Overcharging foreign tourists by as much as 200%

CHIANG RAI – Thailand’s tourism industry has been adversely affected by years of street protests, political violence and, recently, martial law imposed by the coup-makers. But the widespread practice of overcharging and double-pricing is also playing a major role in scaring visitors away from Thai shores.

Foreigners Pay more to enter parks

Long-term foreign residents and regular visitors to Thailand have been complaining about a “two-tier” pricing system for years. Though some visitors may regard paying a little extra just a minor nuisance, others feel they are being discriminated against and point out that the discrepancy can be large, with foreigners charged double or more.

Tourists and foreign expatriates who do not speak or read Thai often fall prey to greedy taxi drivers, street vendors and other business operators. They also experience dual-price entry fees for tourist attractions such as national parks or temples. At popular Bangkok sites like Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) locals are let in free while foreigners pay to enter.

And to get there, tourists may have to deal with taxi drivers who refuse to use the meter for foreign passengers, who can then find themselves paying double or triple for the trip. So common is this practice among cab drivers, that a foreign tourist made the news recently for expressing gratitude to a cabby who had agreed to turn on the meter.

Well-known local blogger Richard Barrow recently publicized plans to increase the entry fee for foreigners at Wat Pho, from Bt100 to Bt200, starting in January. “The price remains free for Thais. The argument is that Thais will make merit by donating money. But what about the Thai Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, etc, who also get in for free? Why is that fair when foreign Buddhists have to pay so much?” wrote Barrow on his website.

Overcharging and double-pricing are also a problem for foreign tourists in some other countries. But the problem is a perennial topic of discussion among visitors to the Kingdom and is damaging Thailand’s reputation. This means that it is likely scaring away prospective tourists and discouraging repeat visits.

“It begins with the people”, declares the Tourism Authority’s “Amazing Thailand” campaign, suggesting that the friendliness of ordinary Thais is the main lure for foreigner visitors. Indeed, Thailand’s deserved reputation as the “land of smiles” attracts millions of tourists. But when “the people” turn greedy and selfish, the smile fades and so does the attraction for would-be visitors.

Tourism is a major revenue-earner for Thailand, accounting for about 10 per cent of the economy. In the first seven months of this year, tourist arrivals totalled 13.62 million, down 10.7 per cent from 15.26 million a year earlier.

The authorities have taken several measures in a bid to woo back visitors. These include waiving visa fees for Chinese tourists, who constitute the largest group of visitors to Thailand, and extending the maximum permitted length of stay for tourists from 48 countries. Campaigns have been organised in Asean countries like Singapore and Indonesia in a bid to persuade their nationals to visit Thailand again.

However, if we are serious about attracting more tourists to the Kingdom, we need to put the smile back on the face of this land by curbing the practices of overcharging and dual-pricing.

Thanya Srilapkhuen, a primary school teacher in southern Thailand

PATTANI – From the doorway of her classroom, Thanya Srilapkhuen, a primary school teacher, can see armed guards in khaki fatigues making their way through a sunny compound. When she looks to the right, the 36-year-old’s eyes settle on a security fortification protecting the entrance to her school. At the checkpoint there are more guards in combat gear, seated behind camouflaged sandbags and rolls of razor wire. They are a reassuring sight, noted Thanya. “We need them here; it is more safe,” she said.

The scene evokes a war front, but it also reveals a mindset in which the presence of armed soldiers and policemen in schools has become a normal part of everyday life. Clearly, people have been shaken by the string of teacher killings here — a bloody sideshow in a small, deadly insurgency that, in its latest form, has raged since 2004 across Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the three provinces along Thailand’s southern border with Malaysia. Both primary and secondary school teachers have been targeted by shadowy ethnic Malay Muslim rebels as part of a larger separatist struggle with the troops of predominantly Buddhist Thailand. By the end of August, teachers accounted for 175 of the more than 6,000 deaths linked to the unrest. Thanya has borne witness to this grisly spectacle, attending six funerals of friends and colleagues.

Placing armed soldiers and police at school gates is not the only security net that has been cast to protect teachers. A common sight in the early morning in this region of small towns and far-flung villages is a patrol of eight troopers accompanying a group of teachers in a vehicle heading to school. Such patrols dominate military operations here, dotted across the small roads and highways that cut through the terrain of gentle hills and rubber plantations. The 36,000 soldiers in the region are part of a force of 150,000 armed operatives, including rangers and paramilitaries. Most of the soldiers are assigned to protect nearly 16,000 teachers. “Security for teachers occupies a big share of our daily work, because they are soft targets,” Colonel Banphot Phunphian, spokesman for the military’s Internal Security Operations Command, told the Nikkei Asian Review. “It sometimes works out to assigning 2.5 soldiers per teacher for these security operations.”

Unsettling as it is, the targeting of Thai Buddhist teachers, many unarmed (though some have received weapons training) exposes the heart of this conflict. Malay Muslims, the predominant community in Thailand’s deep south, and the country’s largest minority, are aggrieved at their treatment by Bangkok since the three provinces, formerly part of the Muslim kingdom of Pattani, were annexed by Thailand in 1902. Bangkok imposed harsh assimilation policies, forcing the ethnic Malay population to adopt Thai names and give up religious and cultural customs. They were also denied education in the Malay language in public schools. One consequence was that such schools came to be seen by Malay Muslims as symbols of oppression. They then became visible markers in the front line of this ethnic conflict, which has erupted periodically since the 1970s.

