Journalist covering Bangkok, Thailand and Southeast Asia
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Today a pink and red faced son William Matthew Drummond, younger brother to Annie 2 years 4 months, made his debut shortly after 7 am, to the delight of his mother Pat and father journalist Andrew Drummond, at a hospital in Thailand, near a 7/11, a canal, a motorcycle queue, and a lot of overhead wiring.
WMD? On second thoughts make that Matthew William Drummond. Mother is doing fine. Father and Annie are pooped.
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
Link The SUN
Douglas Riach (Infinity/BNI)
A Scottish financial consultant was today keeping a bedside vigil beside his wife in Bangkok after she was violently attacked in the street last Saturday night.
Douglas ‘Dougie’ Riach, 57, said he hoped his wife Lydia, 52, could hold on until their two sons arrived from Scotland later this week but he was not optimistic.
Lydia, 58, was mugged in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 22 on Saturday on the way to meeting friends at the Scottish owned ‘22’ bar and restaurant.
Mr. Riach said earlier: “”They don’t think Lydia will last the week. Her skull was fractured externally in two places as well as internally.
“She was bleeding from the ears and there were fragments of bone coming out of her ears as well.
“She is in a coma and we have been trying to talk to her but now she only has one eye open and is not responding to light.”
She is in the ICU of the Bangkok Police hospital.
Mrs Riach, who works for a charity for underprivileged children in Bangkok, was mugged by two men on a motorcycle. Her handbag was around her head and shoulder and she was dragged along the road.
Mr. Riach from Inverness, is a sales consultant for Infinity, a financial consultancy. He is also a past Scottish Rally Champion, Honorary Life president of the Highland Car Club, and was the founder director of Caledonian Thistle Football Club.
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From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,
Pictures: Andrew Chant & BC Pictures
July 12 2009
A fourteen-yr-old British boy died at Thai theme Water Park after his body was trapped in the park’s water system and finally spat out in the resort’s pump room.
Today ( Sunday) members of his family told of their horror as staff at the tourist attraction refused to listen to their pleas for help for because they did not believe the accident could have happened.
Fourteen year-old Nathan Clark Griffiths, from Douglas, Isle of Man, got trapped in the water park’s pumping system after losing his swimming goggles.
His goggles had dropped through a grill at the bottom of one of the pools at the Pattaya Park Beach Resort, 85 miles east of Bangkok.
And he told his elder brother, Rhys, 15, that he was going to look for them before lifting the grill and entering the hole below. That was the last time he was seen alive.
Pattaya Police check where Nathan disappeared
It took over half an hour late on Friday for the staff at the resort to react to the families pleas for help and when they did engineers opened a water gate in the resort’s pump room and Nathan’s lifeless body spilled out.
Nathan’s father Jim Clark, a tunnel engineer, from Hull, had dived in to try and save him, after Rhys raised the alarm, but he could find no trace of his son.
Jim furiously hit out at Thai cameramen after he tried to film his son’s body on the floor of the pump room, lashing at one with a spanner.
In a bitter twist astonishingly Thai police, rather than protect the family, ordered him to pay 12,000 baht (about £240) compensation.
Jim Clark discusses with police
Today Jim, who works for the international tunnel construction company Robbins in New Delhi, said: “ The guards did nothing not for 30 minutes. They would not believe what had happened. When I finally forced them to do something they went to the pump room, opened a hatch, and my son’s body came out.
“I was distraught with what had happened . When I saw the intrusive cameramen I lashed out.
“The park has offered compensation. It’s not even something I want to even think about at the moment. This is not about money. This is not the time to talk about blame.”
The Clark family had been on a day out at the resort. Jim Clark has a Thai wife, who he met in Britain, who is step-mother to his sons and they were taking a break in Thailand, before all relocating to India where Jim had been posted. The boys had recently left schools in Douglas, Isle of Man.
15-yr-old Rhys was so furious that he put his story up on a web blog about what happened when he tried to get help.
“The life guard said that we shouldn’t play jokes like this and dismissed us. My step-mum was begging them to check the pipes. They argued back saying it’s impossible as the grill was locked”.
Distraught stepmum Jintana tells cameramen how officials ignored her pleas
“After a full 30 minutes they agreed to check the pipes. While they were checking I went to the ticket booth to make an announcement as to whether anyone had seen him . I was coming down the stairs to the main pool when I heard my father shout ‘No!’ very loudly then my stepmother screaming .
“If anyone is to blame it should be me. I should have stopped my younger brother.”
The lifeguard who refused to initiate any action was later named as Khun Dumromsak, aged 40, who claimed he had worked at he resort for ten years and that the grill in question had always been locked so nobody could have entered.
Nathan’s death is the latest of a series of tragedies to have befallen families holidaying in the resort.
An 11-yr-old Danish boy died after being electrocuted because of loose wiring around a hotel’s swimming pools, and a British father and his two daughters were all gored by an elephant which went berserk in the local Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens.
Geoff Taylor, from St Helen’s, Lancashire, subsequently sued the resort for the death of his 20-yr-old daughter Andrea, and injuries to his 23-yr-old daughter Helen and himself.
Underwater in the pump room where Nathan's body emerged
Two years ago after a five year court battle he was awarded costs and just £15,000 by a Thai court.
The Thai judge told him that in Thailand the courts did not award the same compensation as in the west.
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
Tuesday June 30th 2009
Pictures: Andrew Chant
Link to Daily Mail story
A retired British surveyor who survived an attempted assassination by communist rebels in the Philippines has been found murdered with his throat cut during a robbery at his home.
The body of Paul Roberts, 61, was found by his 12-yr-old son Daniel at their home in Barangay Tinigaw, on Payan island in the Central Philippines.
Paul Roberts with Filipina wife and children
Roberts, from Loughborough, took a blow to the head then had his throat slit when the raiders entered his he second floor bedroom at his home in Aklan Province early on Monday.
Kalibo police chief Senior Insp. Arnolito Laguerta said: “At the moment we are looking for the murder weapons, a knife and a hammer. We do not know how many people were involved.”
Just three months ago he was treated for a gun shot wound in the nearby town of Kalibo, when he was shot by a drive bygunman riding pillion on a drive by motorcycle.
Police later arrested two men identified as Warlito Andrade and Michael Bastes, both alleged members of the Alex Boncayao Brigade of the Revolutionary Proletariat Army.
Roberts had a miraculous escape after a bullet just grazed his mouth tearing his lip.
His wife said: “I have no idea of the cause of the shooting Paul had no enemies. Probably just because he was a foreigner.”
Early Monday Amy was trussed up with electric cable, blindfolded and had tissues forced into her mouth to stop her screaming, all while the couple’s three young children were sleeping in nearby bedrooms.
Mrs. Roberts, who is recovering in a local hospital said: “My husband nudged me to wake me up in the middle of the night because he had heard something in the house. Then as I got up a man shone a torch into my eyes. I could see his fat stomach but nothing else.
“Then they grabbed me while I could hear my husband fighting with the others. It was pitch black I had no idea what had happened to Paul. I think there must have been 4 or 5 of them.
“Finally at 5 in the morning I managed to get the tissue out of my mouth and screamed for help. Our maid and our eldest 12-year-old son, came into the bedroom, saw Paul dead in a pool of blood on the bed and took me out quickly.”
The family home in the Philippines
Mr Roberts, a quantity surveyor, who also has two daughter aged 5 and 7, met his wife in Singapore in 1993 when he was working as a quantity surveyor for George Wimpey.
The couple later moved to Hong Kong where Paul worked on the new international airport. They married in 1996, had 3 children and moved to Kalibo in 2002 to retire. The town is the stopping off point for the nearby paradise island of Boracay.
His brother Mr. Peter Roberts said: “This is a big shock. Paul was very amiable, very easy going, and very happily married.”
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Sometimes one has to really admire the Thai way of doing things. What went on down in Phuket this week was quite superb by Thai standards and my hat comes off for Amuporn Siripong one of the prosecutors in the local court.
I am talking about the case of Simon Burrowes. He is the Brit, who, after being wrongly arrested at Phuket airport on a false passport charge, let forth with a flurry of expletives at Immigration officials, who were treating him like a West African drugs dealer.
His case has been all over this website this year. But if you have not heard about him, Simon is a black Brit, something of a novelty to Immigration officials, who believe, not without some previous history in Thailand, that black people, usually have drugs down their underpants. He is something of a martial arts expert and had been in Thailand as trainer for British former kick-boxing champion Matthew Nagle.
Simon’s problems were compounded, or possibly initiated, by the fact the on a Friday morning in January a British Embassy official told Thai police that they could find no record of his passport, so off went tourist Simon to the squalid Phuket jail, where he remained for three weeks, while Embassy officials established the truth, and his bail money arrived.
Thai police dropped the false passport charge, but proceeded with the’ insulting immigration officers ‘charge. There was a matter of ‘saving face’.
After my story hit the mainstream British press, after first appearing in the black people’s newspaper ‘The Voice’ and ‘Phuketwan’, a progressive Phuket internet news site, Simon began receiving a lot of support.
He had lost his ticket home, his apartment and job in London, as a result of Immigration Police action. The matter has been taken up by his M.P. in England Dawn Butler, who had written to Lord Malloch-Brown, a Cabinet member and former Deputy Secretary General at the U.N.
