Thousands of red shirts gathered at Soi Khao Talo field.

Boonlua Chatree
Pattaya saw its largest-ever gathering of members of Thailand’s “red shirt” anti-government movement with more than 20,000 turning out to rally behind the group’s push to win a pardon for its exiled leader, deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Aug. 14 rally at Soi Khao Talo field saw leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship take the stage to condemn the current government and rally support for its petition to obtain a royal pardon for Thaksin, who fled the country to avoid jail on corruption charges. The petition was submitted in Bangkok on Aug. 17.
The highlight of the evening came just after 9 p.m. when Thaksin appeared via video call from his current safe haven in the United Arab Emirates. He lashed out at Democrat Party politicians taking power undemocratically and “twisting the truth” about him. Thaksin said he wanted to see all political parties work together to help the country.
The red shirts heeded Thaksin’s call to demonstrate peacefully and, aside from some serious traffic snarls, the event - patrolled by more than 100 Chonburi police - went off without any problems.

Two injured in Middle Eastern restaurant fire

Residents flee as the Zahrat Alkhaleg restaurant goes up in flames.

Boonlua Chatree
Two Nepalese cooks are recovering from severe burns after a cooking-gas tank at their Middle Eastern restaurant exploded, engulfing the Second Road eatery in flames.
Firefighters battled the Aug. 12 blaze at the Zahrat Alkhaleg restaurant near the VC Hotel for nearly an hour. The 24-hour diner’s kitchen was destroyed and three motorbikes damaged. Total damage was estimated at 100,000 baht.
Two cooks, identified only as 21-year-old “DJ” and 28-year-old “B. Knot” sustained burns to their face, arms and chest and were being treated at Banglamung Hospital.
Knot said the pair had been cooking around 5:50 a.m. when they smelled gas and noticed flames on the cooking-gas tank. The two, fearing an explosion, tried to turn off the valve, but the tank blew before they could succeed. A heavy gas smell was present at the fire scene, leading investigators to believe a leak or faulty equipment caused the fire.

Suicide likely case of German’s violent death, despite lingering questions

Boonlua Chatree
As improbable as the violence of his death makes it seem, a German man blown apart in a Huay Yai rubber plantation with a hand grenade may actually have committed suicide.
Intensive police investigation into the Aug. 21 death of Bangkok resident Uwe Keienburt has not turned up any evidence that anyone else was present, let alone involved, in the 45-year-old engineer’s demise. Police are not yet ruling out murder, but signs increasingly point to a depressed man in financial straits who chose to bring his unhappy life to an explosively violent end.
The shattered remains of Keienburt, an engineer with Vinci Construction Co. in Bangkok, was found by villagers lying about 350 meters from his bronze-colored BMW 523i around mid-day Aug. 22. Residents told police they’d heard an explosion around 2 a.m. the night before, but didn’t investigate until morning. Police arrived at the scene to see the German’s upper torso gone and pieces of the man and a laptop computer showered over a 50-meter radius.
The shocking scene led to immediate rumors of C4 explosives, remote controls, a handcuffed victim and mafia involvement, all of which were quickly put to rest by police who, upon closer examination, found remains of a military-grade M33 grenade, a spotless car and no signs of anyone else in the vehicle or other signs of a struggle.
The timestamp on a toll-booth receipt found in Keienburt’s car suggests the engineer had driven directly from his Bangkok home to Pattaya shortly before his death. Residents remembered seeing the car, but told investigators it had entered the plantation alone. Only the German man’s fingerprints were found in and around the car, which had been recently cleaned, and inspection of the grounds near his body did not turn up any evidence of someone else being present.
Keienburt’s 40-year-old wife, Araya, told Chonburi and Bangkok police during a three-hour interrogation she didn’t know much about her husband’s affairs but knew he was having financial problems. The engineer had attempted to set up an export business with companies in Malaysia as well as import construction machinery from the U.S.
Bank loans for both projects were declined, however, leaving Keienburt seriously depressed. Adding to his hardship, he was supposedly owed money from Indian contacts and owed money to some fellow German nationals.
Leaving the house the day before his death, Araya told police her husband said “it might be difficult for me to live on this earth.”
Murder, however, remains a possibility, with a number of other outstanding facts yet to be run down. For one, Araya initially told police Keienburt had received death threats from his Indian partners after filing a lawsuit against them. He also was in a conflict with other Germans to whom he’d owned money and the German had intended to use the mortgage on some of his wife’s property to settle his debts and fund his new enterprises.
Finally, police said, evidence suggested Keienburt - married to Araya for nine years and father of her child - had been having an affair with a Malaysian woman during his numerous business trips there to set up the export company.

Bribe attempt backfires on 2 Sattahip women

Patcharapol Panrak
Two women who clearly underestimated the integrity of Sattahip police are behind bars after trying to bribe the district’s bailiff to release a drug dealer arrested two days earlier.

Suchada Sukhum and Supaporn Thepnaun (seated) point to the cash they tried to use to bribe Bailiff Surachet Kaewkham (standing).

Suchada Sukhum, 40, and Supaporn Thepnaun, 33, were arrested Aug. 15 by Sattahip Sheriff’s deputies for allegedly offering Prevention and Suppression Department Bailiff Surachet Kaewkham 80,000 baht to drop the case against Jang Kongtoei, who was arrested in an Aug. 13 sting operation in which he was caught with 400 ya ba tablets.
When she contacted Surachet, Suchada claimed she was related to Jang and offered to pay the bailiff to close the case. She allegedly told him that Supaporn would deliver the payment. A meeting was set and police arrived as the younger woman was counting out the cash.
Sheriff Chaichan Eiamcharoen said the Sattahip area is undergoing a drug crisis and that police are working with Royal Thai Navy officials and volunteers to stamp out the problem. He said it was important that everyone sees that arrests are prosecuted. Otherwise, he said, authorities will lose the public’s trust.