Crackdown

The Thai government has sought to fight the insurgency partly by cracking down on Malay Muslims thought to have links with the fighters, including Islamic religious teachers. Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, director of the Cross Cultural Foundation, a local human rights campaign organization, said that about 5,000 people had been detained in southern jails under emergency decrees since 2004, adding that some Muslim teachers had been arrested after the military claimed to find bombs, guns and weapons located in religious schools. In some cases, the arrest of Islamic scholars by the army has prompted retaliatory strikes on Thai teachers.

Runda Kumpulan Kecil, the armed wing of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Coordinate, the strongest and most influential of the insurgent groups operating on the ground, has often dispatched its members in such retaliatory strikes. “We choose and strike back,” a stocky midranking commander of the RKK said during an interview in a remote village. Targeting teachers is also sometimes a part of the recruitment process for new volunteers, often at the end of a rigorous period of training in camps hidden under the thick forest canopy that covers much of the terrain here. “The basic training lasts two months and then selected RKK members are given weapons training and taught bomb-making,” said a local source with access to the BRN-C’s armed wing. “But to graduate they need to succeed in their first operation. And sometimes teachers are the targets.”

In defining this conflict, Thai governments and the military have closed ranks to describe the unrest as being rooted in religion. However, critics say this attempt to avoid addressing the more sensitive and politically challenging ethnic dimension is wishful thinking. “The Thai government cannot eradicate Malay nationalism; it is very strong,” said Shintaro Hara, a Japanese linguist who teaches Malay at the Prince of Songkla University, based in Pattani. “The Thai people are blind to the scars of the local history. And for Malays to keep their identity, there is a need to keep the memory of struggle fresh.”

Beyond the politics of identity, the deep south’s economic problems have occasionally driven eruptions of local frustrations. The majority of jobs in the bureaucracy are held by Thai Buddhists, an obvious minority in the region, leading to complaints about the marginalization of the region’s nearly 2 million Malay Muslims. A decade of violence has undermined the hopes of Malay Muslims of a bigger share in the area’s economic potential. The fisheries industry has sagged, despite Pattani’s reputation as the largest port in the south. More than 100 fish processing factories have closed in the last five years in Pattani, where the fishing sector accounts for a third of the province’s gross domestic product. This downturn has affected both the owners of the area’s 700 big trawlers and the 20,000 households that own smaller boats.

Rubber, the main source of the deep south’s income, has been buffeted less by bullets and bombs, but more by global price slumps. “Rubber is the core of the economy in the deep south, and when rubber prices go up or down, so does everything else,” said Anusart Suwanmongkol, a leading Pattani hotelier and a former senator for the province. “Now, because the commodity price has collapsed, there is a huge impact across the south. The conflict has not left this mark.”

It is this reality of teachers cowering in fear, economic troubles and a festering insurgency that Thailand’s latest military regime has to shoulder. Three months after he grabbed power in a coup, army chief and junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha appears ready to address the troubled south. The strongman — who is now prime minister — has given orders for a military-packed delegation to resurrect a stalled peace dialogue between Bangkok and the Malay Muslim insurgents, brokered by the Malaysian government. A groundbreaking dialogue during the first half of 2013 was welcomed by Buddhists and Muslims as a hopeful turn. But it failed to make progress due to Thai military objections.

For educators in the deep south, the prospect of talks between Bangkok and the BRN-C could be, literally, lifesaving. “The talks should continue, and they have to build trust,” said Prasit Meksuwan, headmaster of the Ban Yaha primary school. “But we will still request for military camps near our schools.”

Thailand’s police commissioner Police General Somyot Poompanmoung admits he still has no clear picture of what happened to two British tourists despite DNA tests that proved they had been in contact with Asian men

BANGKOK – Thailand’s most senior police official has insisted his country is safe for tourists despite the police’s failure to catch or even identify the killers of British tourists David Miller and Hannah Witheridge.

“It is safe. I’m sure it is safe,” Police General Somyot Poompanmoung, the Royal Thai Police Commissioner, told reporters during a brief visit to Koh Tao island where the Britons’ bodies were found last Monday.

The handling of the murders represents a major embarrassment to the Thai police chief, who only assumed his position last month

DNA Samples from Hannah Witheridge Point to Asian Man

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KOH TAO – Pol Gen Somyot Phunphanmuang disclosed the latest test of DNA samples collected from semen found inside the body of Ms Hannah Witheridge, 23, showed they belonged to Mongoloid people or Asians.

He revealed the finding just before boarding a flight to Surat Thani today to direct the investigation and hunting down the suspects.

The latest discovery has now enabled the police to narrow their investigation to focus on specific groups,  migrant workers and local Thai people.

Pol Gen Somyot also said the Royal Thai Police has now suspended its earlier plan to seek help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after forensic doctors could conduct deeper test of the Y chromosome DNA test.