Of course there were the usual ‘Hang the nigger’ type comments on Thaivisa.com, Thailand’s bastion forum for red-necked foreigners , but some pretty good people stepped forward. A businessman gave him 20,000 baht (about £400). A Thai girl back home in London rang her parents and they put him up in a hotel in Bangkok for a month. And previously in Phuket he had been given free accommodation and gym membership by local Thais, and a ‘British’ couple whom he had met on holiday.
Simon came to visit me at home and we laid on a Sunday lunch and invited around some very good Thais with the right connections. Calls were made, when it came to the court case, everybody involved knew Simon’s predicament, and a Thai solution was found quickly.
Simon was told admit the insults, explain the reasons for his anger, and he would be out of the court the same day with a nominal fine. (I was thinking between 1,000 and 5,000 Thai baht £20-£100).
He had a good reason to be angry but no defence to abusing the police, except for a strong plea of mitigating circumstances.
The day before the court case, of course, things began to go wrong.
I flew on ahead to Phuket and from my hotel rang Simon’s lawyer at Simon’s request. For the first time in a month he answered his mobile phone to me (on Embassy instructions according to his assistant, but probably not)
I asked the lawyer to come and see me and Simon in the hotel. Not possible, he said, he was busy.
I told him it was quite important as Simon was due in the court in the morning and had a pre-arranged meeting with the prosecutor.
I’m going to paraphrase the next bit but it went something like this.
Lawyer: “What do you mean he’s meeting the prosecutor?”
AD:“Simon says he is pleading guilty. He would rather go home than wait for a year or two for a result.”
Lawyer:“What do you mean? I am his lawyer. Why is he pleading guilty? What did he do wrong? He’s pleading not guilty.”
AD: “Well he has sworn at immigration officials, and they have four officers who are going to testify to that. What defence are you putting in for him then because he does not know!”
Lawyer:“Don’t tell me the law, I have been practising law for XX years”
“And I am a journalist who has seen foreigners being screwed by Thai lawyers for 20 years!”
(click) The lawyer put down the phone.
Suddenly, as any expatriate living in Thailand will know, I had put myself in quite a dangerous situation, separating a Thai lawyer from his money! If the case goes as the lawyer wishes, it could run, and run and run. On the other hand my card may have been marked…not for the first time.
Even in the implausible situation that Simon could win, all the prosecution needed to do was appeal, another four years, and then another four if it were go to the Supreme Court, and all with Simon stuck in Thailand without any ability to earn any money.
I met up with Simon, got him a room at my hotel, and later we went off to dine with a lovely young couple called Luke and Saskia ( I love that name), who live in Andorra, that glorious tax haven in the Pyrenees.
They had paid for Simon’s gym for a month. Saskia and Luke eat healthy foods, don’t smoke or drink, study yoga etc. I rather think I was fulfilling the role of typical Fleet St hack with my beer and Bensons.
Before we left Saksia said to Simon words to the affect ‘Keep cool. Eat a little humble pie. Understand the culture!’.
“Sure”, said Simon.
Phuket Provincial Court Monday
With some enlisted help from Oi (Chutima) at ‘Phuketwan’ we finally get to see prosecutor Umaporn Siripong. We don’t need to tell her the story.
Simon Burrowes with Oi from 'Phuketwan' outside the court
She knows it in every detail. She has had calls from Bangkok. She totally understands why Simon got angry and so does the court. It’s no big deal. Simon could enter his plea of guilty and everything would be over by lunch time.
In steps indignant Simon. He questions the evidence presented by the Immigration officials, bit by bit. “I did not say ‘F..ck you’. I said ‘f*cking idiot” etc. etc. etc.
Simon does not get it. He has been advised by lots of people and they are all telling him the same.
‘Bend like a straw and they will not break you! ‘
Meanwhile his lawyer is trying to break in. He was expecting a quick adjournment for trial.
Simon refuses to sign a form pleading guilty. We go outside. Now it’s my turn to use the four letter words. I tell him if he contests the evidence, even though its embellished, then the prosecution have no choice but to call the Immigration police witnesses one by one. ‘When that happens Simon ‘You’re f..cked’. I said raising my voice and look around to see more than a few eyes on me. Yep that word is fairly international.
Agreement is reached whereby he does not have to sign the form, but can admit the matter in court and then explain the circumstances. At last!
Outside Simon continuously writes copious notes. He has written his defence but been unable to print it out from his computer for the translator. He wants to make his speech.
Back into court. With Oi by his side as translator he is asked did he wish to plead guilty or not guilty.
I am about five ft behind him. Silence. ………………..
The question is repeated. Simon is alternatively looking at the ceiling and the ground. Simon mumbles.
Clearly after his experience in Phuket jail and his treatment at the hands of Immigration, a guilty plea is a bitter pill to swallow.
The judge calls for a temporary adjournment.
A message comes through from the prosecutor. ‘Ask Simon to keep calm. There is no reason to worry. He is only going to be fined and not much either”. Oi has to interrupt Simon and his lawyer, now huddled in a corner of the court, to pass the message on.
Outside the court room Simon’s lawyer grabs him and starts talking about three year prison sentences and how he can get the sentences suspended. I interrupt angrily. ‘Stop talking rubbish to your client. There is no thought of a prison sentence here!”
Finally Simon signs his guilty plea. The judges come back. “Fined 500 baht. Case dismissed”. It was over in seconds.
Afterwards I look at Simon’s notes. Thank God. The prosecutor Umaporn has saved Simon from himself. He has written a long winded diatribe essentially lecturing police on their professionalism.
As soon as the judge had heard that he would have had no choice but to order a trial!
Afterwards Oi and I have a laugh. Being a foreigner I can understand Simon’s paranoia with the Thai court system. But he did not realise how close he was to a long exile in Thailand!
Meanwhile his lawyer has applied for the return of the bail of 100,000 Thai baht baht (£2000) and tells Simon he will send the change to the British Embassy.
We teach Simon the Thai expression ‘The sugar cane has already entered the elephant’s mouth’. And I’m thinking, as any self respecting journalist would, here’s one guy who is going to get away with unreceipted expenses.
Simon, asks for his papers in the case. The lawyer says they will be sent to the British Embassy too.
The British Embassy is the last place Simon wants to go to.
I leave Simon later in the afternoon. He has an appointment with Immigration the following morning to sort out his visa. He wants to celebrate. I’m knackered. As I leave I recall Simon quoting a British Embassy official telling him: “We empathise with your self-righteousness”. The British Embassy spokesman said later that the Embassy could not recall such a quote. I cannot help laughing. The Embassy guy had it spot on (that is if he can recall it).
Paradise on the cliff but you have to climb it
I settle into a hotel in Kalim Bay, switch on the box and pick up a guest copy of The Phuket Magazine, the glossy mag aimed at people with far too much money who want to spend $US2-4 million on a property in Phuket they can never own. This issue also has an obsequious feature on a former British Honorary Consul’s furniture business.
I put the magazine down. Once you have read the expression ‘Heaven on Earth’ three times in the same magazine, you know ‘Heaven on earth’ it is not!
The owner of this magazine complained to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand after the Tsunami in 2004 about all the adverse publicity the island was getting. His message essentially was why don’t the press all sod off to Indonesia where the problems were much worse.
Actually Thailand was the story for the foreign press because that’s where all our foreign nationals were. But for Phuket businessman it was all, cash, cash, cash.
Heaven on earth?
Anyway the following morning I am sitting by the horizon pool at my ‘paradise cliff-side’ hotel, thinking sod this I’d rather be in Bangkok with my daughter who had let out a huge: “Waaaaaaaaaaaa!” when I told her on Sunday I was off on a plane.
I check out and get the next plane home. Besides the problem about staying at a cliff side paradise means you have to climb the bloody cliff to get to it.
At the airport my phone is buzzing with sms’s from Simon. Turned out he had hired a motorcycle and gone celebrating. He had missed his appointment at immigration due to the fact that the ‘c..t’ who rented him his bike did not tell him the fuel gauge was faulty.
By the time I’m back with daughter Annie
Annie
in Bangkok Simon has been to immigration, where they are demanding 20,000 baht, to give him a visa. His ‘overstay’, they explain, was his own fault! Oh well, another time, another day. Seems Immigration had wanted their day in court!
Simon’s case could so easily have been lost in the system. I have a feeling he still has issues. And I understand why.
So here’s a few lessons for Brits from Simon’s experience
1. When you rent a motorcycle in Thailand open the tank and check the fuel. Normally there is only enough to get you to pump. Sometimes not even that.
2. The British Embassy place a ‘disclaimer’ at the end of their list of English speaking lawyers. This means, if you are diddled, you’re on your ownsome chum!
3. Do not take on Thai police, particularly Immigration Police, without backing at the highest level, preferably Prime Ministerial, and even then probably not. Nobody wins, especially not foreigners.
4. The word ‘f*cking’ is offensive and is well known by the Thais. Normal people find this word offensive, even when used purely to emphasis a point, even where I come from. Do not use it in conjunction with the term ‘bitch’ to describe a female immigration officer, or ‘country’ to describe ‘Thailand’. You could be charged in your home country if you said the same. If you wish to swear, Welsh or Gaelic are still options but smile when you do.
