforcement to control the entertainment areas in Pattaya; and suppressing drug related crimes and prostitution.

Finally, the new police chief said he intended to crack down on corrupt activities within the police department and take decisive action against crimes of brutality so that the community and visiting tourists can feel secure.

Police sergeant and his wife arrested selling methamphetamines

Fall prey to new police chief’s crackdown

Pol. Sgt. Suttisak Klinkasem and his wife Thongplaew were arrested for selling drugs in a community behind the Big C Shopping Center.

The arrest came soon after Pol. Col. Phadungsak Ubekhanon assumed the position of chief of Pattaya police. One of the first things on his agenda was to issue orders to crack down on crooked police officers and drug related crimes.

Pol. Sgt. Suttisak Klinkasem and his wife Thongplaew were arrested for selling methamphetamines.

Pattaya police inspector Pol. Maj. Kittipong Panid led a group of police offers on a raid of the policeman’s house during the early evening of November 18 after a female undercover officer posing as a drug addict had purchased 20 methamphetamine pills using 1,000 baht in marked banknotes.

Pol. Sgt. Suttisak Klinkasem and his wife Thongplaew were arrested with 215 methamphetamine pills in their possession. Police also confiscated 20,000 baht in cash and weapons.

Suttisak denied the charges all the way up to when the cell door was closed, but his wife Thongplaew admitted to the charges, telling police that the two had been making a nice profit by selling drugs to adolescents in Pattaya.

Suttisak had been assigned as a clerk in the Ban Beung District police station before being transferred to Srichang Island.

Fired baht bus driver goes crazy on street corner

Threatens passersby with knives

Pattaya police were called in to try and contain a violently crazed man wielding 2-long knives who was chasing people on the busy corner of Sukhumvit and Soi Nern Plab Wan on November 15.

Police were unable to get near the drug crazed man, later identified as Wat Sri-awn, age 36. Police persisted in their attempts to get close but Wat held them back whilst constantly using the knives to threaten anyone coming near. Police attempts to calm him down only resulted in him chasing officers back when they approached.

A doughty officer tried to use a stick about 3-metres long to pin Wat against a wall, but this, too, was ineffective.

Finally, when Wat threw one of the knives at the police and tried to attack with the other knife, an officer drew his weapon and shot him in the leg. Wat dropped to the ground and police pounced on him and ended the fiasco.

Wat was transferred to the hospital to treat his shattered leg wound so he could later stand trial for his public disturbance.

Police later found out that Wat had just been fired from his job as a baht bus driver when the Pattaya Song Taew Federation discovered his methamphetamine addiction. Upset with his employer’s decision, Wat ingested four tabs of methamphetamine the day before going crazy on the corner of Sukhumvit in an attempt to retaliate.

Korean tourist murdered

Young woman’s body found stuffed into water drainpipe

Twenty-six-year-old Korean tourist Lim Sin Kiaw was brutally murdered on November 20 in a hotel on Soi Bua Khao. The young woman had extreme head injuries and her legs and arms were broken.

Hotel staff told police the body was pulled out of a water drainpipe after hotel guests reported seeing water overflowing from a 5th floor hall closet. The drainpipe’s opening was 60 centimeters wide.

Lim Sin Kiaw before her untimely death

Her room, located near the water drainpipe closet on the 5th floor, showed evidence of being searched. Miss Lim’s belongings had been scattered about and a hand written note in English was found on the table warning the cleaning lady not to enter the room.

Hotel employees told police they observed Miss Lim on November 20 returning to her room alone.

Miss Lim had been staying at the hotel since July and she was planning to depart the country on November 21.

Her body was transferred to the police forensic lab for further examination. Police investigators suspect rape may have been involved.

“The chance that this was a suicide is highly improbable due to the extent of the injuries,” said Pattaya’s new police chief, Pol. Col. Phadungsak Ubekhanon. “Currently, attempted rape is the principal suspected motive. Hotel employees and hotel guests are now under investigation.”

Dane’s complaint leads to arrest of French thieves

Gang was targeting unsuspecting tourists

Soren Ostrupt reported to Pattaya tourist police at 2 a.m. on November 10 that his belongings were stolen from his safety deposit box at the Beach View Hotel on Pattaya Beach Road.

During their arrest, the French gang of thieves hid their heads to avoid being recognized. The one in the middle can hide his head, but that leg tattoo is obvious.

The Danish tourist described to police how he met with three other tourists from France at a late night Walking Street entertainment establishment. He said the three men acted friendly, all the while conniving information from him throughout the night. After the friendly crew had departed ways, Ostrupt noticed that his waste belt containing his hotel keys had been stolen. He said that when he returned to his hotel, all his valuables were missing from his safety deposit box. Traveler’s checks worth 1,000 British pounds and 4,500 baht had been stolen, along with other valuables totaling a loss of over 60,000 baht.

