The shooting occurred at about 11am near a Mezzo coffee shop and iStudio store on the second floor of Bangkok’s CentralPlaza Rattanathibet in Don Muang district. The shooting caused a panic among shoppers celebrating Valentine’s Day.

Pol Lieutenant Supalak Promwong, a Rattanathibet sub-police station investigating officer, said 50-year-old Suchart Pheupradit shot 44-year-old Pijakkana Somsakul three times in the chest with a .38 revolver. Suchart then shot himself and died at the scene.

A stray bullet hit a nine-year-old girl, Papassorn Kwaniam, in the face while she was sitting at the coffee shop. The girl was sent to Pranagklao hospital and later was reported safe.

The police initially assumed that Suchart had a romantically related problem with Pijakkana, who worked as a sale assistant at the shopping mall.

Suchart’s mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said her son had had a relationship with Pijjakkana for several years.

“Lately, there were many love-related issues with Pijiakkana, so her son had tried to reconcile several times, but unfortunately it ended up like this,” she said.

Chula Sukmanop, head of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand, said the previous flight was suspended because one of the airline’s pilots exceeded the legal limit on working hours, which could cause safety problems. In addition, the airline has financial problems due to its debts.

However, a temporary permit was issued to the airline to resume services so it can transport passengers stranded in Thailand until February 18.

THE Disease Control Department has pledged to eradicate “indigenous” malaria in Thailand by 2026, but said “imported” malaria would remain a risk.

“We will hold a meeting on a 10-year strategy for malaria eradication this Monday [today] and aim for zero malaria infections in Thailand by 2023 and no new infections until 2026, so it can be officially declared that malaria is totally eliminated from Thailand,” Dr Amnuay Gajeena, director-general of the department, said last week.

He led a department team to inspect the border areas of Mae Sot and Tha Song Yang districts in Tak province last Thursday and Friday.

Amnuay said the malaria control campaign was getting better, as the number of new cases was lower every year and the infection rate was low enough to start the eradication programme.

Today’s meeting would also discuss funding for the programme.

“The strategy to get rid of malaria will include developing a malaria monitoring system to detect infected people to treat and quarantine, enhancing public healthcare, controlling the anopheles carrier and educating the at-risk population on malaria prevention measures,” he said.

Dr Nipon Chinanonwait, director of the Bureau of Vector-Borne Diseases, said there were 24,850 malaria cases last year, down 85 per cent from about 150,000 cases in 2000.

“The strict disease control policy and quarantines have resulted in good progress. Now, we only find malaria in only 37 of 1,000 citizens,” he said.

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries with a malaria infection rate under 1 per cent of the population to upgrade their disease control programme to an eradication programme,” he said.

According to the department’s statistics from last year, malaria is still present in the border areas of the country such as Tak (9,777 cases), Ubon Ratchathani (4,411), Yala (1,795), Kanchanaburi (1,281), Mae Hong Son (1,217) and Si Sa Ket (1,056).

Nearly half of the patients were foreigners, mostly from Myanmar.

Yaowarej Wisutyothin, technical specialist at the Phitsanulok Disease Prevention and Control Office 2, said it was very difficult to contain trans-border transmission, especially in Tak, which shares a long border with Myanmar that can be easily crossed without passing through immigration checkpoints.

“In Thailand, malaria can be hardly noticed in the areas beyond the border because our good healthcare system can eliminate the disease within our country very well.

“However, in our neighbour countries such as Myanmar, their healthcare is still poor and malaria is still plentiful,” he said.

“Our main challenge is to detect people infected with malaria who may cross the border, quarantine them and treat them before they may start a new malaria outbreak in Thailand.”

Amnuay said there was healthcare collaboration at the bilateral level under both the WHO and Asean frameworks to improve the disease control mission in neighbouring countries.

There was also progressive health promotion at the city-to-city level to distribute malaria prevention equipment and knowledge.

“The movement of people infected with malaria to Thailand will not affect our effort to eradicate malaria from our country because we only count new infections within our country.