A Y chromosome DNA test (Y-DNA test) is a genealogical DNA test which is used to explore a man’s patrilineal or direct father’s-line ancestry.

The genealogical DNA test looks at a person’s genome at specific locations. Results give information about genealogy or personal ancestry. In general, these tests compare the results of an individual to others from the same lineage or to current and historic ethnic groups.

Say No to Don Sahong Dam. Mekong communities rally against controversial dam that could doom Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins

Click to enlarge

CHIANG RAI – Nearly 50 environmental groups have written to the leaders of countries along the Mekong River to revamp a regional official evaluation process for the controversial Don Sahong dam project in southern Laos, saying the current mechanism is flawed.

Their letter to the prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand said the concerns of local communities impacted by the project are not being included as required by the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) for hydropower projects in the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

The PNPCA requires transboundary impact assessments and discussions among member countries, as outlined in a 1995 agreement that led to the formation of the MRC, which supervises development along Southeast Asia’s artery.

The Sept. 10 letter from 45 groups, including U.S.-based International Rivers, Japan’s Mekong Watch, Thailand’s Northern River Basins Network, and Vietnam Rivers Network, was sent more than two months after Lao authorities decided to open the 260-megawatt Don Sahong project to consultations and scrutiny among MRC members.

The Lao authorities said it would suspend construction of the project, the second dam to be built on the Mekong after the Xayaburi dam, but the developer, Malaysia’s Mega First Corporation Berhad, said work was continuing.

Regional Threat

The Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams pose a regional security threat for the 60 million-some people in Southeast Asia who rely on fish and other products from the Mekong for their nutrition and livelihoods, environmental and conservation groups say.

“We are concerned that, as they stand, the PNPCA procedures cannot allow for a legitimate and participatory consultation process for the Don Sahong dam, and the project is set to follow the same destructive path of the Xayaburi dam, bringing further severe impacts to the Mekong and its people,” the letter said.

It said the prior consultation process for the Xayaburi dam, which is under construction, had been a “failure.”

“The limited stakeholder consultation both in number of participants and areas involved excluded many critical voices, including those of local communities in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam,” the letter said.

“The voices of communities must be the priority in the process related to the development of dams on the Mekong River,” it said.

The letter also said many studies indicate that if the Don Sahong dam is built, it will have “severe impacts on Mekong fish and their migration throughout the Lower Mekong River Basin.”

“This threatens the food security and livelihoods of millions of people as well as the economic and political stability of the region, due to increased tension between governments over the failures of regional cooperation,” the letter said.

“As the MRC’s mandate is not for local Mekong communities, there needs to be clarification on how local communities affected by Mekong dams can meaningfully participate in the decision-making process and how their participation will inform decisions made about whether or not a project will proceed,” it said.

“The rights of communities must be recognized.”

United They Stand

Following the letter’s issuance, fishermen and villagers from Cambodia’s Tonle Sap and along the Mekong joined representatives from Thailand’s Pak Mun dam area at a conference in Bangkok this week to announce their opposition to dam construction in the Mekong Basin as well as support for including locals’ voices in transboundary impact reviews.

Residents of the Pak Mun dam area, situated nearly six kilometers (about 3.5 miles) west of the confluence of the Mun and Mekong rivers, must negotiate every year to have the dam gates opened to allow in fish from further upstream, said Somphong Viengchan, an activist who represents fisherman from the Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand.

“If the Don Sahong is built, there won’t be fish to return to the Mun River anymore,” she said, according to a press release issued after the conference.

Fishermen from Cambodia and Thailand threw their support behind Laotians in riparian communities who want their views included in ecological impact reviews of dam projects, including Don Sahong.

A separate statement issued by the fishing community networks said the Lao government must immediately revise the decision to build the Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams and allow a cross-border study that would involve all people from Mekong communities.

“We insist that any act to prevent the people in Mekong countries from knowing about the dams or prohibiting them from raising their voices against the projects is a complete violation of human rights and our rights,” said a joint statement issued by the fishermen.

As the Lao government already has made the decision to build the Don Sahong dam, Laotians can’t do anything about it, Viengchan said at the conference.

Laotians risk arrest if they voice opposition to hydropower projects, she said.

“It is impossible for them to come out and exercise their rights,” Viengchan said. “Therefore, after the discussion, we six Thai Mekong riparian provinces have to do something to give voice via the Thai government to the Lao government about the [dam project’s] transboundary impact.”

International Rivers says the Don Sahong dam will block fish migration routes, destroy the Mekong River ecosystem and cut off the flow of sediments and nutrients. – by Roseanne Gerin.

Forcing the closure of an airport, damaging airport facilities or aircraft at an airport plus any action that maims or kills someone in an airport would result in the death penalty or a life sentence, according to Article 19 of the proposed bill.

BANGKOK – Thai government officials have proposed a bill for the National Legislative Assembly’s consideration to replace the 1978 and 1995 laws.

The authorities put a halt to the event at Bangkok’s Thammasat University due the martial law restrictions on political criticism

BANGKOK – Thailand’s military junta stormed a  Thammasat University seminar on democracy, arresting the four academics and three students who had organized it in a move condemned by human rights groups as an “intolerance for any dissenting voices”.