5. When a Thai lawyer says you have nothing to worry and you can sue the pants off everyone, estimate your sentence at something between 40 years and life.
6. Get Simon to tell you his prison story. I almost cried with laughter. You’ll have to buy him a beer first though.
Postscript: I have been asked if Simon’s case was so simple why could not the matter have been dealt with back in February. On investigation the answer is: ‘April 27th was the first date Simon’s lawyer said he was available’.
Edited 30 April: Reason: Outrageous spelling gaffe, obsequiousness, and not enough laughs
Link to Evening Standard Link to Evening Times
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
A leader of the red-shirted army of embittered Thai ex-Premier Thaksin Shinawatra today announced an end to the protest which brought holiday chaos to the Thai capital.
With the red-shirted army in complete disarray in Bangkok today and cornered around government house, Veera Musikapong, one of its five leaders announced: “The protest is over”.
He added: “But that does not mean we have surrendered. We do not want any more of our supporters injured.”
Buses were laid on by the government to take the protesters home. Musikapong urged supporters to head for the northern bus terminal and be careful.
Then together with other protest leaders he surrendered himself to Police Commissioner-General Pol Gen Phatcharawat Wongsuwan, Thailand’s police chief.
With the exception of Thaksin Shinawatra all the leaders were all in the bag.
The announcement came after the number of supporters of the so-called ‘Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorshop’ which last week topped 100,000 had dwindled to just two or three thousand.
Overnight they had disappeared in droves. Many looked anxious as they left the barricades, abandoning their red shirts, hats and scarves.
As thousands began their return to the North Eastern provinces, the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, a school chum of Boris Johnson, can claim a major political victory.
Almost miraculously there have been only two deaths in two days of fighting in the streets of Bangkok, and neither of them was inflicted by government forces.
The two fatalities came when red-shirts clashed with market traders at the city’s Nang Lerng market. And one of them a 53-yr-old man was shot dead by a Thaksin supporter.
Overnight two soldiers were also injured in drive-by gun attacks.
Today is a black day for Thaksin Shinawatra , who commanded tremendous support from the poor people of north east Thailand , whose voting power alone can pull down a government.
For over a week he had urged his ‘red-shirts’ to converge on Bangkok and bring the government of Eton and Oxford educated Prime Minister to its knees. For a day it looked like they were winning as they stormed a conference of ASEAN ministers in the resort of Pattaya, causing them to flee back to their home countries.
Egged on by their success, the red-shirts then marched again on Bangkok gathering over 100,000. As tourists were urged to leave, and the British Government advised travellers not to come to Bangkok, the situation looked grim.
But 43-yr-old Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva , who himself was hit with by a flying brick, hastily called police and army chiefs together. Yesterday the army moved in destroying barricades and sending protesters fleeing by firing volleys of predominantly blank shots.
Today, despite complaints by Thaksin, best known in Britain as the one time owner of Manchester City Football Club and known to fans as ‘Frankie, that the Army had fired real bullets and that the army had ‘hidden’ the bodies, there appeared little evidence to back his claims.
He had described the crackdown as brutal. But many found irony in the remarks made by a former Prime Minister who has been widely condemned by Human Rights organisations, not only over the disappearance of human rights activists but for the injudicial killing of over 2,500 in his self initiated ‘War on Drugs.”
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, said: “Thaskin Shinawatra does not believe in democracy and never did. It is not in his nature.”
As for the remaining protesters he said: “They can continue to protest if they wish, but they must do it peacefully.”
Surrounded and without food and water supplies in the hottest week of the year they are not expected to stay long.
Mr. Vejjajiva said he would continue to try and unite the country and would listen to complaints from poor farmers from North Eastern Thailand.
A black pall of smoke from burning tyres rose over Bangkok. But there was little else to show the weeks days of chaos. Revellers celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year, carried on with the tradition of dousing themselves with water, a custom which has turned riotous, but all in good nature. And the army and police joined in.
‘
Irish Mail on Sunday
From Andrew Drummond, Hua Hin, Gulf of Thailand
Pictures: Andrew Chant
WHEN the chips are down and all seems lost, there’s nothing better to do than seek solace in the tropical sun, sip a cocktail of tropical fruits and be pampered with a massage of coconut oil.
While last week’s Budget will see much of the country resigned to a day trip to Trabolgan or sitting uncomfortably on 
the pebbly beach at Tramore this summer, Seán Dunne sat back and soaked up the rays yesterday in Thailand.
Despite his spectacular losses after the refusal of planning permission on his Ballsbridge site - the most expensive property ever purchased in Ireland - the recession doesn’t seem to have hit ‘the Dunner’ too hard. But although it was the fifth anniversary of his marriage in Thailand, it can’t be said that the man once known as the Baron of Ballsbridge was just throwing his cash away.
On the contrary, after undergoing a three-day, e5,000 health course with his wife, Gayle, in an exclusive health spa, the couple checked out and decided to slum it down the road.
Seán and Gayle took a break from Dublin to fly to Thailand’s exclusive Chiva-Som Health Spa in the Thai resort of Hua Hin, a hotspot for ‘A’ list stars. Prices at the Chiva- Som start at e1,516 per person for a minimum of three days and can cost up to e51,000 a month.
At those prices, it seems a short course would suffice and, with Dunner apparently tugging at his purse strings, the couple decided to move 500 yards along the road to a more humble but not exactly bottomdrawer location - the five-star Hyatt Regency Resort.
The Hyatt Regency is set in four acres of tropical gardens with swimming pools, slides, a gym and a spa. There the couple booked into a e230-a-night Regency Club room. Still, it was perhaps not quite up to their requirements. For the last two mornings, the couple have been sneaking out of the Hyatt Regency and heading back along the beach to the Chiva-Som, which boasts David and Victoria Beckham among its clientele.
Yesterday, Gayle left the Hyatt in blue tracksuit bottoms and a white top at 9.15am. Mr Dunne followed shortly at 9.30am, wearing shorts and a white Beijing Olympics T-shirt, walking briskly along the beach and up the steps of the rival resort. After five-and-a-half hours, Mr Dunne - who recently told the New York Times ‘if the banking crisis continues I could be considered insolvent’ - returned alone to the Hyatt.
Gayle returned two hours later, this time wearing a blue patterned dress. Mr Dunne will have many memories of his times at the Hua Hin. He was there when he entered the record books as the most reckless property speculator in Irish history, when he bid for his Ballsbridge site.
According to an interview he gave at the time, the deadline for bids was drawing near and he was trying to decide on an offer of between e253m and e275m when his wife Gayle walked in. He asked her to pick any number between 253 and 275, without telling her what it was for. Gayle picked 275 and Dunne then instructed his solicitor to bid e275m.
’After all the work and science that goes into tenders, that’s what it boils down to,’ the property tycoon said in an interview after he had won the bid. Now, as the taxpayer picks up the pieces after a boom driven by such speculative buying, it seems Seán Dunne still has enough in the coffers to ease the stress of his losses. Perhaps he can relax more than many. Debt-ridden property speculators will soon come under pressure from NAMA - the agency established to go after developers’ toxic debts, but Dunne will not be in its sights. He borrowed money from British lender Ulster Bank - which is not covered by the bank guarantee scheme - and not from one of the banks that has been bailed out by Irish taxpayers.
Just across the Gulf of Thailand in Pattaya, an angry mob was besieging the Royal Cliff Hotel, where ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, were meeting. Unhappy Thais who support former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have been venting their fury. Shinawatra was ousted in a coup and then convicted of corruption, In Ireland this weekend, families are still reeling from the most brutal Budget the country has seen.
But in Thailand, under clear blue skies and tropical palms and with kite-boarders gliding across the sea in front of the two hotels, such problems seemed very far away indeed
By same author
Link to Evening Standard Link to Daily Express
Link to Daily Telegraph Link to Daily Mirror
Link to Andrew Drummond at Sky News
Link to Guardian story (though lifted from Evening Standard)
Grandmother tells of her dramatic escape from pirates as she stood in the blood of her husband
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
Pictures: Andrew Chant/Linda Robertson
A 57-yr-old British grandmother told today of her dramatic escape from pirates, who boarded her yacht, murdered her husband and then bound her naked like a ‘trussed chicken’.
Linda Robertson sobbed as she spoke of how she realised her husband had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer and thrown into the sea off the coast of Thailand. “I knew because I was walking in his blood.”
And she told how she upped anchor and put the boat on full throttle as three Burmese migrant fisherman attempted to retake control of their 44 ft yacht Mr. Bean, when they realised the dinghy they were making an escape in had a duff engine.
After a nine ordeal bound with her hands and feet tied behind her, the fishermen had finally agreed to leave in the boats dinghy with a paltry collection of computers, mobile phones, and electronic equipment.
“But they had only got thirty yards when the engine began to splutter as I knew it would,” said Linda.
“They turned back to the boat. So I rushed to pull up the anchor, which was quite easy, because they had only let out thirty yards. Then I put the boat into full throttle and headed out to see leaving them behind.
“Then I saw them head to shore and I knew my ordeal was over and I was safe. I cannot believe I survived.”
The drama began for the two semi-retired grandparents Linda and Malcolm Robertson early on Tuesday morning.
