Monthly Archive for August, 2007

Gun Brit ‘nicked’ in Thailand

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on August 24, 2007
in General News
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From Andrew Drummond

A 32-yr-old Briton is to be banned from Thailand after brandishing a pistol in a bar in the resort of Pattaya.

Spencer Lloyd Henley, from London, would first be charged with firearms offences, after which immigration authorities would deport and blacklist him, police said.

Henley was today being held in a cell at Pattaya police station 100 miles east of Bangkok.

Police said he produced the gun at a bar and pointed it at a Finnish man as he was jealous of the man’s intentions toward a girl in the bar. There were three bullets in the chamber of the gun, which Henley said he had bought off a Thai policeman.

Henley, police said, claimed he was a powerful man with many good connections.

* Gun Brit nicked in Thailand - The SUN

British victims of Sandakan death march finally honoured -

Published
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Andrew Drummond
on August 18, 2007
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Daily Mail

British victims of Sandakan death marches finally honoured
Last updated at 16:43pm on 17th August 2007

More than 600 Britons who were brutally put to death by the Japanese in the former British North Borneo have finally been fully honoured.

In the shadow of Mount Kinabalu, a memorial stone has been errected in an “English garden” to the memory of 641 British airman and gunners who gazed upon the same scene at the close of the Second World War, but never lived to tell the tale.

There was not one British survivor from the infamous Sandakan Death Marches.

Those that did not die from starvation exhaustion or disease were beaten, shot, beheaded or bayoneted by their Japanese guards.

Sandakan Hazel BrownHazel Braund, 49, from Lewisham, South London made the pilgrimage to honour the memory of her uncle, an RAF man who survived the march but died of malaria and deprivation within days of victory.

And next week as a personal tribute she will walk five days along the route her uncle followed to his death.

In the “English Garden” at Kundasang, the British heroes of Sandakan were finally acknowledged with a memorial bought with funds from a private appeal.

Cash was provided by the Sabah and Malaysian governments, and the local St George’s Society after an appeal by Britain’s military adviser at the High Commission in Malaysia, Colonel Paul Edwards.

After a Christian memorial service attended by Malaysian government and local government officials, British High Commissioner to Malaysia Boyd Cleary CVO said: “This is not about righting a wrong, but enhancing the memory and educating those who follow.

“British soldiers and air-men, deprived of food, barefoot, carrying heavy loads, suffering from sores ber-beri and malnutrition all died here.

“Those who fell were bayoneted and shot.”

Boyd Cleary then read from the memoirs of one of the six Australians who survived.

Elizabeth Braund, 49, paid private tribute to her uncle Senior Aircraftsman Benjamin Hughes, of the Royal Air Force, who died at Ranau within days of the war’s end.

Mrs Braund, a member of the Children of Far East Prisoner’s of War Association said: “The memorial has been a long time in the making but it is a fitting tribute to those who died.

“My uncle at 19 was the youngest of a family of 13 from Elephant and Castle. I never met him, but I know what he suffered,” she said.

For 62 years the 641 British soldiers and airmen who died have been all forgotten.

There are no British memoirs. None of the British survived. But in Australia the death marches have been described as their ‘holocaust’ and every state in the country has its own memorial.

The British gunners and airmen, together with more than 1,700 Australians, had been taken to Sandakan, in what is today Sabah, Malaysia to build an airfield by the Japanese in Sandakan towards the end of the war.

But as allied forces approached, the Japanese decided to force march their prisoners away along a 160 mile route in the shadow of Mount Kinabalu from Sandakan to Ranau.

The Japanese had been ordered to deal ruthlessly with their charges.

They took the orders literally. In three separate marches all but the six Australians died.

Stragglers were dealt with by the Japanese ‘Kempetai’ who followed in the rear of the marches.

Hundreds were bayoneted, or beheaded, where they lay unable to make a step further.

Prisoners were tied to trees and even beaten to death. The lucky ones, it is said, are the ones who were shot.

The remainder died at their destination in Ranau.

Soldiers who could go no further made their goodbyes to their colleagues as they awaited their own executions.

One of the survivors Australian private Nelson Short, who is now dead, said at the time: “If blokes could not go on we just shook hands with them and said, you know, hope everything’s all right.

“But they knew just what was going to happen. There was nothing you could do.”

There was considerable evidence that the Japanese even executed prisoners after learning of the Japanese surrender.

The Japanese Commander of Sandakan Captain Hosijima Susumi was tried and executed along with eight others.

Daily Mail British Victims honoured

“Why did your police kill my granny Mr. Thaksin?”