Tourist police department 3 inspector, Police Maj. Powaris Lilasiri organized the investigation, and his team of officers soon obtained incriminating evidence on the three Frenchmen from the hotel’s front desk security video.

Two of the three were arrested at the Franco Phone Video store on Pratamnak Road over a week later, at 1.00 a.m. on November 18. They confessed to the crime and told police where they could find the third party involved. Police followed the lead and eventually arrested the third man in Soi Nern Plab Wan.

The three men were identified as Christophe Maurice Edmond Hayot, age 28, Sebastien Bourdow, age 24, and Christophe De Tinguy, age 25. All three carried French passports.

Soren Ostrupt made a positive identification allowing police to detain the men and charge them with theft.

The three had already divided up and spent Ostrupt’s money, and the only stolen item belonging to Ostrupt remaining in their possession was a CD player.

All three of the conmen confessed to committing similar thefts in Pattaya and told police that when they were arrested, they were in the process of looking for another unsuspecting tourist to set up.

Anti-communist pilots arrested in U-tapao for dropping leaflets over Vietnam

Urging Vietnamese residents to overthrow communist government

The Royal Thai Navy turned two pilots over to civilian police after the anti-communist pilots secretly flew over Ho Chi Minh City dropping leaflets protesting President Clinton’s visit to Vietnam and inciting the Vietnamese people to overthrow communist leaders.

Civilian flight instructor Thira Sukying (center) and “Mr. Vito” (right).

The two men were later identified as Thira Sukying, a civilian flight instructor, and a Vietnamese man having American citizenship named Mr. Vito (aka Ly Tong).

On November 17, the Thai Naval Operations Center in Region 1 received a report from Naval Security that a civilian aircraft had disappeared from radar screens at 4 p.m. The twin-engine aircraft was supposedly on a training flight in the Gulf of Thailand between U-tapao and Hua Hin Air Base.

Region 1 Naval Commander Vice-Admiral Kittikul Paijit ordered a reconnaissance aircraft to locate the missing plane, which was later found flying a trace along the coast. The plane’s pilot was ordered to land at U-tapao Airbase, and Vice-Admiral Kittikul issued orders to detain the two pilots for questioning.

During initial questioning, navy investigators learned that the aircraft had evaded radar tracking and violated Vietnamese airspace. The plane flew over Ho Chi Minh City dropping anti-communist leaflets just prior to President Clinton’s historic visit, the first by an American president since 1969 and the first during Vietnam’s communist rule.

Navy Captain Lyychai Iamsrikul and 15 armed navy personnel escorted the two pilots to the Ban Chang District police station in Rayong where the two men were placed in custody.

Residents of Ho Chi Minh City reported a small aircraft had flown over the city on November 17 dropping leaflets urging them to overthrow the communist regime. The leaflets were signed Ly Tong of the Global Alliance for the Total Uprising Against Communism.

from the Child Labour News Service

Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to sign their first bilateral memorandum to combat trafficking in women and children, a measure expected to help protect those targeted by human smuggling syndicates.

The basics for a draft memorandum of understanding were discussed at a two-day workshop on ending trafficking in women and children organised by the Mekong Region Law Centre, the National Youth of Thailand and the Coalition to Fight Against Child Exploitation.

The sketch draft requires both governments to provide education and vocational training along with job opportunities to protect women and children vulnerable to trafficking; provide better social welfare services for the underprivileged; exchange information and develop a legal framework for prosecution of traffickers; treat people being trafficked as victims and repatriate them safely through diplomatic channels; and facilitate the recovery and reintegration of victims into their communities.

Saisuree Chutikul, chairperson of the Sub-committee on the Elimination of Trafficking in Women and Children, National Youth Bureau, said the memorandum was inspired by the increasing number of children and women from Cambodia who have been lured into working illegally in Thailand.

“The Cambodians are lured and forced into work as prostitutes and beggars in Thailand. Some are beaten and abused when they refuse to work. The draft will be a mechanism and channel to facilitate the suppression of syndicates, to prevent them from continuing their work,” Saisuree said.

According to the draft, the trafficking category would include those people smuggled into the country for purposes of prostitution, forced domestic labour, servile marriage, false adoption, sex tourism and entertainment, pornography and forced begging.

Saisuree stressed that women and children who are found to have been trafficked into Thailand tend to be deported at the earliest opportunity, thus preventing police from obtaining key information and evidence directly from the victims. “Those victims are excellent sources for police and the concerned authorities. So they should stay in shelters in Thailand to provide information about the syndicates before being sent back,” Saisuree said.

It is not certain when the memorandum would be completed or when it would become effective. It is up to both countries to decide.

Once the memorandum goes into force, it could be a model for further agreements Thailand could have with other countries.