The scholars had been attending an event entitled Democracy Classroom: Fall of Foreign Dictator at Bangkok’s Thammasat University on Thursday when the military brought it to a halt.

Prajak Kongkirati and Nidhi Eiawsreewong among those detained by police for participating in an academic discussion.

Martial law is now in place in Thailand, after the military – the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – came to power on 22 May, which made it illegal to criticize the coup and also blocked some websites.

According to Human Rights Watch, the authorities had previously ordered the group to suspend the seminar for fear that it could “affect the attempts to solve conflicts in the country”.

In the demand, Colonel Noppadon Tawrit, Commander of the Kings Guard’s 1st Field Artillery Regiment, called for its cancellation in order “to prevent the resurgence of differences in political attitude”.

After they staged the discussion, academics Nidhi Eoseewong, Prajak Kongkirati, Chaowarit Chaowsangrat, and Janjira Sombutpoonsiri, alongside students Worrawut Wongsamart, Rattapon Supasopon, and Sorrawit Serivivat, were reportedly held and interrogated for a number of hours at a police station. They were later released without charge.

“While telling the world that they are not dictators, the Thai military authorities are extending their grip into universities and banning discussions about democracy and human rights,” Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said.

“Prime Minister Prayuth [Chan-ocha] should immediately end this crackdown on academic freedom and free speech.”

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also demanded for the NCPO to “immediately top harassing and arbitrarily detaining students and academics who exercise their right to freedom of expression.”

Academics were reportedly held and interrogated for a number of hours at a police station

“Yesterday’s arrest of students and academics is yet another ominous reminder of the military junta’s intolerance for any dissenting voices,” FIDH President Karim Lahidji said.

“In light of the ongoing arbitrary arrests and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, the junta’s claim that it respects human rights is a poorly-disguised pretense.”

Thailand’s martial law also forbids politically-motivated gatherings of more than five people, while the police reportedly censured the lecturers and students for not seeking permission to hold the talk beforehand.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has since commented on the arrests: “Please understand that I don’t come from an election. I’m well aware of that. So please put on hold all political criticism and forums on politics,” the Bangkok Post reports.

“They had been invited in several times to be asked for their cooperation in refraining from speaking out at this time, because the country is moving forward. We are in the process of introducing reforms and building reconciliation.”

The swoop happened just 10 minutes after eminent intellectual Professor Nidhi, 74, began speaking to the congregated audience. They group were then taken to the police station for “attitude adjustment”, the Bangkok Post said, while Mr Prajak defended the seminar and said it was discussing the politics of other countries, not Thailand.

By Natasha Culzac

Flooding of Homes on the banks of the Mekong

CHIANG RAI  – The Marine Department on Saturday warned Mekong River communities in Chiang Rai have been warned to brace for floods after the upstream Jinghong dam in China began discharging increased levels of water.

On Saturday the The Marine Department told people living in Chiang Saen district to prepare to move their belongings and evacuate at short notice.

Jinghong

Songglod Duanghakloang, director of the 1st regional Marine Office in Chiang Rai, said the Mekong River stood at 5.5m on Friday but had risen by an additional 30cm yesterday due to heavy rainfall and the volume of water coming from theJinghong .

“We are still monitoring how water from the dam in China will affect the Mekong River,” Mr Songglod said. “As far as I know, more water is going to be discharged from the dam shortly.”

Mr Songglod said two villages in tambon Vieng of Chiang Saen district are already flooded due to heavy rainfall.

Locals in other parts of the district reacted to the flood warning with panic, amid speculation that the Chinese dam could discharge water at the rate of 9,000 cubic metres per second, due to heavy rainfall in the upper Mekong region.

Villagers said they feared such huge amounts of water would inundate the district.

Rangsan Kwanmaungderm, senior assistant district chief in Chiang Saen, said he ordered village chiefs to closely monitor water levels in the river.

“Floods are inevitable if the water level in the Mekong reaches 7.3 metres,” Mr Rangsan said.

Meanwhile, floods that had blighted the Thai-Myanmar border market in Mae Sai district since Thursday appeared to have eased yesterday, allowing business to resume.

However, locals still fear a new round of floods because torrential rain continues to batter the Myanmar side of the border.

Benjamin Holse said his passport, wallet and other documents had been stolen.

BANGKOK – The Tourist police in Bangkok and a German charity have come to the aid of a German Benjamin Holse with excessively swollen legs, found begging near Khao San Road in Bangkok, after his photos were distributed and shared on social media.

Police forensic officers search through an apartment where Hannah Witheridge stayed

 

KOH TAO – A pair of British women were reportedly mugged by a Thai gang on the same beach where David Miller and Hannah Witheridge were brutally murdered and just one night before the killings took place, it was claimed on Sunday.

It came as one of Thailand’s top newspapers claimed that the investigation into the killing of the couple had been “rushed, rash, incompetent and speculative” and police confirmed they were looking into a possible altercation between a Thai man and the murdered couple.

 

The investigation had been “rushed, rash, incompetent and speculative,” an editorial in Sunday’s Bangkok Post said.

