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FAMILY APPEAL AS BRIT DRUG REHAB BOSS IN THAILAND IS JAILED
ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THAILAND'S DODGY REHAB RECORD
An internet appeal has gone out to raise funds for a former counsellor at a drugs and alcohol rehab centre in Koh Samui after he was arrested on drugs related charges in Pattaya.
Cash is being sought for Dee Dario, a Briton, who has been involved 12 step cognitive behaviour courses around Thailand, who is banged up in Pattaya Remand Prison.The crowd funding appeal is somewhat controversial as the cash is being sought to ‘reduce his sentence’. And Dee Dario has been widely accused of ripping off families with drug addicted sons and daughters to the tune of many thousands of dollars after relapsing into drugs again himself.
From posts on the crowd funding site Youcaring.com it appears Dario, who was involved as a counsellor and fitness instructor The White Pearl Resort and Rehab on Koh Samui and billed as Facility Director, Head Counsellor and Fitness Director at ‘Second Chance Rehab’ on Koh Samui, had run off with client funds and was thus cheating people he had promised to cure.
However other posters stated how he had helped them with their problems and were full of praise.
He apparently studied person centred counselling at the North London University - one of those new universities, this one situated off London’s Holloway Road, which has now been merged into
the London Metropolitan University, after recovering from drugs addiction.
The 'White Pearl' was founded by, according to the Samui Times ‘recovering drug addicts’ (but I hope they mean ‘fully recovered’) Alvaro Lopez and Lars Olsson.
Dee Dario himself received gratuitous exposure in the Samui Times for his keep fit classes and appears to have been quite a popular figure when not under the influence. When I last looked his family in the UK had raised about £2,500 of a target of £5000.
The problems remain whether there might be more deserving causes in jail with him and what does reduction of sentence mean exactly? You cannot pay for a reduction of sentence unless you are repaying a victim, but in Thailand you can pay bail and disappear entirely.
In the first instance, there is at least one victim on the site who insists it’s not about money but the betrayal and abuse of youngsters in trouble.
The point of this story must be obvious to some readers of this site. Be very careful with drug rehabs in Thailand. It is not unusual to find them staffed by former drug addicts, who themselves have been through cognitive behavioural therapy.
This I understand does indeed help addicts come off drugs. But it does not necessarily get rid of all the underlying problems. And former addicts obviously know how to scam and steal because that’s how they survived to supply their habit.
Who can forget Simon Gunn, formerly of the Richmond Primary Care Trust and for the Hounslow Drug and Alcohol Action team? He started a rehab called ‘Channah’ based on Koh Chang and later near Kanchanaburi, which was the subject of a glowing report in the Bangkok Post.
We exposed Simon on this site as an active crack addict who was feeding his habit from the US£35,000 monthly fees he charged clients at his rehab.
And sometimes of course people die in these clinics through unprofessional treatment – and as this is Thailand and nobody enforces regulations – nobody gets caught.
That happened after Americans, Simon Picone and Victor Cracknell from Buffalo, New York set up a clinic on the island of Koh Phangan to treat drug addicts with the drug Ibogaine, derived from the root of a tree found in Africa.
Both Americans fled the island after Thai police bungled the case of Australian Brodie Smith who died after being administered with a fatal dose.
Dee Dario only charged £6000 a month for his drug recovery programme.
I hold no strong views on what people do to themselves with drugs. Though I have never been a user I have sampled stuff in the past. I believe I have snorted a line of cocaine with a peer of the realm in an Edinburgh nightclub. I also fell three flights down a stairwell at the old Phnom Penh Post newspaper after a party there at which ‘ganja soup’ was one of the delights, a matter I have also admitted in ‘The Times’ when I wrote a piece on my old friend Nate Thayer, the journalist who found Pol Pot.
As for Dee Dario, I am not a victim but I can sympathise with them, but I can also sympathise with the son in the U.K., who, even if he has not realised it yet, is dealing with a system in which he is going to find people a lot more dishonest than his dad.
LINKS
https://www.youcaring.com/deedairo-893745
http://www.secondchancerehabsamui.com/about-second-chance-recovery/meet-the-team/
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/11/exposed-high-on-ice-thai-rehab-boss.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2015/04/exposed-drug-programme-bosses-who.html
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WISE GUYS IN! SUCKERS IN,THEN OUT PENNILESS
THE THAI IMMIGRATION POLICE'S 'GOOD GUYS IN - BAD GUYS OUT' CAMPAIGN IS NOT FLOUNDERING. IT NEVER STARTED!
While Thailand’s current military dictatorship is running on a ‘end corruption’ ticket there are signs that corruption in Thailand is rising to a new peak and the people the military are arresting seem to be in areas where uniformed men have prospective interests.
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Who cannot remember the day in 2012 when two wise guys from Essex were nabbed after trying to drag away ATM machines from banks in Chonburi? They were Alex Milbourn,25, and Shaun Tracey, 24 and the truck they used was owned by Alex’s dad John Leslie Milbourn, now 63.
The story ran in the Bangkok Post and the PattayaDailyNews which described the thieves in a headline as ‘Dumb and Dumber’.
It seemed they were going to jail for a long time.
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Alex and Shaun came straight out the backdoor not long after General Panya Mamen gave his press conference .
They (Alex did not even have a visa for Thailand) walked away scot free, but most likely a lot poorer, which was why I guess they had to start up property and rent-a-car businesses in Pattaya.
It is here that they followed in the footsteps of Richard Haughton, the former Pattaya Rotary Club President who ran Thailand Property and Media Exhibition Company (TPME Ltd) and Harlequin (Thailand), who in turn learned his business from David Ames, the Harlequin supremo now awaiting trial for fraud in the UK.
Haughton offered for sale houses that were never built, and the ones that were built, he mortgaged the title deeds, without telling the foreign buyers what he was doing – so the buyers were buying a massive debt.
It seems in the case of the Milbourns that they had a special relationship with Pattaya police. We know of course Thai police will not investigate foreigner on foreigner fraud, but in the case of the Milbourns I have a report that when people actually complained to police they were threatened with deportation.