Thepprasit Temple robbed

Cinerary urns replaced with plastic glasses

Patcharapol Panrak
Proving there’s nothing some people won’t steal, thieves with no respect for the dead have pillaged Sattahip’s Thepprasit Temple, stealing brass cinerary urns and leaving behind the ashes in plastic glasses.

Kan Samrejprasong points at the pagoda containing the ashes of his grandmother from where the cinerary urn was stolen.

At least 10 shrines were destroyed and brass urns and other valuables taken from the temple. The burglary was reported Aug. 13 by Plutaluang resident Kan Samrejprasong who went to pay respect to his dead grandmother for Mother’s Day. When he got there, he found the shrine broken and the brass urn in which his grandmother’s ashes had resided gone. Her remains were left in a plastic glass.
Surveying the scene, reporters were told it was not the first time the temple has fallen victim to thieves. Previously, residents said, teenage gang members and temple boys stole urns to fund their drug habits.

Sending of explicit emails criminalized under proposed changes to rape law

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Sending unwanted sexually explicit emails would be punishable by a year in prison and a 20,000 baht fine under changes to the country’s rape laws under consideration by the government.
For the first time, the criminal code governing physical assault will gain clauses that punish virtual sexual harassment, such as posting photographs or videos of a sexual nature on the internet or sending them via email. Electronic sexual harassment from superiors would also become a crime. Such crimes have previously been punishable under the country’s cyber crime and pornography laws.
At an Aug. 14 hearing in Bangkok, the Ministry of Social Development & Human Security also heard public reaction to other proposed changes to Thailand’s rape laws that add further protections for children, the elderly, pregnant women and the mentally or physically disabled. Additional proposals would set stiff punishment for rape involving transsexuals.
Ministry Inspector-General Somchai Charoen-Amnuoysuk said the proposed additions to the criminal code protect entire classes of people, including society’s most vulnerable citizens who cannot fend off sexual predators, such as the elderly or mentally ill. The draft bill to be submitted to the Cabinet would increase jail sentences by 33 percent.
Transsexuals and gays would also receive additional benefits, with same-sex rape gaining the same classification as heterosexual sexual assault. Prison terms would be set from three to 15 years.
Sentences could also be increased if the attacker is infected with contagious diseases such as hepatitis or influenza A(H1N1). Currently the code only allows increased sentences for attackers with established sexually transmitted diseases.
Forensics expert Withun Aungprapan said Thailand’s rape laws have not kept up with the times and lag behind those in western countries. Until 2007, for example, spousal rape was not a criminal act and, he said, parental rape needs to be added to the list of offenses.
Kreukgong Suanyot, president of the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand and a former Miss Alcazar, applauded the proposed changes, but added dismay when saying that if a surgically altered male is raped by another man, the current penalty is considerably lighter than if the victim had been born a woman.
Suda Tangsupachai, director of the Cultural Surveillance Center, told the hearing that the proposed changes did not go far enough. Additional provisions should be added that criminalize forcing victims into making pornographic movies or providing only oral sex against their will.

Marines release 200 turtles, plant 2,000 mangroves to honor Queen

Marines plant 2,000 mangrove trees to honor HM the Queen.

Patcharapol Panrak
Reflecting HM the Queen’s commitment to preserving Thailand’s environment, the Royal Thai Marines and Sattahip community groups released 200 sea turtles into the sea and planed 2,000 mangroves for HM Queen Sirikit’s birthday.
The Aug. 11 Mother’s Day ceremony at Hat Klod, the base of the Marines’ Amphibious Assault unit, was led by Marine Corps Commander in Chief Vice Adm. Suwit Thararoop. Speaking in front of a portrait of HM the Queen, he said Her Majesty has long supported projects to preserve the environment and nature, especially those devoted to reforestation.
As a result, the marines and residents planted 2,000 new mangrove saplings to supplement Hat Klod’s existing mangrove forest. At the same time, they also released another 200 turtles from the Navy’s Sea Turtle Conservation Center into the wild.

Royal Photographic Society helping Pattaya look good

(L to R) Chalerm Katejae, Nom Pongkanjanakool and Mai Chaiyanit address
 the digital photography workshop.

Vimolrat Singnikorn
Thailand’s Royal Photographic Society is helping Pattaya put its best face forward.
Together with Pattaya International Photography Club, the Royal Photo Society is sponsoring a series of digital photography workshops, the most recent of which, Aug. 21-22, helped shutterbugs develop techniques for portrait photos, both in the studio and while traveling.
Experts on hand included HM King Bhumibol’s private photographer Nom Pongkanjanakool and well-known portrait and advertising photographer Sayam Sapsritong.
The local club, which has been running film and digital workshops since 2006, will next focus on photographing cycling events Sept. 19 and a field training exercise at Tamnapa Restaurant in Chonburi Sept. 20.
For more information contact JB Color Lab’s Chokechai Taratammarat at 081-829-5201, Nanapunam Publishing’s Suemsak Sapanont at 086-621-2455 or Pataraporn Paksarasri at 081-591-5343.