“It could have been them,” Mr Isaacs, who is from Bournemouth, said of the thieves, according to the Bangkok Post. “It was literally the same spot.”

Kissana Phathanacharoen, a police spokesperson who is on Koh Tao, said he could not immediately confirm if police knew of or were investigating the robbery. Sometimes tourists did not file official police reports, he added.

The bodies of Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge were found dumped on Sairee beach before dawn last Monday. Nearly a week later no arrests have been made.

On Sunday, investigators confirmed for the first time that they were looking into claims the two victims had been involved in a row with a Thai man said to have harassed Ms Witheridge in a bar shortly before the murders.

Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge visited at least two bars in the hours before their murders: an Australian sports pub called Choppers, where they watched a Manchester United game, and a Thai-run nightclub called AC Bar which is known for heavy-drinking, punch-ups and its beachside fire-juggling shows.

On Friday police raided AC Bar seizing “narcotics” and other substances, according to Thai media reports that police officials have refused to confirm.

“Sexual jealously” was now seen as likely motive for the crime, said Kissana Phathanacharoen. The possible involvement of fishermen who could have swum ashore from their boats to commit the crime was also being considered.

Thai police chiefs have rejected claims they “messed up” their response to the murders. General Somyot Poompanmoung, Thailand’s most senior police official, visited Koh Tao on Saturday vowing to do “his best” to solve the crime.

However, many questions have been raised about the police reaction, including why they failed to properly secure the area around the crime scene. This weekend, tourists continued to sunbathe just yards from where the victims’ bodies and one of the murder weapons were found.

The investigation had been “rushed, rash, incompetent and speculative,” an editorial in Sunday’s Bangkok Post said.

Police handling of the incident was “an international scandal and should be a source of deep embarrassment,” it added. “And it would be, except the egregious lack of professionalism displayed in this case is par for the course for the Thai police force.”

The newspaper also accused police of leaking insensitive and incorrect information to the media about the possible identity of the killers.

“It must be horrifying for the victims’ friends and families to hear police discussing intimate details of the crime and speculating on the possibility of rape, reading reports of leaked autopsy details and seeing unnamed sources discuss the blood that later turns out to be dirt, but sadly this is the level of unprofessionalism we have come to expect in Thailand.”

Police also appeared to be following “prejudices rather than evidence” by targeting Burmese migrant workers more than Thai residents, the newspaper added. “Certainly the announcement that Myanmar migrant workers were suspects in the Koh Tao murders appeared premature.”

A transsexual woman from Laos is round up by police after being caught allegedly stealing money from a foreign client

CHON BURI – The city of Pattaya in Thailand is best known for its go-go clubs, massage parlors and girlie bars. The resort is a popular sex tourism destination due to its huge neon-lit red light district. However, in the wake of July’s military coup, the city is trying to clean up its image.

Colonel Suppatee Boonkrong, acting head of Pattaya City Police, told the Bangkok Post he was aiming to totally eradicate street prostitution. “I want to completely change the image of Pattaya from being sin city to a friendly town that everyone can enjoy,” he said.

The authorities have begun carrying out nightly raids in the red light district, arresting prostitutes, pickpockets and confidence tricksters.

Thai transsexual women wait to pay their fines in a police station in Pattaya

The manager of Sisters, a health counseling center for transgendered people, told the Bangkok Post that police were targeting ladyboy sex workers. But Colonel Boonkrong claimed: “We are arresting anyone for whom we have evidence of trying to trade sex for money. [Transsexual women] happen to be the majority of people we arrest.”

In theory, prostitution is illegal in Thailand but in practice it is tolerated and regulated. Sex tourism contributes a vast amount of revenue to the country’s economy.

Once a sleepy fishing town, Pattaya started catering for the needs of off-duty American GIs during the Vietnam War. Package – and sex – tourists followed and the city’s beaches are now lined with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and the seemingly endless massage parlors, cabaret venues and seedy bars.

25 year Old Ian Andrew Heller from Nebraska

PHNOM PENH – A 25-year-old American man arrested in Sihanoukville Cambodia on Saturday for holding an expired visa will be extradited to the U.S. to face child-rape charges there, an immigration police official said on Tuesday.

Ian Andrew Heller, who was born in Nebraska, will be sent back to the U.S. as soon as Interior Minister Sar Kheng signs off on the deportation order, said Ouk Hay Seila, director of the investigation and procedure enforcement bureau at the Interior Ministry’s immigration department.

“The U.S. issued warrants to all of their embassies across the world after [Mr. Heller] escaped after being charged with child sex abuse,” he said.

“We initially arrested him because his visa had expired, but we looked at his passport and realized he was the same person,” he said, adding that Mr. Heller is currently being held at the immigration department’s headquarters in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Hay Seila said Mr. Heller originally arrived in Siem Reap City, before traveling to the coastal town of Sihanoukville.

“He wanted to move to Cambodia and act like a normal tourist, as if nothing had ever happened,” Mr. Hay Seila said.

The Columbian newspaper, which covers the state of Washington’s Clark County, reported Monday that Mr. Heller is accused of raping a girl multiple times and had failed to appear in court six days prior to his arrest in Cambodia.