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But then they ended up in a place they called 'Brentwood Manor' in Pattaya, which they tried to build a moat around. It did not fill with water so they tried to water-proof it -and waited for the rain.
They eventually settled for a pool like normal people.
One guy, who had disputes over money for a house-build, reports that he found 50 Thai workers with pick-axes outside his door.
When the military men said they were going to clean up Pattaya perhaps they meant they were going to ‘clean up in Pattaya’.
Alex Milbourn’s father is known in the UK as a man who ran with Eddie ‘King Cone’ Blundell, whose speciality was ripping off foreigners in London. He took over the central London ice cream trade essentially by force and intimidation and then went on to run a car clamping business. The victims had to pay £600 to get their cars back.
Eddie Blundell later wrote his biography ‘Top Drawer Villain’ but he was decidedly bottom drawer.
Recently the Milbourn’s relocated from Thailand back to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, after private criminal cases were issued against them, but before the warrants of arrest could be obtained. They said they were going back to the UK on holiday and Alex took with him Harvey, his son by his Thai wife.
They have not returned and the mother, not surprisingly is distraught. But John Leslie Milbourn has an estate agency to look after in the UK.
What did they do to garner two arrest warrants? Well they used to rent out property on behalf of foreigners who had bought in Thailand as an investment, or lived in the country only a few months a year.
In this case they convinced a leaseholder to buy the freehold in a company name. They then forged his signature on a power of attorney and went along to the land office and transferred the property to themselves.
Then they took a 10 million baht loan off the property through dodgy Pattaya loan sharks with no intention of paying it back (something the loan sharks seemed to understand).
The owner of the property has discovered, not surprisingly, that the courts are ruling in favour of the loan sharks.
WARNING: A WIDE RANGE OF PROPERTIES IN PATTAYA AND HUA HIN ARE BEING OFFERED AT THE MOMENT EITHER COMPLETED OR NEAR COMPLETED. MANY OF THESE PROPERTIES ARE ON LAND WHICH IS NOT OWNED BY THE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, OR HAVE LOANS ATTACHED TO THE PROPERTY DEEDS (CHANOTES). BUYER BEWARE.
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While Thailand’s current military dictatorship is running on a ‘end corruption’ ticket there are signs that corruption in Thailand is rising to a new peak and the people the military are arresting seem to be in areas where uniformed men have prospective interests.
AND IF THE BAD GUYS PROVIDE A SOURCE OF INCOME WHY KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE?
Who cannot remember the day in 2012 when two wise guys from Essex were nabbed after trying to drag away ATM machines from banks in Chonburi? They were Alex Milbourn,25, and Shaun Tracey, 24 and the truck they used was owned by Alex’s dad John Leslie Milbourn, now 63.
The story ran in the Bangkok Post and the PattayaDailyNews which described the thieves in a headline as ‘Dumb and Dumber’.
It seemed they were going to jail for a long time.
Alex and Shaun came straight out the backdoor not long after General Panya Mamen gave his press conference .
They (Alex did not even have a visa for Thailand) walked away scot free, but most likely a lot poorer, which was why I guess they had to start up property and rent-a-car businesses in Pattaya.
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| Haughton |
Haughton offered for sale houses that were never built, and the ones that were built, he mortgaged the title deeds, without telling the foreign buyers what he was doing – so the buyers were buying a massive debt.
It seems in the case of the Milbourns that they had a special relationship with Pattaya police. We know of course Thai police will not investigate foreigner on foreigner fraud, but in the case of the Milbourns I have a report that when people actually complained to police they were threatened with deportation.
They eventually settled for a pool like normal people.
One guy, who had disputes over money for a house-build, reports that he found 50 Thai workers with pick-axes outside his door.
When the military men said they were going to clean up Pattaya perhaps they meant they were going to ‘clean up in Pattaya’.
Alex Milbourn’s father is known in the UK as a man who ran with Eddie ‘King Cone’ Blundell, whose speciality was ripping off foreigners in London. He took over the central London ice cream trade essentially by force and intimidation and then went on to run a car clamping business. The victims had to pay £600 to get their cars back.
Eddie Blundell later wrote his biography ‘Top Drawer Villain’ but he was decidedly bottom drawer.
Recently the Milbourn’s relocated from Thailand back to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, after private criminal cases were issued against them, but before the warrants of arrest could be obtained. They said they were going back to the UK on holiday and Alex took with him Harvey, his son by his Thai wife.
They have not returned and the mother, not surprisingly is distraught. But John Leslie Milbourn has an estate agency to look after in the UK.
What did they do to garner two arrest warrants? Well they used to rent out property on behalf of foreigners who had bought in Thailand as an investment, or lived in the country only a few months a year.
In this case they convinced a leaseholder to buy the freehold in a company name. They then forged his signature on a power of attorney and went along to the land office and transferred the property to themselves.
Then they took a 10 million baht loan off the property through dodgy Pattaya loan sharks with no intention of paying it back (something the loan sharks seemed to understand).
The owner of the property has discovered, not surprisingly, that the courts are ruling in favour of the loan sharks.
WARNING: A WIDE RANGE OF PROPERTIES IN PATTAYA AND HUA HIN ARE BEING OFFERED AT THE MOMENT EITHER COMPLETED OR NEAR COMPLETED. MANY OF THESE PROPERTIES ARE ON LAND WHICH IS NOT OWNED BY THE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, OR HAVE LOANS ATTACHED TO THE PROPERTY DEEDS (CHANOTES). BUYER BEWARE.
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THAILAND'S VERY OWN GREEK MAGNATE IN THE PROPERTY (FRAUD) BUSINESS
IT'S AS EASY AS ALPHA BETA GAMMA DELTA
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As the career of Niels Colov, a former career criminal turned newspaper publisher and police chief in Pattaya, Thailand across the Gulf in the royal resort of Hua Him wavers it seems that the life-style of fellow publisher Greek George Mastronikolis is also hitting a few bumps.
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I have been receiving posts about gorgeous George for nigh on ten years.