Police believe that 64-yr-old Malcolm Robertson, who runs a chain of coffee shops in St. Leonard’s, Sussex, may have also had his throat cut due to the quantity of blood found on the boat.
12. 35 a.m.
“We were on a mooring bay off the Buntang Islands, the last Thai islands before Malaysia, when I heard the sound of people clambering aboard.
“I was in the stern cabin and my husband Malcolm was in the forepeak cabin. I was naked. It was a very hot night. Three young men came in. They were holding hammers and they pushed me back and tied and gagged me.
“Then they went towards the forward cabin and I heard my husband shouting ‘Get off my boat!’.
“I heard a scuffle and did not hear any more. They came back to me and made signs to me to start the engine, which I did.”
“There was no sign of my husband,” she said and sobbed: “I think this was the first time I realised he might be dead. I waited and listened and heard nothing.
“The night was pitch black and the boat headed north. They put me back in my cabin all trussed up and would come and get me if they had a problem.
02.30 am Tuesday:
“First they wanted to know how the fuel system worked, and I showed them. They did not know where the switches were.
“But as I walked through the boat I realised I was walking through the blood of my husband.
“From that moment on I knew I was just fending for my life and might have to fight for it or take my chance in the ocean. I made gestures as if to ask ‘Are you going to kill me?’.
“They made signs to say ‘No’ they were going to leave when they had finished and pointed to the clock in my cabin.
“One, the youngest was trying to be kind, even though he was guarding me with a machete. He brought me food and drink.
“He kept saying ‘I am sorry’. Possibly one of the few English phrases he knew and he brought me some food and drink from the galley.”
6 am:
“By 6 am it was already quite light. We had been motoring for over five hours and the dawn gave me hope. My hands and feet were swelling because I was trussed up naked like a chicken. It was all very degrading. I could not cover anything up.
“But if you think you are going to die all such matters become secondary.
“The boat stopped. It was then my thoughts turned to escape. One of the men came down and asked me how to put down the anchor. It was then that they started to ransack the boat.
“I could still neither see nor hear any sound of my husband. But earlier there had been a sound and movement as if something was being moved to another boat. I realised later it was my husband being put into the sea.
“I thought this is the time to escape. I tried to dive off the boat, but left it too late and was caught off balance. I started to run away from them. I was on top forward next to the hatch above my husband’s bunk, and I was standing in his blood.
“They caught me and tied me even more severely. Then we headed north for another three hours or so and the boat started to slow again.
9.30 am:
“They dropped anchor again. By this time I estimated we must have travelled seventy or eighty miles north. I could see fishing boats. The men put me back in the cabin and shut the hatch and I heard them start the 2 horsepower Yahama engine of the rubber dinghy.
Linda Roberton in Mr. Bean’s dinghy
10.30 am:
“I managed to free myself and get out onto the deck. I knew the dinghy would play up and had to act quickly. Only Malcolm knew how to deal with it. I switched on the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon). Then I looked to see to my horror that the pirates were attempting to paddle back to the boat.
“If they knew I had switched on the distress system, I thought, they would kill me for sure.
“I ran and pulled up the anchor. Luckily they had played out only 30 feet of chain, so it was quite easy. I started the engine and headed out towards the fishing boats. I looked around and saw the pirates heading towards the shore.
“I could not believe the pirates had left me. I headed towards the fishing fleet putting out Mayday signals.
“Then I started waving my blue and white sarong and shouted ‘Mayday’. But as I approached them the fishing boats began to turn away from me.
11 am:
“I do not think the fishermen knew what a Mayday situation was. I had to almost ram them to get their attention.
“I pulled Mr. Bean alongside one of the boats. It was a futile situation. They ignored me to I jumped off my boat onto the fishing boat.
“I would not go back to my boat. I did not want to feel Malcolm’s blood on my feet. They could see I was distressed though, but they did not understand what I was saying, so they called the police.
“Soon along came a boat with Rangers from the Turatao National Park. They had uniforms and badges, I would not let them go. I was scared to stay alone with the fisherman. I thought perhaps they might know the pirates or even be working with them.
“Then along came a police launch with four policemen in camouflage combat gear and machine guns.
“I don’t know how I managed to explain it to them. But eventually they got the message, I pointed to the headland, which the dinghy had gone behind, and the police sped off in the right direction.
“Shortly afterwards they brought all them men back and told me they were Burmese migrant workers who were working with the local fishing fleet. They were very proud they had caught them so soon.
“I recognised them immediately. Some of them were even wearing Malcolm’s clothes, because they had swum to our boat in the middle of the night wearing only shorts.
“Malcolm and I know this area well. It is really beautiful. We were planning to berth our boat in Langkawi and then return home. We have been here for the last three seasons.
“The Thai people have been very kind. They are lovely people. We do not blame them for all this.
“Nurses have given me pills to help me sleep. But they do not stop me having nightmares.
“I hope they find Malcolm’s body, but I have no idea of the lats and longs (latitudes and longitudes), of where he was thrown overboard.”
Mrs. Robertson broke down several times as she spoke to me from her hospital bed in Satun, South Thailand, but she cheered up at the thought of being re-united with three of her and Malcolm’s four grown up children who arrive in Thailand later this evening.
“Thank god I managed to get a message back home. I would hate to have them get the news of Malcolm’s death from the television.”
After we spoke Linda was taken back by the police, accompanied by a friend, to collect some personal belongings.
She did not witness a special ‘reconstruction of the crime’ as police also lead the Burmese ’suspects’ back to re-enact what they did for cameras.
Thai police said they would ask the prosecutor to call for the death penalty for the pirates but they admitted that the Burmese pirates claimed they had run away themselves from a Thai fishing boat where the captain had treated them as slaved.
“They told us they saw the yacht and dived for their freedom. They boarded the yacht intending to take the dinghy but Mr. Robertson was killed when he resisted them. They tried to get as far away as possible from the fishing fleet they were with. They decided to rob the boat because they had not been paid.”
In January 2006 two Thai fishermen swum ashore to Lamai Beach on the island of Koh Samui in the middle of the night to rape and murder Briton Katherine Horton, 21, from Cardiff. They were later sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
There have been no recent attacks on yachts in Southern Thailand, but Tarutao National Park off Satun, where Linda finally made her escape was an area notorious for pirates during the Second World War, when both guards and prisoners, from two prisons on the island of Turatao went into the piracy business.
The pirates were finally quelled by British troops sent up from what was then known as Malaya.
A well known Thai novel ‘The Pirates of Turatao’ is based on this period.
Link to Nation newspaper. This news copy oddly appared on Letters Page
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
A British tourist who was falsely arrested in Thailand on a fake passport charge, beaten, then jailed for three weeks, said today that he would be happy to apologise to the Thai authorities, for ‘airport rage’.
Simon Burrowes (right), 44, from Wembley, London, admitted that he swore at Immigration authorities, in an airport rage incident at Phuket airport last January, after his flight - for which he had a non-refundable ticket -left without him.
He said he may have made derogatory references about immigration officials and Thailand, but he hoped immigration police would understand why he was angry and ‘not detain me indefinitely’.
He said he was not the only person in the wrong.
He had already had to give up his flat in London because he cannot pay the rent.
Burrows, a martial arts expert had just been on a working holiday to Phuket accompanying former British kick-Boxing champion Matthew Nagle (below)as his trainer. Both were studying Muay Thai in Phuket.
However on the day of departure when the two men went through the Immigration channel, Simon, a black person, whose father was born in Guyana, was detained and accused of having a false passport.
Burrowes complained that as the minutes passed by officials just stared at his passport with a magnifying glass. He was annoyed, he said, because he knew there was nothing wrong with his passport, he had a completely clean record, and his flight was about to leave without him.
“The officials kept telling me. Don’t worry your flight will not leave without our permission, but it did. I did lose my temper, but a lot of people would have done under similar circumstances,” he said adding that he was also humiliated.
He admitted grabbing his passport, storming back into the airport foyer and demanding to see the head of immigration. After being interrogated for another two hours, he said he was charged with travelling under a false passport and taken to the nearest police station.
He case was not helped by an official from the British Embassy who spoke to Phuket Police the same Friday morning saying they could find no record of his passport being issued.
“I begged Embassy officials to double check. I knew my passport was legal. I had been using it for ten years. But the Embassy closed at lunchtime on the Friday and all they could do was ‘prioritise’ the matter the following week. They knew I would have to go to jail.”
It took ‘three working days’ for the British Embassy to confirm Burrowes’ passport was in fact genuine. But when they finally told him in Phuket prison 11 days after his arrested, they informed him that Thai Immigration Police were going ahead with charges of insulting a uniformed official.
Burrowes said he was beaten with a leather strap by a policeman as he was led to court, and unable to raise bail because he had spent all his holiday money. As a result he was imprisoned in Phuket for three weeks, sharing a space 126 x 52 cms with over 100 other prisoners, until money could be sent to him.
His first trial date is set for April 27. In Thailand’s antiquated legal system the case could last a year.
“Some wonderful kind hearted local people are looking after me and people who have read about my case have been very kind too,” added Burrowes. “That’s a blessing.”
A British Embassy spokesman said: “The validity of Mr. Burrowes’ passport was resolved within three working days. We proceeded to check the validity of the passport immediately upon being informed by the police of his arrest on the Friday.”