The article also says Mr. Heller previously served jail time in 2013, but does not elaborate.

“When he was released from jail last year, he was ordered to stay with his half-brother, Keith Griffith…. Griffith told the officer Heller moved without letting him know what his new address would be,” the article says.

“A bench warrant was issued for Heller’s arrest at the end of July for not reporting his new address as required by law,” it continues.

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh has said it will not comment on Mr. Heller’s case as a matter of policy.

Mr. Heller’s arrest in Sihanoukville on Saturday—announced by the National Police on their website the same day—came in the midst of a new nationwide census that has already resulted in the deportation of dozens of foreign nationals living in the country illegally, including citizens of Russia, India, Nigeria, China and Vietnam.

Sean McAnna, 25, from Shotts near Glasgow

KOH TAO – A petrified British National Sean McAnna, 25, from Shotts near Glasgow, has fled the Koh Tao island where two British backpackers were murdered last week after claiming the “Mafia” was trying to execute him.

Police questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

Sean was a friend of David Miller, the tourist whose body was found last Monday on Koh Tao island along with that of Hannah Witheridge.

Mr McAnna claimed that two Thai men, who he believes may have crucial information about the murders, threatened to kill him in the early hours of Monday morning while he was drinking at a bar on Sairee beach near to where their disfigured bodies were discovered.

He fled, took refuge in a nearby supermarket and was only able to leave when police were called and arrived on the scene at around 5am. They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

With those two men still at large, Mr McAnna spent the day in hiding before fleeing Koh Tao fearing he could be killed if he stayed.

“I need to get off this island,” a tearful and visibly nervous Mr McAnna told The Telegraph during an interview conducted inside the back of a taxi before he departed.

“I genuinely thought that was the day I was going to die,” Mr McAnna said. “I genuinely thought that this was me dead. That I was gone.”

“I phoned my mum, I phoned my sister. I told her I loved her and that I would try and make it home. I said that if this was going to be the last conversation that we had then it was a really sad one to have but she’s been great and I love her.”

Mr McAnna met Mr Miller last year while both men were living in Leeds. He was the singer and guitarist in a Leeds band called These Fading Polaroids and Mr Miller was an engineering student. Both lived in the Hyde Park area

Mr McAnna said he recently returned to Koh Tao – where he had previously spent 18 months living and working as a barman – and had planned but failed to meet Mr Miller on the night he and Ms Witheridge were murdered.

Police have yet to make any arrests for the horrific murders and now say they plan to force every man on the 2,000 population island to provide DNA for testing. Locals appear reluctant to discuss the case, apparently fearing reprisals from mafia-style families who are said to control Koh Tao.

Mr McAnna said he believed it was people linked to one such group who threatened to kill him. At around 2.30am he was accosted by two Thai men at Koh Tao’s AC Bar, a beachfront nightclub where Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge had been just before they were murdered.

“They just said to me: ‘It was you who killed them. You’ve got two people’s deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You’re going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang. You will die tonight.'”

“So I just ran. I just left and ran,” he said.

A terrified Mr McAnna took refuge in a small supermarket into which the men chased him. They tried to convince him to leave but he refused, fearing he would be murdered.

“They wouldn’t have shot me. They would have taken me up into the hills and hung me to make it look like I’d hung myself,” he said.

Mr McAnna said he did not know if the men who threatened him were directly involved in his friend’s murder. However, he did believe they had key information about the murders and were attempting to make him a “scapegoat” for the killings.

“I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was. They need a scapegoat and they don’t want it to be locals. They want it to be a westerner. So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say: ‘See, it was him.'”

Mr McAnna posted information about the alleged threats on his Facebook page at around 4am on Monday and issued a desperate plea for help. “Thai mafia are trying to kill me. Please help me,” he wrote.

He said he also spoke to Foreign Office officials in London over the telephone. After being taken from the supermarket by Thai police, Mr McAnna said he spent the rest of the night hiding from the men he feared were going to kill him in the jungle.

“I was scared s*******. I was really scared. So I kept moving every thirty minutes in case anybody had seen me. I would move from one part, to the next part in case there was anyone close that had seen me and could send someone.”

Mr McAnna rejected the men’s claims that had been involved killing his friend and Ms Witheridge. “Of course I had nothing to do with it.” Prachum Ruangthong, the police chief responsible for Koh Tao, confirmed that Mr McAnna had been asked to provide DNA samples as part of investigations into the murders but was not considered a suspect.

The police chief denied recieving reports of death threats against Mr McAnna even though he met him on Monday morning and told the British traveller: “I am sensitive about your feelings. You don’t worry, ok?”

Two Thai men were questioned about the incident but they were not arrested. The police chief said he would guarantee the Briton’s security while he remained on Koh Tao.

After spending much of Monday in hiding, Mr McAnna travelled to the island’s port with a group of British reporters at around 2.30pm. He left Koh Tao on a passenger ferry at 3.10pm.

Mr McAnna’s friends took to social media to express their concern. “Sean get off that island now,” wrote Jordan O’Hara, a friend. “Can’t believe what Tao is turning in to. Madness!” wrote Rachel Howard.