Agence France Presse even did a report on him, unusual for a wire service, in relation to property frauds way back in 2008. The problem with the posts is that the authors have always asked for anonymity.
George Mastronikolis, Niels Colov, and, if readers can remember, Drew Noyes of the Pattaya Times, all started newspapers, and all set about contacting local police and officials, flashing their smiles, not a little cash, and their desire to help Thailand not from the bottom of their loving hearts, as they claimed, but for the benefit of their wallets.
Thereafter, all set about on a course of giving Thailand the worse reputation possible.
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We had Niels Colov, publisher of the Pattaya People, being appointed Chief of the Pattaya Police Foreign Volunteers, and Noyes, a fake lawyer, publisher of the Pattaya Times, and now convicted extortionist, running a ‘legal seminar’ with the judges of the eastern region courts.
And Mastronikolis, well he runs Hua Hin Today newspaper, and this is a list of guests who attended a party to lure Chinese investors to the resort.
Ms. Nuwanna Anantakitpaisarn, Vice Governor of Prachuab Kirikhan, Pol. Maj. Gen. Tanet Soontornsuk, Commander of Prachuab Kirikhan Provincial Police, Mr. Montri Shoupu, Deputy Mayor of Hua Hin, Pol. Col. Damrongsak Thongngarmtrakul, Superintendent of Hua Hin Police, Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee, Superintendent of Royal Thai Police Immigration of Prachuab Kirikhan and Ms. Vanida Arunothai, Chief of Prachuab Kirikhan Commercial Office, Mr. Boonlert Boonchuay, Deputy of Provincial Administrative Organization, Mr. Kriengkrai Kraitong, Prachuab Kirikhan Mayor, Mrs. Pattama Kraitong (Wife of Mr. Kriengkrai), Mr. Somporn Yasotorn, Deputy Mayor of Prachuab Kirikhan, Pol. Col. Arkane Daengdomyut, Superintendent of Prachuab Kirikhan Police, Pol. Lt. Col. Sathabhorn Sanguansuk, Inspector of Tourist Police Station 7 Sub-Division 2 Tourist Police Division, Pol. Lt. Col. Veerawat Kruesombat, (with Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee), Pol. Lt. Col. Suchart Saengnil (with Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee), Pol. Maj. Gen. Noi Wannaphaiboon, Editor of Hua Hin Today and Mr. Phaiboon from local Real Estate firm.
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Look who is editor of Hua Hin Today. Police Major General Noi Wannaphaiboon, is not of course. Its just an honorary title. His English is not THAT good.
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Hua Hin truly welcomes Greeks bearing gifts.
In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find if George owns anything. He has been sued in Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan and has judgments against him totaling between 30-40 million baht involving properties he had, well let’s not mince words here, fraudulently sold to hapless punters from abroad. The victims include Scandinavians, Russians, Brits etc.
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Poor old George simply states: ‘I don’t have any money’. And technically that is true. Although he claims to be the owner of the above on ‘LinkedIn’ these are just fronts for his activities. Everything is in the hands of nominees. In fact, he should be a millionaire many times over.
Membership of the Mahasamutr Country Club (535,000 per annum) must be a mere bagatelle.
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Lotus Resort, Black Lotus, Greenscape, Royal Holdings, Royal Property (Thailand), etc., are all names to be avoided.
He pretends to be the owner of properties. He isn’t. He works on a system of ‘kai fak’.
He says he’ll buy the land to the owner, tells the buyer he owns the land.
And when they buy and move in they find they have nothing.
Then they ask how they can get their money back but alas the sugar cane has already entered the elephant's mouth.
George had mastered a scam being perpetrated by resort foreign property dealers all over Thailand.
It’s a win win situation. Everybody gets paid off in Thailand, and the foreigners must fight for years for court decisions, which, while they may win, are unenforceable.
In fact, in Hua Hin while technically penniless George is regarded by the locals as the foreigner with the ‘Golden Touch’.
Some even say ‘Khamoy suay’ (beautiful thief). And now a local policeman has invested a considerable amount in one of George’s schemes.
I don’t think George is stupid enough to cheat the cop. Surely not?
*****************************************************
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*One of George’s earlier victims was retired US Marine Donald ‘Biff’ Whiting, who settled in Hua Hin with his partner Dolly Samson, a former Rector of Webster’s University, Hua Hin campus. They had a 5-million-baht case against George, then decided to put their home in the hands of Darren Oxley, of Oxley Homes, Hua Hin.
Then Biff had problems with Darren Oxley, who just happened to be on the run from a drugs trial in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where he was described as a man not to meddle with.
Biff's car was fire-bombed the day before a court case. If that was not enough Biff was then gunned down outside his home, and paralysed from the neck down.
Although Donald had only had contact with Darren Oxley himself, Oxley’s wife and two others were convicted of the attempted murder - but it took years to get to trial and conviction – and there was little confidence that she would stay in jail for long.
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2016/04/jail-sentence-confirmed-for-thai-wife.html
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*Jason Coghlan, the brother of Arran Coghlan, ‘The Teflon Don’ who acquired that nickname after police failed to convict him of three murders, was armed by Hua Hin Police after he was employed by Dutch property Developer Dingeman ‘Dinky’ Hendrikse to sort out complaining foreign buyers on his ‘Avalon’ now ‘Khao Noi’ estate in Hua Hin.
Shooting off in the middle of the night and threatening to personally come around and sort out the foreigners who had come to ‘live the dream’ certainly seemed to work for Jason, a former Double Category Triple 'A' prisoner with a history of violence.
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2016/04/thai-police-armed-british-double.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/08/gangland-britain-in-thailand-contd.html
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*Keith Burbage, 56, a director of the ‘Stationery Office’, formerly Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, was severely beaten up in Hua Hin after being sold a property of Dingeman Hendrikse and entering a legal dispute. (The house he bought was sold to someone else). Hendrikse denied any connection. Burbage left to retire in South America. At the time he said: “There is nobody protecting people from the foreign mafia here, least of all the police.”
None of the above were reported in the Hua Hin Today newspaper. I can understand people requesting anonymity.