“However, it is a priority to prevent new outbreaks in Thailand from carriers from outside,” he said.

The joint management of protected areas worked very well, as manifested by its 25 years of success in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, Wut Boonlert, head of the Karen Network for Culture and Environment, told a forum at Kanchanaburi’s Tambon Liwo Cultural Centre.

About 1,000 people there were able to live in the forest with less conflict, Wut said.

The forum was arranged in a bid to find a solution to preserving the special cultural area.

The joint management committee should include National Park officers, local people, anthropologists or academics with a forestry expertise, and private sector bodies like non-government organisations, Wut said.

It would act as a middleman to communicate or find a solution that satisfied both sides, he said.

The Karen could have space to voice their ideas and way of living, and forest officers could advise on laws that the Karen need to comply with.

Some 1,000 Karen, who traditionally use the shifting cultivation style, were given about 6,000 rai (960 hectares) for their homes and farms in the forest.

Wut said the joint committee working in the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary was successful in building cooperation between the Karen and park officers.

He said for shifting cultivation each family would need about five rai per shift to grow rice; after five years families would rotate to the next five rai. And after the fifth move they would return to the restored first five rai.

He said each family would need about 25 rai to earn a living. There were about 25 families in Huay Ka Su sub-village, so they needed about 625 rai in total.

The joint committee would play a role in selecting the appropriate areas.

Wut said the difference between Kaeng Krachan and Thung Yai Naresuan was that there were six villages in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary and only two in Kaeng Krachan National Park, which might not be enough to make their voices heard.

And Kaeng Krachan was more like a tourist spot than a wildlife sanctuary, so lots of people would go there. But some people might misunderstand the shifting culture and unintentionally post defamatory comments online, creating a lot of trouble, he added.

Tongliyeng Payakhom, a Karen from Kongmongta village, said that in 1974 when his village was declared a wildlife sanctuary, residents faced hardship because they were banned from hunting and collecting wild plants.

“During that time, anger spread around my village. Any forestry authority was welcomed by getting hit and stoned,” he said. “However, after many confrontations, the joint committee was established and made them live peacefully again.”

The Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex, which includes national park, Lam Pa Chi River Wildlife Sanctuary and Kui Buri National Park, has been under consideration for World Heritage listing since February 1. The Kaeng Krachan |conflict over land use has been ongoing for many decades.

The decision came after an urgent meeting of executives of Thai Airways, Thai Smile Airways, and Patee Sarasin, the CEO of Nok Air.

Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, president of Airports of Thailand (AOT), told Nation TV on Sunday that 1500 passengers were affected by Nok Air’s flights cancellation.

At least nine flights of Nok Air have been cancelled on Sunday after pilots went on strike due to airline’s new policy concerning upgrading standards to meet safety standards set by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

Nitinai said the protest of the pilot started at 3pm. Some passengers were not informed prior so he provided space at Gate 15 for them to wait for the flights.

The meeting also agreed to dispatch three Nok Air flights Sunday night to deliver some stranded passengers.

The first flight flew from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The second flight from Bangkok flew to Phuket and Hat Yai district in Songkhla.

The third flight from Bangkok had its first stop at Khon Kaen and then Chiang Mai.

The flight cancellation prompted angry passengers to flood Nok Air Facebook page with complaints.

Sixteen insurgents were killed in the raid, including Maroso Chantrawadee, the local leader of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil militant group.

Bacho superintendent Pol Colonel Patta Madawa led police, Army, and forensic officers to inspect the scenes yesterday morning. They avoided immediate inspection as a precaution against possible ambush by insurgents.

The first location was a bridge neck on Phetkasem Road in tambon Bacho where two home-made bombs were planted between two power poles. The second scene was near the entrance to Wat Urai Ratanaram in tambon Bacho municipality area and the third spot was in Ban Bata Beu-rae in tambon Ba-rae Nua. Patta said police suspected the bombings were aimed at creating disturbance in the district and to also mark the third anniversary of the attack on the base.