On Monday afternoon, Mr McAnna sat near Koh Tao’s main pier in blazing sunshine preparing to board a ferry off the island. “I’m getting nervous,” he said, as holidaymakers lined up to board the vessel that would take him to safety.

The 25-year-old Scot vowed never to return to an island that markets itself as a paradise for divers and partiers. “I’m done here,” he said, adding that he would only feel truly safe once he had flown out of Thailand. “Something could still happen to me in the next 24 hours.” – By Tom Phillips

Indian goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan takes the ball during India’s humiliating 10-0 defeat against Thailand.

INCHEON – Indian women rounded off their league encounters receiving a 0-10 thrashing from Thailand here Sunday in their third Group A match of the football competition in the Asian Games.

Thailand dominated the proceedings right from the start and led 8-0 at interval at the Namdong Asiad Rugby Field. It was India’s second successive loss in the tournament by a similar margin.

Four goals each from captain Sung Ngoen Kanjana and midfielder Boothduang Wilaiporn, and one each from substitutes Sornsai Pitasamai and Seesraum Naphat sealed the issue for Thailand in an one-sided encounter. Such was Thailand’s domination that they surged into a 2-0 lead within eight minutes of the match and breezed to a 6-0 lead by the half-hour mark.

India felt the absence of captain Bembem Devi – suspended for the game for a double booking against South Korea – in the midfield as their fleet-footed counterparts got behind the Indian defenders more often than not. Stand in captain Romi Devi and her defensive partners did try to shut it down but in vain.

However, the Indian women looked much better in the second period after conceding one early, and their efforts bore fruit when striker Bala Devi headed Kamala Devi’s cross from the inside the box, went wide in the 78th minute. That was the closest India came.

Kamala picked out Bala once again with the match nearing final whistle but the tall Manipuri girl was closed down well by two defenders.

Goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan matched the efforts up at the other end, saving twice in split seconds to deny Naphat from the penalty spot but the substitute striker drilled low past the Delhi keeper in her third attempt to finish the scoreline.

Thailand’s striker Chanathip Songkrasin (left) vies for the ball with Indonesia’s Rasyid Assahid Bakri during the first round match of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon on Monday, which ended 6-0

INCHEON – The Thai men’s football team hammered Indonesia 6-0 Monday in its final Asian Games group match and will next meet China in the second round on Thursday.

With the win, Thailand topped Group E ahead of their Southeast Asian rivals who will take on title contenders North Korea in the last 16 round. Group members Maldives and East Timor were eliminated.

Adisak Kraisorn scored twice after 16 and 90 minutes with Chananan Pombubpha (7), Adisak Kraisorn (16), Chanatip Songkrasin (57), Kroekrit Taweekarn (75) and Pinyo Inpinit (81) also on target.

Thailand have never won an Asian Games medal in football. However, this time the teams believes it is good enough for gold.

If they win gold, players will receive about 100 million baht in bonus money from the government, private sponsors and the Football Association of Thailand.

Bangkok’s iconic Democracy Monument is currently fenced off. A large, hand-written sign reads ‘closed for renovation’.

BANGKOK – The iconic Democracy Monument in Bangkok is currently fenced off. A large, hand-written sign reads ‘closed for renovation’. In April the monument was damaged by shots fired at protesters demonstrating against the Pheu Thai government of Yingluck Shinawatra. At least three protesters died.

Ironically, Thai democracy is itself ‘closed for renovation’. On 22 May a military coup claimed power, for the 12th time since the 1930s. Yet again, a familiar cycle has been acted out: a military government gives way to a democratic opening, there are violent protests against the elected government, the military stages a coup to ‘restore order’, an authoritarian military government promises ‘reform’ and a later return to democracy, and so on.

Thai democracy is seemingly unstable, but why?

The new military junta’s program of ‘reform’ is still unclear, but the central focus is apparently on reducing corruption. Successive Thai governments have been known for their corruption and protests against the allegedly high level of corruption within the Pheu Thai government was a focus for at least some of the popular movement against it. Corruption wastes public resources, contributes to inequality and is an important source of public discontent. Reducing it is clearly desirable. But although corruption is a problem, it is not the problem. The focus on this one issue misses a key feature of Thailand’s political instability — its regional nature.

A Thai soldier stands guard at the Democracy Monument after a coup in Bangkok May 22, 2014

The Pheu Thai party of Thaksin Shinawatra and his followers derives its strength from the rural-based North and Northeast regions of the country, where it has won huge majorities in every election this century. Pheu Thai has never won an election in Bangkok and its support in the South is only slight, where the opposition Democrat Party wins most elections and minor parties win the rest. But the population and parliamentary representation of the North and Northeast regions are so large that Pheu Thai’s popularity there is sufficient to capture government at the national level.

This regional divide has been acted out in street protests in Bangkok and elsewhere. During the Democrat Party government led by Abhisit Vejjajiva, from 2008 to 2011, protests by the ‘Red Shirt’ supporters of Pheu Thai were primarily people who either normally resided in the North or Northeast, or whose families had recently relocated from there. During the more recent anti-Pheu Thai protests, led by former Democrat Party deputy prime minister and leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee Suthep Thaugsuban, the demonstrators were overwhelmingly from Bangkok and the South. Regional differences lie at the heart of Thailand’s political conflict.