Links
Below is the link to the ‘Help Simon’ website
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53934288860&ref=mf
Other versions of this story by same author
Link to Daily Telegraph - Briton murdered in tribal ritual in Thailand
Link to Daily Mail - British Music Teacher murdered by killer who used hilltribe ritual to escape
Link to The SUN - British music teacher
Link to Guardian - British teacher murdered in Thailand
Link to Evening Standard - Expat murdered in Thailand
Link to Daily Record - Scottish teacher murdered by tribesman in Thailand
Link to The Scotsman -Teacher ‘was victim of Thai tribal killing’
Link to Sky News - Tribal clue to murder of British music teacher
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
January 22 2009
A British music teacher and musical director was found brutally murdered in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai early today.
And the culprit, said police, performed a hill tribe ritual to hide his deed from animist spirits to aid his escape.
Police suspect the killer of Derby born David Lyall Crisp, 56, was a member of the Shan, a hill tribe which straddles the Burma-Thai border.
Before the killer left the murder scene he smashed the ceiling light in Crisp’s home office on the Lakeland Estate in Chiang Mai, a custom which Shan tribesmen believe would put the police off their trail.
“Shan believe if they destroy the light the spirits will not see them and they will be harder to catch. The superstition has remained since electricity generators was introduced with difficulty into some hill tribe villages,” said Police Colonel Pattipol Serichaichana.
The body of David Lyall was found shortly after 10 am. “He had beaten about the head with a teak mug. His throat had also been cut with a six inch knife and the murderer tried to finish the act off by smothering him in a cloth which covered his piano,” added Colonel Pattipol.
David Crisp was a prominent member of the Chiang Mai expatriate community. He drove a BMW 5 series, and owned a classic Citroen and was a member of the Classic Cars of Lanna (the old northern kingdom of Thailand) Club.
He was also director of a choral society known as the ‘Spirit House Singers’ and earned a living from writing and directing music and teaching the piano.
But David Crisp also dabbled in the gay bars for which the northern capital is famous and according to his housekeeper Prinjai Saedin, 73: “He often brought young men home, so I knew he was gay. But I don’t think he would ever harm anyone”.
Two young men whom, known only as Wan and Am, whom he had brought from a gay bar to live at the back of his house, have since disappeared, possibly fearing they would be blamed.
But on January 20th he had brought home a young man who has not been seen since. Police Colonel Pattipol said enquiries were being carried out around the gay bars in Chiang Mai’s night market. When his body was found Crisp had been dead or at least 24 hours.
“We believe the murderer is of Shan origin because of the ritual of smashing the light. It appears the murderer made away in his second car a Citroen, which we have found, and may have taken a safe with him as there are drag marks outside his front door.”
Other local superstitions collected by Richard Barrow, a Briton teaching in Thailand.
*Do not let your children play with shadows during the evening. The shadow guy will come and take them away.
* Do not walk with your face down. It will make your life shorter.
* Do not stamp around the house. It will scare the spirits of the house.
* Do not walk heavily. You won’t be able to save any money.
* Do not walk across any sharp objects. It will make them blunt.
* Do not cut your nails during the night-time. It will be like breaking the bones of your ancestors.
* Do not take off your clothes or sleep next to the closet. A ghost will come to haunt you.
Author’s note: Since this article was published the Shan Herald News Agency have been in touch to point out that they are unaware of any such superstition connected to the Shan. Indeed I have not heard of such a superstition attributed to the Shan. The source of such superstitions and the ones above gathered by Richard Barrow are rather vague. Such a superstition would much more probably be grounded in animism, which some people living in Tai Yai areas and in the Shan States of Burma can follow, no matter what their religious beliefs. I am treating this as just another statement issued by Thai police, who had been told that Crisp knew some young Shan men, until the next development, and trust the Shan or Tai Yai, will not take this as a personal affront. I have worked and filmed with the Shan and those who know me will not have done so.
A reader has pointed out that the Shan are a race NOT a hill tribe. So are the Karen etc. As I Scot I am prepared to go along with that and not be pedantic and not go too far back in history. But its not what the English used to think of the Scots according to the words of their old national anthem!
Thai crisis leaves thousands of tourists trapped at Bangkok airport
Link to Daily Telegraph article
Britons face long wait to get home
Britons miss out on flights
Thai protesters agree to lift blockade of airports after court sacks government
Britains may face more Thai chaos
Bomb blast kills one at airport
Evening Standard - Court sacks Thai government
thai-government-sacked-pm-to-step-down-after-being-found-guilty-of-corruptionj
Daily Mail - first flights out of Suvarnabhumi
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, December 1st 2008
The airlift of passengers trapped in the Far East took off in earnest last night as airlines came to the rescue of most nationalities - except for thousands of desperate Britons.
SAS had three flights for Scandinavians from Phuket, KLM came to the rescue of the Dutch. Air France provided a flight for the French. Jet Airways flew to the aid of the Indians. The Spanish provided military aircraft for their own nationals, Philippines Airlines went to the aid of Filipinas and the Italian government asked Alitalia to help their nationals.
Even Communist China has already got its citizens home on four rescue flights with just one more flight by China Southern Airlines to compete the job.
To add to that Thai Airways operated additional flights to Germany, China, Australia, Russia, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong ….but none to Britain.
But Britain had nothing on offer. Some of the luckier Britons were bussed 12 hours to Phuket to get a flight by Eva Air, the Taiwanese airline, who were offering one direct flight to the U.K.
So last night hapless Britons, many of whom had been trapped in Thailand since last Tuesday when anti-government forces took over Bangkok’s two airports, joined the long queues at U-Tapao airbase, 130 miles east of Bangkok, in the hope of getting home via another country.
The only other alternative was to get down to the island of Phuket and hitch a ride on one of three Quantas airbuses to Singapore where the Britons, were told they could wait for a flight to London. Quantas runs code share flights with British Airways.
Last night at U-Tapau airport Briton Neil Lindsay, 53, queuing miserably to get a flight to Frankfurt said: “ I now know that to be British it to be a world second class citizen. “I’m in the check in queue with a Welshman. I have been here forty minutes and have not got inside the terminal yet. “There are hundreds of Indian and other nationalities and all queues seem to funnel into one small door.”
Mr. Lindsay, from Wade Bridge in Cornwall, who has been stuck in the Ambassador Conference hotel in the Thai resort of Pattaya since last Wednesday added: “We are stuck here without a hope, but all the Germans sent to our hotel have gone home already. The last went on Saturday. We Brits just keep getting bumped.”
Lindsay is among 121 Britons of 1,200 Thai airlines passengers who were bussed by airline to Pattaya, 90 miles east of Bangkok from the besieged Suvarnabhumi international airport last Wednesday. At least 7000 Britons are now thought to be stranded in Thailand out of a total of 240,000 tourists.
“It’s quite clear that Brits are well down the pecking order when it comes to getting home. I have not seen any British Consular officials, but the Aussies have been here in force and I know they have flown to Phuket too, and have been using their influence to get their citizens home,” said Mr. Lindsay .
“I’ve seen them so often I know the Australian Consular people by name. “The British group keep putting their names on the list and they keep getting bumped off. Thai Airways have told us we can take their flights to Frankfurt, and then we are on our own. But we still get bumped.
“To my knowledge no Briton has managed to get on any of the flights to Frankfurt which have left over the last few days from U-Tapao. “I have seen people going out everyday and coming back dejected in the evening.
“I have rung up the Embassy twice, but they just say sit tight. I’m not surprised the Foreign Office will not supply charter flights to get us out, there are too many of us!
“I had been holidaying in Thailand in Northern Thailand and was due to fly back last Wednesday morning. My flight was one of the first to be cancelled.
“But that does not account for anything when it comes to getting a seat out of here. There has been queue jumping for any number of reasons.”
The Foreign Office has refused to charter aircraft on the grounds that that the skies over the provincial airport were too busy.
“The key issue is the fact the two airports in Bangkok are closed and therefore you’ve effectively got planes stacking up and not being able to get slots. The situation is tense and we are monitoring events hour by hour,” said Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell.
But the fact that many other airlines are flying seems to contradict that view.
There is hope today the People’s Alliance for Democracy who want the government to step down, will decide to end their occupation of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in Bangkok.
The Constitution Court in Bangkok is expected to rule that the government People’s Power Party, run by Premier Somchai Wongswawt, should be disbanded for vote buying.
Most of the hate of the protesters is directed at Somchai Wongsawat, who has retreated with his cabinet to the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai, and his protégé, Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law, who was ousted from Thailand in a military coup, convicted of corruption and recently banned from Bntain.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a brief owner of Manchester City Football Club, is believed to be directing the government from abroad and says he wants to come back and save his country.
Brits miss out on Thai flights - Sky News
Coverage by this author on the Bangkok airport protests
Link Thai protesters block second airport Daily Telegraph
Protester is shot dead as chaos engulfs Thailand - Evening Standard
1500 British tourists stranded in Bangkok - Daily Mail
Britons tell of being trapped by Thailand’s politicial crisis - Daily Telegraph
Crisis leaves thousands trapped in Thailand - Daily Express
Thugs crack down on Thai protesters - Daily Express
Police brace for raids on Bangkok airports - Daily Telegraph
Thai PM declares airport emergency - The SUN
Thai airport to remain shut - SKY NEWS
Britain will not charter planes to rescue tourists - Daily Telegraph
5000 Britons stranded in Thailand as Foreign Office refuses to charter planes - Daily Telegraph
Empty planes leave Bangkok as Britons remain stranded - Daily Telegraph
Thai Premier will not resign. Scene set for confrontation in Bangkok
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
November 26
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat tonight refused to step down saying ‘I have done nothing wrong’ and left it to police to deal with the yellow shirted protesters who have seized the country’s international airport.
