Koh Larn trespasser pleads with mayor over house demolition

Camping center to be built under 51mn baht budget

 Narisa Nitikarn

Pattaya’s mayor led a delegation to Samae Beach on Koh Larn to inspect the area prior to the building of a camping center by the council under a 51 million baht budget.

Wuttipong Patkratok (no shirt, center) pleads with Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn (right) and Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh (left) to find a compromise regarding the removal of his illegal house on public land.

Mayor Niran Wattanasartsathorn along with Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh and officials from city hall visited the beach on October 31.

Niran said the project to provide a camping site will include the planting of trees, the construction of a central office, living accommodation, 10 commercial booths, a multipurpose court, two restrooms, a wastewater system and electricity facilities, all to be accomplished under the 51 million baht budget.

The intention is to attract tourists here where they will find different activities to those in Pattaya, such as fishing and hiking and the opportunity for an outdoors style of vacation for families and groups.

It is also intended to add a swimming pool at Samae Beach. The mayor said that although there is an extensive beach area, the pool is for tourists who don’t want to swim in the sea but who still want to be in a beach environment.

While the mayor and his entourage were surveying the beach area, a villager approached wanting to talk to him about the forced removal of his house, which stands on public property. His name was Wuttipong Patkratok, a son of Mrs Rampan Patkratok, a known trespasser on public land at Koh Larn. Wuttipong wanted to know if a compromise was possible. Rampan’s case pertaining to removal of the house is in the judgment phase, and she is waiting for an appeal through a court decision.

Wuttipong said he has lived on Samae Beach for over 40 years. He and his family will have nowhere to live after the authorities demolish his house. He cannot find a place to work because he has no plot to run a business. Mayor Niran asked Wuttipong to visit him at city hall for a discussion. He said that alternative accommodation could be arranged on Koh Larn. However, added the mayor, city hall will naturally respect the court’s order, whatever it may be.

Light and sound spectacular to highlight Loy Krathong festival

Narisa Nitikarn

Loy Krathong moved into its advanced planning phase on November 3 when Deputy Mayor Weerawat Khakhai chaired a meeting on the upcoming festive celebrations.

This year the focus will be on a light and sound show depicting the origins of the festival in the Sukhothai era, and there will be a Miss Loy Krathong 2005 competition.

Pattaya council members, government department heads, police officers and other relevant parties attended the meeting.

Deputy Mayor Weerawat said that on November 16 the Loy Krathong celebrations would be divided into two parts. A krathong banana leaf boat competition organized by the Pattaya Education Office will be held at Larn Pho Park in Naklua beginning at 1 p.m.. The evening activities will be held at Bali Hai pier beginning at 7 p.m. and will include the light and sound show and the Miss Loy Krathong contest.

Suradej Chanyaswad, managing director of SCV & Associates Co Ltd, the organizer of the light and sound show said that it will require two days in advance to set up the huge scenes depicting the Sukhothai era, and this will require cooperation from the traffic police and parking attendants because it may cause traffic congestion. The show will incorporate 128 actors with the main practice session prior to the event on November 15.

Suradej added that billboards advertising the spectacle have been designed in both Thai and English. The event will keep to the Thai traditions. Stickers have also been printed with the same content as the billboard advertisements.

Applicants for the Miss Loy Krathong contest must be between 15-28 years old and the competition is open to all beautiful women throughout the country. Application forms are available from Pattaya District Office and Sophon Cable TV Co Ltd from now until November 15.

Bali Hai Pier Loy Krathong celebration

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

19.00 Master of Ceremonies introduces the festival
19.05 Thirty Nang Noppamas contestants introduced
19.45 First show by local youths
20.00 MC announces 10 Nang Noppamas contestant finalists
20.15 Second show by local youths
20.30 Last 5 Nang Noppamas contestants question & answer session, followed by sash and prize pre
sentation to the winner of Miss Media
Appreciation
20.40 Stage performance showing origin of Loy
Krathong tradition
21.30 Mayor speech, followed by fireworks lighting
21.45 Prizes and sashes to the winner and runners-up
of Nang Noppamas (Miss Loy Krathong)
contest
22.00 Music show
22.10 Esaan traditional show
23.50 Modern music by DJ
24.00 Closing ceremony

Editor of Pattaya Post shot dead

Deputy Commander of Thai Royal Police adamant that killers will be brought to justice

Staff Reporters

One of Thailand’s most prominent journalists was found shot dead in his car in a Pattaya lane, sparking a massive police hunt for his killers.

Santi Lammaneenil, a Channel 7 special reporter and editor of the Thai language Pattaya Post, was shot dead in his car on Soi 16/1 Pattaya-Naklua Road. He had been shot in the forehead, the right temple and the left side of his chin with a 38 mm handgun. Santi was bond and blindfolded, his shirt used to tie his hands, which were also bound with a mobile phone charger cable. The left rear windscreen of the car had been shot out and the victim’s own 38 mm handgun was lying at his feet. He had been dead not less than 12 hours.

The victim’s car at the scene.

The victim’s wife, Mrs Malee Seedaeng, 35, told officers that before her husband disappeared at about 1 p.m. on October 31, a tall, well-built man with curly hair parked a white Mitsubishi at the front of the house and asked the whereabouts of Santi. She told the man that her husband was not home.

Then at 9 p.m. the same day, a bronze colored car, model unknown, parked outside and three men asked where her husband was. Again, she told them that she did not know. She became worried and attempted to telephone her husband but his mobile phone was switched off. Santi never returned home.