For countries of its size, the Thai state is one of the most centralised in the world. There are 76 provinces and the governors of all but one — Bangkok — are appointed by the central government’s Ministry of Interior. The provincial government’s powers and revenues are modest and derive from the central government. Beneath the provincial level, local governments are elected, but their meager resources are directly dependent on the central government.

Thailand’s major problem is the incompatibility of a regionally divided populace and a highly centralised government. It is not exaggerating too much to say that attaining government at the national level is a winner-takes-all victory for either the North-Northeast coalition or for Bangkok and the South. Only one long-term solution is seemingly possible — political decentralisation to empower and democratise regional governments. Thailand needs more democracy, not less.

At the end of the 20th century, Indonesia was hardly a promising candidate for a successful democracy. Decades of highly centralised, authoritarian government under President Soeharto had ended with collapse of the government under violent street protests. But something remarkable subsequently happened. A radical decentralisation was implemented. Some say it was too radical, but Indonesia’s democracy is now the success story of Southeast Asia. The country has now experienced a most unusual event: the loser in a presidential election has grudgingly accepted defeat and walked away.

Indonesia’s decentralisation did not remove corruption. It probably increased it, as checks and balances have been undermined by the huge task of monitoring disbursement of funds at the regional level. But the contest for control of the central government is no longer the sole political struggle. Regions not close to the central government’s ruling elite can still exercise a substantial degree of autonomy, with considerable resources at their disposal. This is not so in Thailand.

Significant decentralisation is not included in the Thai military government’s understanding of ‘reform’. The policy package being proposed apparently contains no such measures. It may be too much to hope that a group of command-and-control generals could implement a decentralisation of power, even if they wanted to. They are doing the opposite. The budget allocated to local governments has been halved, on the grounds that local government is too corrupt.

The prognosis is not good. When the generals relinquish power and restore electoral democracy, as they must, more of the same seems probable: regionally-based conflict that an overly centralised system of government cannot resolve, except through repression.

Peter Warr is John Crawford Professor of Agricultural Economics, emeritus in the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Economics and Government and Executive Director of the National Thai Studies Centre at ANU.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha prays before the first cabinet meeting.

BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha admitted on Tuesday he had sought advice from fortune-tellers following media speculation over his spiritual beliefs.

Prayuth led a May coup that toppled a democratically elected government after months of mass protests that brought much of the capital Bangkok to a halt. He was named prime minister last month in an appointment that was condemned by opponents.

“There’s no harm in listening to fortune-tellers. Fortune- telling is an art. But if a fortune-teller tells a person that they will be rich and then they stay in bed all day, then what is the use?” Prayuth told reporters on Tuesday.

“I listen to their words. They warn me that I might clash with the media,” he quipped.

Prayuth told an audience earlier this month he had doused himself from head to toe in holy water to ward off curses his enemies had put on him.

Bangkok’s skyline is that of a country hurtling towards modernity, but pre-Buddhist animist beliefs continue to exert strong influence on Thai culture. Many of the country’s top politicians have consulted fortune-tellers over policy changes.

Prayuth denied traveling to neighboring Myanmar to seek advice from a famous mystic – known as ET – whose clients have included former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications tycoon who won huge support among the poor but made many enemies among the elite and royalist establishment.

Thaksin was ousted by the army in a coup in 2006 and Prayuth’s team is still seeking to end his pervasive influence over Thai politics. Thaksin reportedly visited Prayuth told an audience earlier this month he had doused himself from head to toe in holy water to ward off curses his enemies had put on him.

Bangkok’s skyline is that of a country hurtling towards modernity, but pre-Buddhist animist beliefs continue to exert strong influence on Thai culture. Many of the country’s top politicians have consulted fortune-tellers over policy changes.

ET — whose name is also written E Thi

Prayuth denied travelling to neighbouring Myanmar to seek advice from a famous mystic – known as ET – whose clients have included former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications tycoon who won huge support among the poor but made many enemies among the elite and royalist establishment.

Thaksin was ousted by the army in a coup in 2006 and Prayuth’s team is still seeking to end his pervasive influence over Thai politics. Thaksin reportedly visited ET just days before he was removed from office.

“I’ve never been to ET. Even if you wanted me to go I would never,” said Prayuth. just days before he was removed from office.

Tiny, frail and barely able to speak, Myanmar’s most famous fortune teller — known as ET — has for years whispered predictions to Asia’s rich and powerful, from generals to foreign politicians.

The soothsayer, whose popularity has inspired a recent Thai biopic, is one of a plethora of mystics in Myanmar, where generations of rulers have sought ethereal advice.

ET — whose name is also written E Thi — has predicted her own early death from heart failure, but her sister says it does not worry the soothsayer because she will be “very pretty” in her next life.

Her family say her powers, including visions of ghosts and future events, were discovered after she was struck by fever while praying at a pagoda as a small child.