Shortly after his return to Thailand from Peru to be greeted by red-shirted pro-government supporters in the northern capital of Chiang Mai, he immediately declined an invitation to resign made earlier in the day by Thai army chief General Anupong Paochinda.
His dry-mouthed 20 minute speech, which included a list of good things his government had done for the country, did little to allay fears that the long running dispute, involving thousands of tourists, would deteriorate rapidly.
And it immediately spelt bad news for thousands of tourists, soon to become tens of thousands, trapped in the country, on the closure of the world’s 18th busiest airport and at the beginning of the country’s tourism peak.
Among those trapped are hundreds of Britons, who are now being housed in hotels in Bangkok and on Thailand’s eastern seaboard. This number could rocket by a 1000 a day.
And last night there were real fears that a violent clash was imminent.
Earlier in the day General Anuporn Paochinda announced at a press conference that that best course of action to solve the dispute would be for the government to dissolve parliament and call new elections. Demonstrators of the PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy) should also relinquish their control of Bangkok International Airport , he said.
“I do not want to put pressure on the government,” he added.
Last night at Suvarnabhumi airport yellow shirted anti-government protesters jeered the speech by, the brother-in-law of ousted Prime Thaksin Shinawatra, and looked to all purposes as if they had dug in for a fight to the end.
A police operation to move thousands of them from the country’s new showcase international airport could cost millions of dollars and cause massive collateral damage.
After a night and day in which four bombs were set off , then tourists witnessed running fights at the airport, while outside anti-government shot at supporters of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s army chief General Anupong presented a possible solution which had been decided by an army monitoring panel, the General said.
Just hours before the General’s pronouncement, some 3,000 tourists trapped inside Suvarnabhumi airport were evacuated and taken on buses to hotels in Bangkok and the surrounding area, but some as far away as the resort of Pattaya 100 miles away. They were not told in advance where they were being taken, but assured that they would be found rooms.
Then the Airports Authority of Thailand began evacuating their own staff. Currently thousands of supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy are staying put and several tons of water and foodstuffs has been brought in.
Early yesterday several flights managed to land and take off from Suvarnabhumi before the airport was completely closed at 4.am. One of those was the British Airways Sydney-London flight, which had been diverted to Singapore.
On that flight was Geraldine an Investment Consultant from London who said: “I was amazed. People played down the troubles so much that all I expected was a couple of old men waving a stick. It was a shock to arrive to see thousands upon thousands of demonstrators.”
No sooner had the British Airways flight departed than bombs went off in several places, one outside Suvarnabhumi airport, one outside the former international airport at Don Muang, where the Thai Cabinet has been meeting since being ousted from Government House, and two in Bangkok city.
Some 18 people were injured but this fortunately there were no fatalities.
Overnight some 3,000 people slept over inside the airport’s departure and arrival halls: many making beds out of luggage trays.
Peter Pomfret, from Ealing, said: “All in all it was a good natured evening but not something I would like to repeat. I guess they know what they are protesting about.”
And in the morning an almost carnival atmosphere dominated the departure halls. Scores of PAD protesters wearing yellow shirts and ‘We Love the King’ baseball caps, weaved among the tourists distributing food,( rice, omelettes, soya bean milk) and water.
They also distributed leaflets apologising for the inconvenience to foreigners. ‘We’re sorry. We just need to bring down this corrupt government,” read one.
Tourists were told that the protesters planned only to be at the airport for one day
Said Don Lancaster, 63, from Clitheroe, Lancashire: “Its all been very pleasant, well for a protest that is. They have given me food, explained what they are complaining about, and even given me a plastic handclapper. They told me to clap it if I ever had any problems. Can’t get nicer than that.
“But this is no place for families. I have seen some families here with young children and they are getting pretty desperate. The worst thing of all is that nobody, no authorities, no airlines, has been telling us what is going on.”
John Taylor, 44, from Southampton, stuck with his wife and daughter said: “They have asked us to be patient. But how patient can you be with a two year old girl in tow. These people are causing real hurt. I don’t care what they are protesting about. Why take it out on us.”
PAD demonstrators who want an end to the current government led by Somchai Wongsawat, brother-in-law of disgraced former P.M. Thaksin Shinawatra, still a very popular figure among the rural poor, looked last night like they were prepared for a long siege, even though they claimed they just wanted to ‘greet’, or rather protest when Somchai returned from an Asia Pacific summit in Peru.
If they do not withdraw however, said General Anupong, they could be subject to ‘social action’ – and for that many people are reading military force.
Anupong has repeatedly said he will not initiate a coup against the current Thai government which was elected democratically and mainly on the vote of the rural poor.
But he is believed to be widely critical of a government which seems to be unable to come to any decision and has to meet in secret and now in Chiang Mai for fear of a PAD blockade.
globe-and-mail-police-killer-released
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
November 22 2008
Shock as Thai policeman who gunned down Canadians in Thailand is released and case halted.
The Thai policeman who gunned down two Canadian tourists in the Northern Thai village of Pai in January this year has been released without charge by a court in Bangkok.
And the case against the police sergeant who killed Leo Del Pinto, 24, from Calgary, and Carly Reisig, 23, from Chilliwack B.C., has been brought to an abrupt halt because of ‘procedural errors.”
The case against police sergeant Uthai Dechawiwat had earlier been taken out of the hands of local police and placed in the hands of the Department of Special Investigations, Thailand’s FBI, by former Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.
The Canadian Ambassador in Bangkok, David Sproule, who has expressed the Canadian government’s ‘serious concern’ was told by SDI officials , that they had been told by the Public Prosecutor that the procedural errors were made in the early stages of the investigation.
But those errors, the DSI claimed, were not by made by them but by colleagues of the policeman, Sergeant Uthai Dechawiwat in Pai Police, whose chief has already been reported to the National Counter Corruption Commission by Commissioner Dr. Surasee Kosolnavin of the Thai National Human Rights Commission.
A DSI official said: “ The clock has stopped, but we can start it again and bring the case to court in Bangkok.”
The case has again raised concerns about the difficulty in Thailand getting police to accept culpability for their own actions.
Leo’s father Ernie Del Pinto said in Calgary: “We all know there was a cover up in Pai. That is why I believe the DSI was ordered to take over the case. They should be above all this. This is very worrying. How long does it take to get any sort of justice in Thailand.”
The latest development is all the more surprising because a another Public Prosecutor was in the National Commission for Human Rights team which investigated the case in the vanguard of DSI officials.
Dr. Surasee Kosolnavin said that he would rather not comment, as it was now a DSI matter, other than that he was disappointed with the development.
After the shootings Pai in January Police claimed that Uthai was shooting upwards in self defence as he fell to the ground. An investigation by Thai forensic expert Pornthip Rojanansund, found the policeman had shot down into Del Pinto’s head.
The local police chief’s claim that Sergeant Uthai (pictured) was attacked by the couple was also disputed by witnesses who are under DSI protection.
Canadian officials were told that it was a prosecutor in the Office of Thailand’s Attorney General, who claimed the investigation had not followed proper procedures. Dechachiwat had to be released under a ruling which required that he go to trial within 84 days or be discharged. If they did not release him ,said the DSI, they would have difficulty recharging him. This could be done after the procedural errors were corrected.
Meanwhile Ernie Del Pinto, whose campaign in Canada includes posters on Calgary city buses reading ‘Canadian Murdered in Thailand. When will justice be served?’, says he is planning to fly to Thailand to push for justice.
In a previous case, that of Police Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh , who gunned down British backpackers Vanessa Arscott and Adam Lloyd in Kanchanaburi in 2004 , no witnesses would give evidence at his trial to say they saw the shooting, although they would admit as such to newspaper reporters. Wisetsingh was convicted on forensic evidence after the parents of both victims, accompanied by British Embassy officials, who had voiced Britain’s concern, met with officials of the Office of Attorney General, Tourist Authority of Thailand, and the Provincial Court.
Andrew Drummond in Bangkok
Thailand’s government party the People’s Power Party (PPP) today nominated a brother-in-law of exiled Premier Thaksin Shinawatra as the country’s Prime Minister, a move which could send the country spiralling into further chaos.
The PPP’s choice of Somchai Wongsawat is certain to antagonise the protesters who have occupied Government House for three weeks, accusing the government of being a puppet of the ousted premier.
Mr Somchai has been acting prime minister since last week, when Premier Samak Sundaravej was forced to step down by the Constitution Court, for breaking parliamentary rules by hosting a cookery programme on commercial television while P.M.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose protests have disrupted travel across the country, describing Mr Somchai, a former Minister of Education, as “Thaksin Number Three” vowed to continue in its bid to unseat the PPP.