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TIMEO GRECI ET DON FERENTES
Agence France Presse even did a report on him, unusual for a wire service, in relation to property frauds way back in 2008. The problem with the posts is that the authors have always asked for anonymity.
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| Colov |
Thereafter, all set about on a course of giving Thailand the worse reputation possible.
And Mastronikolis, well he runs Hua Hin Today newspaper, and this is a list of guests who attended a party to lure Chinese investors to the resort.
Ms. Nuwanna Anantakitpaisarn, Vice Governor of Prachuab Kirikhan, Pol. Maj. Gen. Tanet Soontornsuk, Commander of Prachuab Kirikhan Provincial Police, Mr. Montri Shoupu, Deputy Mayor of Hua Hin, Pol. Col. Damrongsak Thongngarmtrakul, Superintendent of Hua Hin Police, Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee, Superintendent of Royal Thai Police Immigration of Prachuab Kirikhan and Ms. Vanida Arunothai, Chief of Prachuab Kirikhan Commercial Office, Mr. Boonlert Boonchuay, Deputy of Provincial Administrative Organization, Mr. Kriengkrai Kraitong, Prachuab Kirikhan Mayor, Mrs. Pattama Kraitong (Wife of Mr. Kriengkrai), Mr. Somporn Yasotorn, Deputy Mayor of Prachuab Kirikhan, Pol. Col. Arkane Daengdomyut, Superintendent of Prachuab Kirikhan Police, Pol. Lt. Col. Sathabhorn Sanguansuk, Inspector of Tourist Police Station 7 Sub-Division 2 Tourist Police Division, Pol. Lt. Col. Veerawat Kruesombat, (with Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee), Pol. Lt. Col. Suchart Saengnil (with Pol. Col. Pansak Kadee), Pol. Maj. Gen. Noi Wannaphaiboon, Editor of Hua Hin Today and Mr. Phaiboon from local Real Estate firm.
Look who is editor of Hua Hin Today. Police Major General Noi Wannaphaiboon, is not of course. Its just an honorary title. His English is not THAT good.
Hua Hin truly welcomes Greeks bearing gifts.
In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find if George owns anything. He has been sued in Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan and has judgments against him totaling between 30-40 million baht involving properties he had, well let’s not mince words here, fraudulently sold to hapless punters from abroad. The victims include Scandinavians, Russians, Brits etc.
Poor old George simply states: ‘I don’t have any money’. And technically that is true. Although he claims to be the owner of the above on ‘LinkedIn’ these are just fronts for his activities. Everything is in the hands of nominees. In fact, he should be a millionaire many times over.
Membership of the Mahasamutr Country Club (535,000 per annum) must be a mere bagatelle.
Lotus Resort, Black Lotus, Greenscape, Royal Holdings, Royal Property (Thailand), etc., are all names to be avoided.
He pretends to be the owner of properties. He isn’t. He works on a system of ‘kai fak’.
He says he’ll buy the land to the owner, tells the buyer he owns the land.
And when they buy and move in they find they have nothing.
Then they ask how they can get their money back but alas the sugar cane has already entered the elephant's mouth.
George had mastered a scam being perpetrated by resort foreign property dealers all over Thailand.
It’s a win win situation. Everybody gets paid off in Thailand, and the foreigners must fight for years for court decisions, which, while they may win, are unenforceable.
In fact, in Hua Hin while technically penniless George is regarded by the locals as the foreigner with the ‘Golden Touch’.
Some even say ‘Khamoy suay’ (beautiful thief). And now a local policeman has invested a considerable amount in one of George’s schemes.
I don’t think George is stupid enough to cheat the cop. Surely not?
*****************************************************
Then Biff had problems with Darren Oxley, who just happened to be on the run from a drugs trial in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where he was described as a man not to meddle with.
Biff's car was fire-bombed the day before a court case. If that was not enough Biff was then gunned down outside his home, and paralysed from the neck down.
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| Oxley |
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2016/04/jail-sentence-confirmed-for-thai-wife.html
Shooting off in the middle of the night and threatening to personally come around and sort out the foreigners who had come to ‘live the dream’ certainly seemed to work for Jason, a former Double Category Triple 'A' prisoner with a history of violence.
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2016/04/thai-police-armed-british-double.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/08/gangland-britain-in-thailand-contd.html
None of the above were reported in the Hua Hin Today newspaper. I can understand people requesting anonymity.
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19-YEAR OLD TOURIST FLEES THAILAND WITH MUM AFTER THAI RAPE ATTACK
MUM ISSUES VIDEO WARNING AFTER HER DAUGHTER IS THREATENED
'RAPIST' POSTS 'DOUBLE BED' MESSAGE ON SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY
'RAPIST' POSTS 'DOUBLE BED' MESSAGE ON SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY
EVIL MAN OF KRABI 2?
A young Norwegian, who regularly visited Thailand with her mother to volunteer for a small animal charity, says she fled after being raped by a local man after visiting a bar in southern province of Krabi.
Although police later arrested her alleged attacker in Ao Nang, she
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| Samarkit |
The fireman had subsequently been involved in a fracas after the incident after returning to the bar where the incident allegedly happened to confront the rapist.
The alleged rapist, Thiraphat Samarkit, was freed, the family said, despite promises by police ‘100 percent he will be like monkey in a cage’ while they stayed in Thailand to testify.
In a case similar to the 'Evil Man of Krabi' case 6 years earlier in Ao Nang the family does not believe that the Thai authorities treat the rape of foreigners seriously and have put up a video warning on YouTube.
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| Martine. Sad. She wanted to stay to testify against rapist - but Thailand gave us no real choice. |
He even posted a ‘Happy Valentine’ message accompanied by photos of a room, a double bed with heart-shaped cushions, and himself posing with another foreign woman.
The woman in the photograph messaged him to take her picture down. But he did not.
Contacted in Thailand the woman from Brooklyn, New York said:
“I’d rather just remove myself totally. The people are not normal. God knows what could happen to me.”(More recently he has been posing with other foreign women)
Anca and Martine said that on February 11th they had spent a day with IHANA (I Help Ao Nang Animals) feeding animals.