Pol Lt Gen Jongrak Juthanont, Commander of Region 2 Police, said that after preliminary investigations police understood that the victim was a straight-to-the-point, no-holds-barred reporter. Two months previously he had written a scathing attack on a Pattaya entertainment venue that had greatly annoyed the owner. Police were also aware that the victim was addicted to gambling on football, and there was an extra issue of a love affair. Police suspect that at least four people were responsible for the killing.

On November 3, Pol Col Somnuk Changate, superintendent of Pattaya police, called in the owner of the club who allegedly had a dispute with Santi. He denied any involvement, stating that the pair had spoken and had come to an understanding.

Forensic experts have meanwhile found male head hairs in the left passenger seat of the car and are almost certain that they belong to the killer. The hairs have been sent for DNA testing.

Police have also called in a teenaged girl who Santi allegedly had been dating, working on the theory that extra marital activities could be behind the shooting.

Officers have inspected Santi’s notebook computer because before his death Santi had told a few close friends and wrote in a Pattaya Post article that “if anything happens to me then check out my personal notebook computer”. Police found details on Santi’s football gambling debts of over 1.6 million baht. There were also details of threats made by a Pattaya bar owner and mention of being followed.

On November 5 police called in staff from a local disco after learning that at about 1 a.m. on October 31 the victim had been seen drinking there. They confirmed that Santi was there and had been drinking alone at the front of the DJ podium before being joined by three women and a man. He wasn’t seen again until the discovery of his body.

Police have found a witness who heard gunshots and have compiled enough evidence from the scene to draw up a picture of Santi’s last moments. The gun that was used to shatter the rear windscreen belonged to the victim. Police are looking for the shell casing and the origin of the gun.

Reporters have discovered that the victim’s mobile phone, which was missing from the scene of the killing, has now been found. It had been sold to a second-hand mobile phone dealer in the Kahathaepprasit Market. The phone’s memory card was still present, but the SIM card was missing. Police are questioning the dealer to find out who sold him the mobile phone.

Latest reports are that police have found a house where Santi had been taken against his will. No bloodstains were found. All that was found at the house were the killers’ tire tracks. It is believed that they shot Santi in their own car before transferring him to his vehicle, tying a blue hand towel around the victims’ head to stem the blood. It is known that the vehicle in question was a bronze-gold colored van. Police are now searching for the van.

Santi was a special reporter for Channel 7 and many newspapers such as Khao Sod, Khom Chad Luek, and Matichon. He was also editor of Pattaya Post and was vice president of the Pattaya Press Association. Santi was well loved and respected by the Pattaya press fraternity due to his straight and incisive reporting. His body was taken to Wat Thamsamkki in South Pattaya. Relatives are adamant that no cremation will take place while the killers remain at large.

PM Thaksin Shinawatra has instructed police to urgently find those responsible for the murder, because, he said, “The crime seriously damages Thailand’s reputation”.

Manhunt on for two foreign killers who gunned down Dutch real estate developer

Boonlua Chatree

A Dutch real estate developer was shot and killed by two foreign men on a motorcycle in what police believe was a gangland murder.

Banglamung police received a call on November 2 from Mrs Sukanya Khan-In, 29, to say that her husband, 45-year-old Dutch national Johannes Mieremet had been shot dead and that his body had been taken to Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital.

Officers went to the intensive care unit at the hospital where they examined the corpse. Mieremet had been shot by a 9mm handgun in the right side of his head and in the left side of his chest. Staff said he was dead on arrival at the hospital. The body was transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute for a full autopsy.

Sukanya told police that she had been with her husband for a year and that the couple had no children. On the day of the killing the couple had gone to see a plot of land at Allot Village, at Singto Park in Soi Chaiyapruk 2. Suddenly two foreigners that she alleged she recognized as Dutch acquaintances appeared on a Honda Wave motorcycle with the license plate concealed. They were shouting and one of them said to her husband, “I have been ordered to kill you because of your behavior,” before shooting him and escaping in the direction of South Pattaya.

Region 2 police commander, Pol Lt Gen Jongrak Juthanont and Chonburi commander Pol Maj Gen A-Nan Charoenchasri ordered an intensive search for the killers, setting up roadblocks on all connecting roads to Pattaya City and working with the immigration police to try and prevent them from slipping out of the country.

Superintendent of Pattaya police Pol Col Somnuk Changate, and Pol Lt Col Wuttichart Luansukhan, inspector of Pattaya tourist police division 3 organized a search of the city, particularly in and around the known criminal hideouts. Police are also looking into the background to the Allot Village development to see if they can find a motive for the killing.

Meanwhile, ANP news agency reported that Mieremet was allegedly major player in the Dutch underworld and his murder was the latest in a series of killings of Dutch crime figures. Mieremet’s former lawyer, Evert Hingst, was shot dead in Amsterdam a few days earlier.

A Dutch newspaper, ‘De Telegraaf’, said that Mieremet had been talking with De Telegraaf crime reporter John van de Heuvel about Evert Hingst’s murder.

Australian dies in hotel fall

Boonlua Chatree

An Australian fell to his death from the eighth floor of a hotel on Pattaya 2 Road, scattering tourists who saw him fall.

Police called to the scene found the body of Shaun Michael McVeigh, age 37, lying on the roadside at the side of the hotel. The hotel manager and staff told the officers that the guest had checked into a room on the eighth floor on October 23. They had no idea how he could have fallen.

The body was transferred to the Department of Forensic Medicine and police have contacted the man’s family.

Police surmise that McVeigh may have been broke and committed suicide. He was scheduled to check out of the hotel on the day of his death.