Sathien Viriyapanpongsa, co-ordinator for the protesters in the People’s Alliance for Democracy said: “In 2006, we fought only to free the country from the grip of Thaksin [Shinawatra] without laying out long-term measures. Eventually, we got Thaksin episode 2 in the form of a proxy government led by Samak Sundaravej.
“Now we are being presented with Thaskin Episode 3. Our protests will continue. We cannot stop now. We can win.”
“We all know who Somchai is. Samak was just a nominee but Somchai is the real actor linked to Thaksin’s family,” PAD leader Somsak Kosaisuk told reporters. “We will not give him the benefit of the doubt or give him a honeymoon period.”
Mr Somchai’s ties to Mr Thaksin - his wife is Mr Thaksin’s younger sister - led to frequent cries of nepotism during his time as the top civil servant at the Justice Ministry. He denies the accusation, noting he got the job before Mr Thaksin came to power.
Somsak Kosaisook had already publicly stated that none of the PPP cabinet would be suitable as a Prime Minister.
The Thai Army is closely monitoring the situation and the end of the State of Emergency which was declared yesterday – even though the government are now planning to meet, not in government house, but at Bangkok’s old international airport at Don Muang.
But senior generals have repeatedly been quoted as saying they would not initiate a military coup.
Mr Samak had hoped to be voted back to power but last week Parliament could not find a quorum to vote him back in.
Mr Somchai is a barrister by profession and a former Chief Justice of Phang-Nga province in South Thailand. He also served in the Ministries of Labour and Justice.
The other possible contenders, Finance Minister Somporn Amornvivat and PPP Secretary Genereal Surapong Suebwonglee were also staunch allies of Mr Thaksin, who fled to London with his wife Pojaman, while on corruption charges. But they were not related to him by blood.
MR Somchai still has to be confirmed by Parliamentary vote on Wednesday, and with a large faction of the PPP now split, his appointment is by no means a forgone conclusion.
Andrew Drummond in Bangkok
Thailand was in a political deadlock today after the country’s parliament could not find a quorum to vote in a new Prime Minister.
Deposed Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who was forced to resign for breaking conflict of interest laws by going on a television show called Cooking and Grumbling, had hoped coalition government members, who have a massive parliamentary majority, would vote him back into power.
But most of the MPs boycotted the session, in what was seen as a time-buying move, while several different parties were in negotiation over the country’s leadership. The vote has now been delayed until next Wednesday.
Meanwhile thousands of supporters of Mr Sundaravej have arrived in Bangkok from the provinces, and exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is reported to have conveyed by phone his choice as new Prime Minister of Thailand.
The ‘Democracy against Dictatorship’ supporters have been bussed into the capital to counter demonstrations by the People’s Alliance for Democracy supporters who have taken over Government House, and last week paralysed airports in the country’s tourist hotspots.
PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang cancelled a planned protest by Young PAD, saying: “We do not want violence”.
The political turmoil has caused international tourist arrivals in Bangkok to drop by 70 per cent according to Charoen Wang-ananont, President of the Thai Tourist Services Association.
Holiday bookings to Thailand were being cancelled “right across the board” from Asia to Europe and already hotel occupancy was down 40 per cent for the time of the year, he said, calling for the state of emergency to be lifted.
Some 800,000 Britons travel to Thailand each year.
From The Times
August 20, 2008
Gary Glitter’s return prompts tighter sex offender laws
Richard Ford, Jack Malvern and Andrew Drummond in Bangkok
Child sex offenders are to face tighter travel restrictions after it emerged that existing laws would not curb Gary Glitter’s movements after he returns to Britain.
The measures to be announced by the Home Office today come as the 1970s glam-rock star heads for London after serving a 33-month sentence in Vietnam for molesting two girls.
Glitter, 64, was released yesterday and deported. He flew to Thailand but managed to avoid boarding his planned flight to Britain last night, complaining of fatigue and dizziness. He rented one of the small rooms at Bangkok airport that are available for passengers who want to rest and declared: “I’m not going back to London. You can’t make me. I’ve done my time. I’m a free man.”
The singer, who was told that he would be arrested if he tried to enter Thailand and whose requests to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong were denied, was travelling on a passport issued by the British consulate in Ho Chi Minh City last November. He has the same rights as any British citizen to travel to any country that does not require a visa.
Under the Home Office’s proposed measures, child sex offenders would have to renew their passport annually and new rules would make it easier for police to seek an order restricting an offender’s movements. The ministry also wants to extend the length of time — currently six months — that child sex offenders can be barred from travelling abroad.
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said: “I want to see anyone who poses a threat to our children dealt with as firmly as possible. I’ve spoken to child protection experts and the police and they have told me that these changes will further restrict the ability of child sex offenders to harm children both here and overseas.”
She said that it was her view that with his criminal record, Glitter, who, in his heyday, earned £800,000 a year, should not be travelling anywhere in the world.
The proposals came after the disclosure that police were powerless to impose a sexual offences prevention order on Glitter on his return to Britain. At present police require recent evidence that a person is at risk of re-offending. In future there will be no timescale on the evidence.
Registered sex offenders will also have to give more than the present seven days’ notice of their intention to travel abroad, making it easier for police to seek an order to ban them from going overseas and for their passports to be confiscated. The measures require legislation, so they will not be in place when Glitter returns.
The singer was driven from jail to Ho Chi Minh City airport via the British consulate and put on a flight to Bangkok. As he boarded his lawyer, Le Thanh Kinh, said: “Everything is OK. He is happy to be going home. He was in a good mood.”
On his arrival in Bangkok Glitter was met by Thai immigration police. He said: “I am not getting back on the plane with all the press there and I’m not going to the first-class lounge to be hassled by them. And I’m not going to London. I’ve done my time. I’m a free man.”
British Embassy officials were called in. Thai immigration officials declined to force Glitter back on the plane and the British police officer escorting him admitted that he had no jurisdiction to make him board the aircraft. As the officials pondered the situation, flight TG901 pulled away from the gate with Glitter still at the airport.
The singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was due to be met by police at Heathrow and told that he was being placed on the sex offenders’ register. He will join 30,000 people on the register and will be required to give police his name, date of birth, home address and national insurance number. He will be kept under the highest level of surveillance and be visited weekly by police and probation staff. If he breaks the terms of his registration he could face a prison sentence of up to five years.
Off the air
— Gary Glitter is thought to receive up to £50,000 a year from royalties and performance fees
— Glitter was enjoying a revival until he was charged in 1997 and had expected to appear in a Spice Girls film
— He used to earn about £100,000 a year from the National Football League in America, which played his Rock and Roll parts one and two after touchdowns. They dropped the songs after his conviction
Source: Times database
Link to Mail on Sunday article
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
16th August 2008
Pictures by Andrew Chant
A British man who faced a seven-year prison sentence in the Philippines for adultery is being allowed to return to the UK with his girlfriend and baby this week.
David Scott, 37, has had his application for partner Cynthia Delfino to accompany him granted by the Home Office on humanitarian grounds.
The couple’s daughter Janina has been given British citizenship following her parents’ ordeal, which began when they were arrested and flung into a squalid cell in Manila when Cynthia was eight months pregnant.
They were charged with adultery, which is illegal in the strictly Catholic Philippines, despite Cynthia having separated from her husband.
After four days the couple were bailed and they fled to live in a jungle and derelict houses before Janina, now seven months old, was born in a tiny clinic.
David, from Swindon, Wiltshire - who met Cynthia on the internet in 2006 - paid £12,000 in legal fees and bribes to get them to Thailand.
After the long and emotional journey, they picked up Cynthia’s visa from the British embassy in Bangkok last week.
David said: ‘It’s been a long fight having to pay bribes everywhere I go. But every time I look at my daughter I just know it was worth everything.’
Cynthia said: ‘I am so relieved. I am a little scared about going to Britain, but everybody is so kind.’
Coming home at lastFrom Andrew Drummond,
Koh Samet, Thailand
Saturday August 16 08
In the sea off the Thai island of Koh Samet David Scott takes his first ever dip with is new born baby and Filipina wife.
He has been in the tropics for nine months but has not even seen so much as a swimming pool in an ordeal which began with his arrest and jailing in the Philippines for adultery and a threatened sentence of seven years.
But yesterday David Scott, 37, his girlfriend Cynthia, 28, and baby Janina, seven months finally found time to celebrate after learning that the Home Office had granted them permission on humanitarian grounds for the whole family to return to Britain.
David and Cynthia are on the run after escaping from Philippines Police. A court official in Coolocan, Manila, confirmed last week that a warrant had been issued for their arrest or adultery.
This week they will be flying back to Swindon, Wilts, where Scott will introduce his new born baby to his grandmother.
Said David: “If it had not been for you guys (the Mail on Sunday) and my local M.P. Anne Snelgrove, I have no idea where I would be now, but probably in jail or worse. I cannot thank you enough.”
David Scott, 37, from Swindon, Wilts., spent last New Year in jail in Manila, after he was arrested with 8 month pregnant Cynthia Delfino, during a night-time swoop by Philippines police and officers of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Accompanying the police was Cynthia’s Filipino husband Noriel Delfino, who was demanding the couple be jailed for the maximum seven years in the Philippines for adultery unless they paid him the equivalent of £7,000.
There is no divorce in the Philippines, a strictly Catholic country, but rich families can seek costly annulments on the grounds of the mental incapacity of one of the partners.