In the evening they had gone to the night market in Krabi where they had dinner and drinks and talked about Martine volunteering with Lanta Animal Rescue.
Returning late they stopped their taxi early to walk the last few hundred yards to their hotel.
They got chatting with New York fireman Tommy Burke and three male British tourists and were invited for a drink.
Anca declined, she said, because she was tired, but in any case, they had been visiting Ao Nang for many years – making 14 trips, and she felt safe there, and her daughter would be safe in the group.
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| Thiraphat posting with American woman in Facebook 'Valentine's Day' message |
The mother went home, and the group went into the nearest bar the – the Roots Rock Regga Bar.
Within an hour about 1 am on February 12th Anca Häkestad received a frantic and hysterical call from her daughter saying she had been raped.
Details later emerged that she had been dancing with the American and Brits and at some point, needed to use the toilet. She asked a barman, who was also moving around the room, where it was, and the barman, Samarkit, offered to show her, leading her downstairs and opening a door.
But the room had no toilet but a bed, and then Martine claimed she found herself being bundled into the room where she was raped by the barman who was easily able to pull off her lose casual trousers and underwear.
He had pinned her by her upper arms and after he had finished she grabbed her clothes and, dressing on the stairs, fled the bar in a state of shock, pushing over one of the Englishmen in the process.
Seeing the commotion Tommy Burke and the Englishmen followed and were later joined by Martine’s mother, Anca, who Martine had called in distress on the phone, and some Swedish girls. Martine was lying on the ground sobbing.
The police were called after Martine said she had been raped and she was accompanied to the local hospital by local officers, Anca and one of the Britons – the one she had pushed in the rush to get out of the Roots Reggae Rock bar.
At the hospital, Martine was checked for the DNA of her attacker, which was found, and treated against any possible STDs and the HIV virus, a treatment she is continuing in Norway.
Both Anca and Martine were then visited by both the local police and the Tourist Police. Martine gave two statements and later they were told that the man had been arrested. It was a straightforward case.
It was just a matter of waiting for the DNA and for Martine to testify at a specially convened court. Bail would be opposed and he would be kept in custody.
Thai Tourist Police even brought them flowers and fruit and encouraged them to enjoy the rest of their stay and not worry. Both mother and daughter said they felt safe.
But that was soon to change. Their first shock, they said, was to find that they were being filmed in a ‘Family Mart’ by the female singer from the bar and there was a confrontation.
Then back at their hotel they received visits from other members of the bar including the wife of the Thai owner. Ostensibly they were calling to express their regret, but they would not leave unless they spoke to the daughter. They eventually had had to be forcefully asked to leave.
Then, said Anca, along came a German called Mathias or Matthaus, who was running around investigating the case, because, he said, he was a small shareholder in the bar. But strangely he had information only given by the family to the local police.
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| Matthias |
He had approached the mother, daughter, and Tommy, telling them he was just trying to figure out what happened because the timings Martine had given police of when she was in and out of the bar were all wrong as the police CCTV showed.
(The bar's own CCTV was not working)
Also, he said, staff would testify that Martine was seen kissing the alleged rapist in the bar and then had heard the ‘sounds of good sex’ going on in the room.
He also mentioned that Martine had pushed a man away and that Tommy had been shirtless when he left the bar suggesting one of the Brits and Tommy might have been involved in some way.
The above incidents were true and convinced the group that police had shown him the CCTV footage but he had a totally false interpretation.
‘You,’ he said to Tommy, ‘You need to wait here police are coming to talk to you and they want to see your friend too, so you’ll need to find him.’
Not surprisingly everyone was shocked and angry, and Tommy Burke said he shouted at the man to leave, which he eventually did in a white Mitsubishi SUV sporting an advertisement for the Roots Rock Reggae bar on the outside.
Both Anca and Martine did not know what they had signed in the police station as police had said they could not bring their Thai friend, who offered to translate and read back their statements to them in English.
Said Anca:
"It is unforgivable that the rapist had traumatised my daughter and it hurt much worse and it is so unfair to give up fighting for justice but we believed this man (Mathias) was sent by the mafia to watch us and to intimidate us. Although we were not afraid of him we were afraid of who we believed he was working for."
As with most Thai tourist bars in Thailand the Roots Reggae Rock bar the owners have a close relationship with the local police. But the relationship between the police and this bar seemed just as little too close to Martine and Anca.
On making inquiries they said they were told that the bar was ‘mafia owned’. But it was not big mafia.
Just local mafia, was how they were described to Anca and Martine. That meant, they were told, that 'for a consideration' police did not interfere with their business.
The bar is known as a place to buy drugs and smoke in a downstairs room.
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| Roots Rock Reggae highly recommended on Tripadvisor for its 'weed' - here at 1,300 baht a bag |
Said Martine:
“Soon everybody around us was telling us to ‘get the f… out of Thailand’. And the mafia was reporting me about giving a false report about the rape. They said that I had wanted to have sex with him.
"But really, I’m 19 years old. No 19 years old girl wants to have sex with a 50 years old man from a bar in Thailand.
“And I get so sad, mad and upset because the day the rape happened we were asking ourselves if we should go home. But I didn’t want to because I didn’t want that man to go for free after ruining me. And I didn’t want him to have the opportunity to do it again to someone else.
“But Thailand and the mafia didn’t give us a choice. We couldn’t have stayed there to make the case complete because we can’t fight the big mafia thing that’s going on down there.”Anca said she was in love with Thailand and the people until the incident:
“ I was in shock. This was the last thing I thought would happen to us in Ao Nang. It was horrible to see my daughter lying and shaking on the asphalt, kicking her legs at the same time she was grasping both of her hands at her abdomen, crying for her breath. And the fear in her eyes almost took me away.
“My child, who just over an hour previously seemed to be the happiest girl in the world, was now in the fetal position on the asphalt completely crushed by sorrow and shock.”After that last meeting with Mathias Tommy Burke went back to his hotel and related the story of Mathias/Matthaus to a member of staff. Everybody seemed to know Tommy was involved with the Reggae Bar incident.