Published
by
Andrew Drummond
on August 5, 2007
in General News
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A QUESTION FOR BILLIONAIRE EX-PM OF THAILAND

WHY DID YOUR POLICE KILL MY LOVELY GRANNY?

SUNDAY MIRROR INVESTIGATES: DISTRAUGHT FAMILY SEEK TRUTH
By Kate Mansey And Andrew Drummond

As he ploughs millions into Manchester City, new owner Thaksin Shinawatra is being hailed by fans as the latest foreign billionaire to bring his riches to British football.

But back in his native Thailand, the exiled former prime minister is being investigated over policies which led to the deaths of nearly 2,500 people.

Last week, while Thaksin signed off the purchase of four new multimillion-pound players by Man City manager Sven Goran Eriksson, human rights groups accused the 57-year-old of supporting mass executions and torture during a yearlong war on drugs he ordered in 2003.

In a small town 100 miles south of the capital Bangkok, little Montililai Klinmalee is one of the innocent victims of that war on drugs.

Montililai - nicknamed Noon - was just seven when her grandmother was shot dead in front of her by policemen her family say were acting on orders from Thaksin’s government.Thaksin why did you klinmalee06

(Noon,pictured above, writes to Manchester City)

Now 11, Noon is still confused and traumatised by an event she cannot understand. “What did my granny do wrong?” she asks. “She did not know anything about drugs.”

Holding the hand of her mother Nongkran at the family shop in Baan Laem, in the northern Phetchabun province, Noon says: “I was very young. I did not know anything. But I know now. I am not scared. My grandmother had nothing to do with drugs. I know that.

“Can you find out why she died?” she asks. “Nobody has investigated it here.”

Nongkran, 30, has tried in vain to find out why her mother was killed that day. “I wrote to Mr Thaksin. I wrote to the interior ministry,” she says. “But they never even bothered to reply.

“I don’t understand those people in England who want him to run their football club. Is money all they care about? Maybe someone in England can provide the answers. How can he do these sort of things to his own people?

“When the police came here one of them took a photograph from his pouch and nodded. Then the other pulled his gun and shot my mother in the chest.

“She slumped forwards and then he fired at least five more shots. Then both men turned around and casually walked out of the shop. My mother knew nothing about drugs.”

The family’s story has been looked at by Pradit Charoenthaitawee of the Thai Human Rights Commission, which is investigating deaths during the drugs war launched by Thaksin in February 2003.

Dr Charoenthaitawee said: “I will bring the charges myself privately if need be. We have strong evidence in 400 or so cases. Many of these injudicial killings were carried out in daylight in front of witnesses and many had nothing to do with drugs.”

At the height of the drugs war Suwit Baisan, a cameraman working for Thailand’s government-run TV Channel 11, famously went on his knees in front to Thaksin to ask why his mother and father had been shot.

Thaksin cameraman begs

 (Suwit above: ‘What happened to my parents Mr. Thaksin?’ Courtesy The Nation)

He never received an answer. At the end of 2003, Thaksin declared victory in the war on drugs. He denied police were carrying out executions without trial and insisted many of the deaths were merely the result of drug dealers killing other drug dealers. No investigations were launched.

Thaksin has refused to return to Thailand under the current regime since he was deposed in a military coup last year. As well as human rights abuse accusations, he also faces corruption charges over a £11.3million land deal he struck while PM. If convicted, he and his wife Pojaman face 13 years in jail.

But a trial is more than many of the drug war victims were afforded, claim campaigners. Last week Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, sent a letter to the Premiership questioning Thaksin’s suitability to own Manchester City.

He said: “Mr Thaksin’s time in office was characterised by numerous extra-judicial executions, ‘disappearances’, illegal abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture and attacks on media freedoms.

“The most disturbing period of Mr Thaksin’s rule was his ‘war on drugs’.

“It appears Thaksin is trying to buy his way into polite society in Britain to cleanse his image. The Premier League shouldn’t play this game.”

“Thaksin’s lawyer, Noppadol Pattama, said the allegations against him are unfounded. He added: “As far as I am concerned, he has never instructed any public officer to execute a drug dealer. We will be able to prove his innocence after the general election when we are sure our client will get a fair trial.

“We just tried to solve the drug problem in Thailand by getting tough with criminals. But he has never issued any instructions for shoot-to-kill policies. I hope Manchester City fans and British people are fair-minded. They should suspend their judgment before deciding Thaksin is not fit. He is a fit and proper man to run the club.”

“Last night a Premier League source said they were prepared to question whether Shinawatra passed their “fit and proper person” test to run a football club if any new information came to light.

The source said: “There is ongoing due diligence and if something adverse comes to light we are empowered to investigate and take the appropriate action.”