The couple were thrown into a police cell and that’s when how they spent last New Year. They even had to bribe police to be allowed to share a cell.
The couple fled while on bail and were forced to live in the jungle, derelict houses, and finally a room provided by friends, before their baby girl Janina was born in secret in a tiny clinic south of Manila.
All in all David Scott had to legal fees and bribes over £12,000 using his savings and finally cash sent by his mum and friends in Britain, to pay for documentation for Janina and his wife and get smuggle them out of the country.
Although the warrant was out for their arrest, they were able to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
“The Immigration policeman took my last £25,” said David.
Back in Thailand journalists chipped in and provide food and accommodation for the family for four months while David attempted the hardest - part to get them all home to Britain.
With the help of local M.P. Anne Snelgrove, Mr. Scott was able to get British citizenship for baby Janina in Bangkok a month ago, and this week an official from the British Embassy in Bangkok informed David the Cynthia’s application to travel with her baby to England was granted on humanitarian grounds.
On the holiday island of Koh Samet, 150 miles south east of Bangkok David Scott said: “When I flew to the Philippines to visit Cynthia for the birth of our baby her husband had already agreed to go through an annulment. But I walked into a trap. It’s been a long fight having to pay bribes every where I go. But every time I look at my daughter I just know it was worth everything.
“I have learned a lot from this trip. The biggest lesson of all is that one is not automatically going to get help or even just advice from a British Embassy if one gets into trouble. You are very much on your own.
“The first advice I got from an Embassy official in Manila was that legally Janina was not my baby and I should leave the country without her.
(Technically as there is no divorce in the Philippines the government would recognise Janina as being the daughter of Noriel Delfino).
“That’s not the sort of advice one forgets. Then when I got to Bangkok they would not even let me and Janina into the Embassy – until my M.P. called them – all because we had ticked the wrong box on a visa form.
(Cynthia has been given a visa even though technically she is still married to Noriel Delfino and has known David under the statutory two years. Thus they were not even allowed to join the visa queue).
Said Cynthia: “I am so relieved. I am a little scared about going to Britain but everybody has been so kind so far.”
Jungle Brit gets permission to fly home with Filipina and baby
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Wednesday August 14
Pictures: Andrew Chant
A Briton who fled to the jungle in the Philippines after being told he faced seven years in jail there for adultery has been given leave to return to England with his girlfriend and seven month old baby.
David Scott, 37, from Swindon, Wilts., spent last New Year in jail in Manila, after he was arrested with his 8 month pregnant Filipina girlfriend Cynthia Delfino, 28, during a night-time swoop by Philippines police and officers of the National Bureau of Investigation.
Accompanying the police was Cynthia’s Filipino husband Noriel Delfino, who said David, was demanding the couple be jailed for the maximum seven years in the Philippines for adultery unless they paid him the equivalent of £7,000.
There is no divorce in the Philippines, a strictly Catholic country, but rich families can seek costly annulments on the grounds of the mental incapacity of one of the partners.
The couple fled while on bail and were forced to live in the jungle, derelict houses, and finally a room provided by friends, before their baby girl Janina was born in a tiny clinic south of Manila.
A warrant was issued for their arrest but by paying bribes they were able to board a flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
With the help of local M.P. Anne Snelgrove, Mr. Scott was able to get British citizenship for baby Janina in Bangkok a month ago, and early today an official from the British Embassy in Bangkok informed David the Cynthia’s application to travel with her baby to England was granted on humanitarian grounds.
In Bangkok David Scott said today: “Obviously we are both delighted. It’s been a nine month ordeal. We would like to thank our M.P. and journalists and everybody who helped us fight to get our baby home to Britain.
“When I flew to the Philippines to visit Cynthia for the birth of our baby her husband had already agreed to go through an annulment. But I walked into a trap. It’s been a long fight having to pay bribes every where I go. But every time I look at my daughter I just know it was worth everything.”
Said Cynthia: “I am so relieved. When the Embassy called this morning I just knew it was going to be good news. I am a little scared about going to Britain but everybody has been so kind so far.”
Footnote: The following email was sent later by David Scott
Andrew Drummond and Andrew Chant saved us when Embassy could not help
Wife of Premier League club boss jailed for three years on tax evasion
Daily Mail
By Andrew Drummond
Last updated at 2:02 PM on 31st July 2008
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The wife of Manchester City Football Club owner and former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra was sentenced to three years jail for cheating her country out of millions in a massive tax fraud today.
But then she was released immediately on bail and is expecting to be leaving soon with her husband for the Beijing Olympics.
Pojaman Shinawatra is unexpected to do any real time in jail in the near future. Dressed in a pale blue suit and a string of pearls, she still looked shocked as the verdict was read.
The appeal process could take over eight years if the case goes to the Supreme Court. The defendants had ‘lied, cheated, and conspired to evade taxes, which is regarded as a serious crime,’ the judge said at the Criminal Court in Bangkok.
Convicted: Thailand’s deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (L) and his wife Pojaman (R) arrive at the Court in Bangkok today
‘The defendants are high-profile and wealthy citizens,’ the judge added, remarking that Pojaman’s husband ‘was the leader of the country and she is obligated to pay taxes as a model for society.’
Pojaman, her brother and secretary were convicted of evading the equivalent of over £10million in taxes in 1997 through a complicated transfer of shares in the family’s flagship communications business Shin Corporation that involved placing stocks in the name of one of the family’s maids.
Pojaman, 51, was accused of conspiring together with her brother Bhanapot Damapong and her secretary.
Her brother, also received a two-year jail sentence. The secretary, who played a lesser supporting role, was sentenced to two years.
Thaksin’s spokesman, Pongthep Thepkanjana said: “Thaksin is not disheartened. They respect the court ruling but it is not the end. We will fight until the end.”
In fact it is only the beginning of s series of cases now hitting the courts which have been in the pipeline for two years.
Thailand’s Supreme Court decided this week to put Thaksin on trial for corruptly offering the Burmese military junta a low interest loan from the Thai government’s Export-Import Bank in a deal to benefit his family’s satellite and broadband business.
Both he and Pojaman are also currently on trial for corruptly acquiring land in the centre of Bangkok from a Thai government department at a third of its market price, something akin to Gordon Brown ordering his government to hand over 13 acres of Whitehall.
In another case Thaksin Shinawatra is also accused of initiating a government lottery, the proceeds of which were not properly accounted. As these cases are being heard in the Supreme Court there is no appeal.
With houses in Hong Kong and the U.K. and billons of dollars offshore many people in Thailand have expressed the view that they do not think Thaksin Shinawatra will come back from the Olympics.
But if he does, they say, he is already prepared.
They point to the fact that in an unusual move a recent Cabinet resolution essentially replaced The Director General of Thailand’s Prisons, with the former Director General, whom Thaksin appointed.
The outgoing Director-General Wanchai Roujanavong is an authority on international crime and apparently corrupt politicians.
His book ‘Organised Crime in Thailand’ details how politicians play a major part in organised crime in Thailand, how they avoid tax, buy votes, and to a certain extent control the courts, while at the same time playing the role of benefactor to the people.
He said: ‘I expected to be here for another year. But I am a civil servant I must go where I am sent.”‘
Link: Irishman’s death on round-world trip linked to drugs - Irish Independent
By Paul Melia and Andrew Drummond
Saturday April 05 2008
The body of a 32-year-old Co Louth man who died in Thailand after allegedly taking a cocktail of drugs is expected back in Ireland today.
Police said yesterday they had closed the file on the death of Elliot Blake (32), 
who died while on a round-the-world trip with his girlfriend.
Mr Blake, who was understood to be living in Navan, Co Meath, died in a guest house in the early hours of last Monday after he was found staggering on the street.
His girlfriend, Claire Duignan (23), from Westmeath, woke in the Top North guest house in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai to discover his body.
Despite efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police in Thailand said yesterday there was no evidence of foul play in Mr Blake’s death. However, the results of a post- mortem have not been released.
The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed his death, and said it was providing assistance to his family. A spokeswoman refused to comment further, saying it was a private matter.
His girlfriend told police that Mr Blake had been a heroin user in Ireland, and had acquired the substitute methadone from a local hospital.
“Earlier in the evening we went out for some food and a few drinks, but nothing much,” Ms Duignan said yesterday.
“We came back to the guest house and I went to the room, while Elliot stayed downstairs watching TV.
“When I left him he was quite normal, then much later when he didn’t come back to the room I went looking for him.
“I found him on a nearby road staggering back to the guest house. He was completely different from when I left him and I had to help him back to the room. When I woke up I didn’t realise he had died. I poured water on his face to wake him up but it didn’t work.
“We’ve been travelling for a year now, Elliot used to use heroin in Ireland but since we’ve been traveling he hasn’t. When we got to Chiang Mai he went to a hospital and got some methadone.”
It is understood Mr Blake may have combined methadone with valium, which led to his death. Chiang Mai is a popular destination with backpackers.
Mr Blake’s family travelled to Thailand earlier in the week to arrange for his body to be flown home.
The couple had decided to travel around south-east Asia, and local sources said it was easy to access drugs in Chiang Mai.
- Paul Melia and Andrew Drummond
Pictures: Andrew Chant/Boem Chiang Mai