“I told the story quickly and the staff girl says, ‘My father is police, you need to go.’ Very shocked by her answer I keep asking questions. But she just keeps saying 'Get in a cab and book a flight on the way to the airport.'
‘Don't call the girls, just go!’
I keep saying things like. ‘You can't be serious?’ and ‘You've got to be joking!’ 'No!Just Go!’ she said.
"After a while of her not changing her story I add money to my phone and call the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok and he says pretty much the same thing. ‘Get out of Thailand’.Anca says she received the same advice when she contacted her Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.
After complaining to police, they all moved hotel as they had found out their hotel was owned by the same family group as the bar, and at the new hotel , they said, they were joined by Tommy.
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| Anca with her husband Ken |
Back home her husband Ken booked tickets for Anca, Martine and for Tommy to escort them back to Oslo via Dubai and at 5 am they slipped out of their hotels and took a taxi to Phuket airport and onwards to Bangkok and home.
In Ao Nang a Dutch girl was raped on her 19th birthday. It became known as the ‘Evil Man of Krabi’.
In that case the rapist, a tourist guide called Chumpol Khaonuang, who had a murder conviction as a juvenile aged 17, was not arrested for a month, but then he was also immediately released on bail despite police promises.
In anger, the victim’s Dutch musician father, composed and sang the music video ‘Evil Man of Krabi’ and put it on YouTube after his daughter was raped by an Ao Nang ‘tourist guide’.
Police tried to retaliate by suggesting the young women was a willing partner by accepting a lift home on his motorcycle and holding his hand and they fed information to the Tourism Minister Chumphol Silpa-archa, who made a statement saying it couldn't be rape because the victim dined with the suspect and her boyfriend and the boyfriend left him to it!
The Thai response was treated with contempt internationally and it became quite clear that she had been beaten by Chumpol as well.
A common view is that Chumpol would have got away with it had it not been for the father’s video which went viral and he was taken back into custody.
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| February 28 letter from Norwegian consuil to Anca telling them Thai police say 'We have been in contact with the local police by telephone and they say he is in custody and will be kept there while they are building the case |
Since returning to Norway Anca Haakestad has also taken to YouTube. She has been corresponding with the father of the Dutch girl and is considering making a music video. Her current video is titled 'The Darks Side of Ao Nang'.
Anca Häkestad has been in contact with friends in Oslo and Ao Nang, who have provided background on the attacker and have liaised with the Tourist Police, and with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Thai Police have requested through the Norwegian Consulate in Bangkok that Martine returns to Thailand to give evidence. They point out that the decision to allow bail was a decision of the court not the police. Martine’s departure from Thailand had not been good for the case.
Tony Wattanamalin, the bar owner, has not answered messages.
COMMENT:
Over 30 years reporting from Thailand it became clear most foreign women victims of rape chose to flee. Numerous programmes have been sponsored by the United States, British, Australian and different European governments on how to deal with sex crimes. There has been an improvement in how Thai police deal with sex crimes. The queues of male officers to interrogate the victims have gone. Nevertheless a victim is still treated considerably different than in the west.
When term mafia is used in Thailand it can often mean just the rich and influential guys in town. As they have money, they have influence over the police. Police look up to them and 'wai' them etc. So if they want to sell drugs in their bars police may touch them. Police, however, will arrest foreigners caught with drugs bought in their bars. And sometimes police seem too well informed.
Rape victims have to pay their own expenses (if they have to fly back from their home countries top give evidence) but often they can give evidence in special court and then allowed home. In this case a special court had been set up, but by this stage the victim and her family were in fear.
Trials can last for years in Thailand even having been found guilty of such offences as murder, the perpetrators can still get bail to appeal. The exceptions to this have been high profile tourist murder rape cases. The high speed has nothing to justice but much more to do with public image of the country and 'face'.
Some cases which have taken a lot longer include famously Kanman Poh (Somchai Khonpleum) The Godfather of the Eastern Seaboard escaped jail for 25 years after being convicted of murder - and then last year he was granted a Royal Pardon without spending a day behind bars!
And six Thai policemen, who were found guuilty of the murder of a 17-year-old student in a well-known drugs war case in Kalasin, were also then given bail after the death sentence had been pronounced!
In the above case the victim and her family have elected to be identified. |They believe by doing so it will add weight and credibility but more importantly they hope this case will serve as a warning to women visiting Thailand.
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FIRST, THEY COULDN’T TALK – NOW THEY CANNOT BREATHE
DISASTER PREVENTION OFFICER IN MAI: ' THESE ALLEGATIONS ARE A FRIGGING DISASTER'
SMOG ROLLS IN OVER GOVERNOR
(warning this contains images which may be regarded as sacrilegious in Thailand)It seems pilots of the airline Nok Air are having problems finding the runway in the northern town of Mae Hong Son and local citizens in Chiang Mai are having real difficulties breathing. But now disaster prevention officers are tackling the problem.
Naturally. they’re not tackling the notorious northern air pollution, which is in many places well in excess of safety limits set by the World Health Organisation.
They’re tackling the problem of people talking about it now they can no longer pass off the smog as early morning mists. They last all day.
In a move reminiscent of the time members of the Thaksin Shinawatra government publicly ate a meal of KFC chicken with the message ‘What Bird Flu? Not here there ain’t’ an investigation has been ordered into the publication of a school girl's painted picture of the city centre statue of the ‘Three Kings’ (founder of Chiang Mai) with the kings all wearing smog masks, and its appearance on the Facebook page of the city’s glossy magazine ‘City Life’.
The Provincial Governor of Chiang Mai, Pawin Chamniprasart, the northern voice of the military junta, ordered Sirirpon Nampa head of the city’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Agency to investigate. Staff members have been ordered to wake up.
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| Pawin |
“It’s sacrilege. It’s a disrespectful act. It seriously hurts the feelings of Chiang Mai residents.”
What’s more, he added, it could hurt tourism and the image of the city, which has seen the northern Thai capital competing with Dhaka as the world’s worst city for air pollution.
So, the publisher of City Life, Pim Kemasingki, could face charges of libel under the 2007 Computer Crime Act and face jail of up to 7 years, or sedition under country lese majeste laws and qualify for a 15-year stretch.
Perhaps the schoolgirl will be hanged, drawn and quartered.
I have been talking to people in Chiang Mai, but I can’t reveal their names. They might meet a similar fate. They report that it's not so often you can see Doi Suthep, Thailand’s second highest mountain, which dominates the city.
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| Not the first time northern Thailand's three wise men have donned masks. |
Protesters have already had to cancel a rally which they had organized at the city’s Thapae Gate because they had been subjects to threats.
“Grab your mask and bring your friends and family to come together and have our voices heard.
We all have the right to breathe. This is a gathering organised by concerned citizens of Chiang Mai with no political agenda but to plead with the authorities to please provide air quality information to the public following WHO standards.
We will be handing a letter to both the governor and the mayor, though there will be no ceremony at the event itself. It will be a casual gathering and we hope that with the press we invite, our message will be heard by those who need to hear it. BRING A SIGN.”
The government has placed a ban on all meetings of five or more persons for political purposes, but you can still dress up as a Nazi on your school Sports Day.
Of course, this is all ridiculous.
It’s not the first time these three kings have been depicted wearing smog masks.
I don’t think many people think that the latest picture, painted by a young student at a local international school, is sacrilegious.
But, of course, the city fathers will find someone if it suits them.
A few years ago the Governor of Chiang Mai at the time wrote to me saying that there was no place in Thailand for 'human zoos', that is camps for Burmese long-necked Padaung families which were set up for tourist cash by, in his words, 'unscrupulous businessmen'.
The last I heard there were more than ever. He obviously got straight onto the problem Thai-style.
Here’s the text of the petition to the Governor.
#breathelife
A plea to find solutions to the annual air pollution danger to the people of the north of Thailand.
To the Honourable Governor of Chiang Mai Province HE Prawin Champrasart
To the Honourable Mayor of the City of Chiang Mai HE Tassanai Buranupakorn
To the Honourable President of the Provincial Administrative Organisation HE Boonlert Buranupakorn
We are the citizens and residents of Thailand and other countries living here in Chiang Mai, who are concerned about the ongoing environmental crisis and health impacts of the haze and the air pollution which is affecting Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand each year.
We acknowledge the efforts made by the government and independent organisations all working towards solutions, however, given the health issues that are the result of the aforementioned issues, we wish to ask for more urgency in finding solutions so that citizens can protect themselves appropriately from the many health dangers we face due to this problem.
We therefore ask you, as the governor and mayor of Chiang Mai, to request that the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand to urgently take these three important steps to provide this information.
1. We humbly request that the Pollution Control Department, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Government adopt the World Health Organisation (WHO) Standard for the identification of dangerous levels of particulate matter for both PM 10 and PM 2.5 and include both readings in every official document published so that this information is widely available to the public.
2. We humbly request that the Government urgently install, with international assistance if necessary, more monitoring stations in Chiang Mai city and other regional centres and rural centres, to monitor both PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels.
3. We humbly request that the Government provides accurate information regarding the hazards of haze and air pollution on public health, especially children and the elderly while also educating those on effective dust masks that protect at the level of PM 2.5.
4. We humbly request that the relevant agencies and authorities measure pollution levels from vehicles in Chiang Mai and publish this information to the public. We also ask that all vehicles have their emission levels measured, and must not exceed that standard level before registration is approved.
We hope that your excellencies will seriously consider this petition and that our proposal is forwarded to all the relevant agencies, at all levels.
Thank you for your kind attention.
The citizens of Chiang Mai
According to the Nation but don't take their word for it. Suck it and see.
“The amount of PM10 dust particles – measuring more than 10 microns in size – hovered at 159 micrograms per cubic metre of air in Chiang Mai’s Muang district yesterday, well above the safe limit. According to Thailand’s Pollution Control Department, health will be affected if PM10 soars above 120 micrograms per cubic metre of air. By the World Health Organisation’s standards, the amount of PM10 should be much lower for people to be safe."
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SONS OF DANISH 'CELEBRITY ARRESTED IN PATTAYA
plus
THAI BROTHEL OFFERED FOR SALE IN N.CAROLINA
The recent arrest of the three sons of Niels Storm Martens Colov, the former Copenhagen gangster who rose to the dizzy heights of newspaper publisher and chief of the Foreign Tourist Police Volunteers in the seamy Thai resort of Pattaya, unfortunately cannot be taken in any way as part of a clear up of corruption in the city.
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| Left - Pong, centre Niels Colov, right Rolf and Bjorn |
Bjorn Colov (Thanapong Thanomsom)24, was arrested with his two brothers, Rolf Kittikhun Colov and Pong Colov in The Street pub in Pattaya’s Third Road. Bjorn had a load 9mm pistol and his brothers tested positive for drugs.
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| Siamchon News - Bjorn Colov and the gun |
The raid was apparently ordered by the local authority and carried out by Pattaya Police after complaints from neighbours about goings on in the pub – owned by the Colovs.
Poor guys. The police described it as a 'big' case. This may be because they have been nicked before. I hope its not because they were also accused of 'vaping'!
The raid can be taken as another sign of the waning influence of their father Niels, who did time in Copenhagen on various criminal charges including pimping and enforcement.
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| Colov centre with some good old boys is his Danish gangster days in Vesterbro, Copenhagen |
Colov is one of hundreds of people who have re-invented themselves in Thailand. In Denmark it is illegal to mention his previous convictions this is because he has been ‘rehabilitated’ and has not had any convictions in Denmark since. The reason for this of course is because he has been committing offences in Thailand for 30 years not Denmark and had managed to ingratiate himself with the police and the local Mayor.
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| Colov with godfather 'Kamnan Poh' during the good old days |
He now no longer has the cash and, if it has not already, the Pattaya People print version will shortly disappear from the streets. After the arrest of his sons the Thai media described them as the sons of a local ‘celebrity’.
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| More Colov (right) recently with a couple of well known good old boys |
Colov’s former colleague, American Drew Walter Noyes, meanwhile is still trying to run ‘One Stop Services’ by internet from his address in Green Valley Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina.
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| Noyes FB posting in January |
On Facebook #DrewNoyes is still offering for sale (for three years now) his ‘Athena’ Gentleman’s Club in Jomtien – a club which failed to open.
And he's offering a Thai visa and a work permit to the buyer.
He also is still claiming he has a licence for a 'Gentleman's Club' which of course in Pattaya means brothel.
He describes earlier how he had been ‘called back to America’ failing to tell his readers that he actually fled just before losing his appeal and conviction for extortion at the Pattaya Criminal Court.
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| Noyes under arrest |
Despite also setting up a newspaper ‘The Pattaya Times’ and fraternising with police and local mayor Noyes could not expect acquittal because one of those he attempted to extort out of 7 million baht was a Thai national.
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| Noyes with the Mayor of Pattaya Ittiphol Konplume second son of Thai Godfather Somchai Konplumne (Kanman Poh) |
Back in the U.S. he has again created another false C.V. in the very town where in 1996 he was exposed by the local paper 'The Star' - for doing just that, and ripping off a few people in property.
The military junta meanwhile, which has been arresting Russians for cashing in on the ‘nonexistent’ prostitution business for which Pattaya is, err ‘ not known’, is also shoring up the eastern seaboard to win the polls there in its promised election next year.
Joining them is Sontaya Konplume, a former Minister of Tourism and Sports in the Thaksin Government so loathed by the junta.
Sontaya’s father is Somchai, aka, Kamnan Poh, Thailand’s most famous mafia godfather of the eastern seaboard, who has been convicted of murder and corruption and not spent a day in prison in 20 years despite a 25-year sentence.
The Thai mafia, which police deny exist ‘otherwise we would know about it’, is clearly in its ascendency.
As we reported here such was Somchai’s good conduct while not in prison (and regularly hosting parties in his Chonburi home) that the newly crowned Rama X of Thailand has given him a full pardon. Aaaah.
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GROUNDHOG DAY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA
The first was ‘Myanmar with Simon Reeve’ and the second was Evan Williams’ ‘Myanmar’s Killing Fields’.
Both centred on the plight of the Rohingya. The minority which without doubt has been the subject of genocide, half a million plus of whom have fled across the border to Bangladesh.
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| Simon Reeve /BBC |
Simon Reeve, an excellent story teller, produced a glossy perhaps more ‘even handed’ account, so we caught a colourful glimpse of devout monks collecting their morning alms with the point that the monks were at the centre of Burma’s* fight for democracy, and stressing that most people loved Aung San Suu Gyi. Nevertheless, he did not shy away from the Aung San Suu Gyi controversy. This was the first of a series on Burma by Simon Reeve
Backed with film taken behind enemy lines it was a harrowing hour-long documentary with gory detail and witness statements of rape, disemboweling of pregnant women, throwing babies on fire, etc.
And it pointed the finger squarely at Aung San Suu Gyi, Burma’s Nobel Peace prize winning heroine, and her blatant lies to the United Nations.
‘There is no history of Muslims in 2000 years of Burma’ read placards carried by ‘Buddhists’ demonstrating against what they refer to as ‘Bangladeshis’. Funny. I thought Burma was a mish mash of Kingdoms and races brought together by the British; people like the Kachin, Chin, Karen, Arakanese, Mon, Shan etc.
The majority of course were Burmese and they have been slaughtering their ethnic minorities since time immemorial.
Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson when asked what other Embassies were doing about the problem came up with the opinion with, well nothing much really. They did not want to rock the boat as it might revert the country to the old days. People in Burma had more democracy now.
Nobody is attacking Aung San Suu Gyi except the odd senator here and there and the United Nations rapporteur and then its only words. Diplomacy has not worked.
Groundhog Day? The plight of Burma’s ethnic minorities was my original fixation, long before organized crime, when I relocated to Asia 30 years ago. In 1987 I made the film ‘Burma’s Forgotten War’ (BBC2) – a catalogue of rapes, murders, and torture by the Burmese Army on the Karen minority.
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| Self (peaked hat) on a front line position with the KNLA in Wangkha (sic) eastern Burma in 1987 |
A year or so later a made the film ‘Lord of the Golden Triangle’ (ITV/Observer Films) on heroin warlord Khun Sa – aka Chan Shi Fu – allegedly the world’s most wanted man, who later settled happily in Rangoon running a bus company and dining with the Burmese military.
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| Youthful! With Khun Sa 1988 |
I interviewed Aung San Suu Gyi in 1988 (She was a lot easier to talk to then apparently) I remember not being enamoured because I wanted her to talk about Burma’s ethnic minorities and she wouldn’t.
Between then and now the Burmese army have continued to murder and torture its ethnic minorities, while the west queues up to do business.
And, of course, pretty much all the big businesses in Burma are connected to the military. They are still actively slaughtering the Kachin. More recently the British Army have even been training the Burmese Army in how to deal with civil unrest in a manner which won’t get them done for war crimes.
I’m guessing the British Army thought they could get more out of this than they could give.
The worst atrocities of all have been carried out under Aung San Suu Gyi’s tenure.
Its Groundhog Day for me too because in Thailand the corruption is still as bad, although more clandestine, than ever with yet another military government in control plundering the country while inserting clauses in the constitution ruling that they cannot be held to account in the future.
Mahathir is back in control in Malaysia as he was when I first went there for the executions of Kevin Barlow, Jeffrey Chambers, and Derrick Gregory, for drugs trafficking.
(The bosses continue to remain untouched while insignificant couriers go to the gallows.)
And Cambodia and the Philippines have become absolute basket cases ruled by dictators also lining their pockets and simply demolishing their enemies.
And here in Britain all we seem to worry about is Brexit, and, the weather of course.
In Britain we have UKIP. But UKIP members have nothing on your devout Burmese Buddhist.
Well done Evan Williams. Still the same old grafter.
*I prefer Burma to Myanmar and, as was pointed out in Episode 1 of Simon Reeve's series, so do many dissidents.
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