REPRESENTATIVES from five Greater Mekong Subregion countries including Thailand met in Chiang Rai’s Muang district yesterday to try and find a solution to |the region’s annual haze pollution problem.

The Minister of Natural Resource and Environmental, General Surasak Kanjanarat, said he was confident northern Thailand this year would experience a 30 per cent drop in haze-causing fire hotspots due to anti-outdoor burning and forest fire measures.

During the sixth meeting on the agenda at Le Meridien Hotel Chiang Rai, participants from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam were briefed on the progress in tackling the problem and associated measures implemented by Asean countries.

Representatives were told about the Singapore-based Asean Specialised Meteorology Centre’s report that revealed the number of hotspots in Asean, particularly in Mekong Subregion countries, decreased in 2016 compared to the previous year.

However, the centre warned that the drought season in March to April might cause a sharp increase in hotspot numbers and urged all Asean member countries to remain vigilant.

Representatives approved the Mekong Subregion’s goals and indicators to reduce the number of hotspots to under 50,000 a year by 2020 via an emphasis on cooperation between nations.

Thai representative presented the “Chiangrai 2017 Plan of Action for Tranboundry Haze Pollution Control in the Mekong Sud-Region”, which focuses on prioritisation of activities to achieve the goal of having less than 50,000 hotspots a year by 2020.

Under the action plan, information and technology will be used to create public awareness and boost public participation on the issue and hopefully reduce the risk from haze-triggered health and environment impacts.

Thailand said it would send mobile units to measure air-quality levels and provide human resource training in the field to Myanmar and Cambodia as requested.

Surasak said the number of hotspots in Chiang Rai last year had significantly reduced from the previous year due to cooperation between Thailand and Myanmar’s military in building firebreak zones and educating community leaders in border areas about the problem so they could pass on advice on good practices to villagers.

He said the campaign to ban outdoor burning was continuing this year.

He praised the Chiang Rai governor for strictly acting against outdoor-burning culprits during the current 60-day outdoor-burning ban period (February 17-April 17).

Under the ban, village headman or kamnan are held accountable for the occurrence of hotspots in their jurisdictions.

[Ashin Wirathu: the founder of Ma Ba Tha, extremist Buddhist organisation, talks about its mission.]

His move appeared to inspire another yesterday as Myanmar Buddhist nationalists rallied outside the Thai embassy in Yangon. More than 100 people, including dozens of robe-clad monks, gathered |waving Buddhist and national flags and chanting: “May the teachings of the Buddha and Dhammakaya temple stay alive forever.”

“If the monastery is destroyed, the Buddhist religion will disappear in Thailand,” protesting monk Thu Mingala told AFP.

Posted on his Facebook page, Wirathu said some 200 monks and lay Buddhists gathered in Mandalay to support the temple. They held posters saying “Pray for Buddhists in Thailand [that the] Dhammakaya abbot may [have a] safe, healthy and long life”.

The Myanmar monk also posted a message on Facebook denouncing the Thai military government under Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, saying “Sasanar (religion) Destroyer ‘Prayut’s Government’ Get Out Immediately From Dhammakaya”.

The extremist Buddhist organisation, known as Ma Ba Tha in Myanmar, has played a prominent anti-Muslim role in the country over past years. The monk and his group made hate speeches against Muslims.

Labelling himself as a radical Buddhist, Wirathu, 48, was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 for his sermons and for leading the militant movement called 969.

He was released in 2011 under government amnesty and made his name when Thein Sein took the helm of a quasi-civilian administration and allowed a certain degree of freedom of expression.

In 2012, when the conflict between Buddhists and Muslim erupted in Myanmar, Wirathu and his organisation led a rally calling on then President Thein Sein to deport Rohingya Muslims to a third country. Since then a number of Muslims have been killed in sectarian riots and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

Time magazine, in its July 1, 2013, edition, put him on their front cover with the headline: “The Face of Buddhist Terror?”

While it remained unclear how strong his relationship is with the Dhammakaya Temple and former abbot Dhammachayo, Wirathu exposed some of his ties with the controversial temple when he joined activities during Makha Bucha Day in February last year.

On the same visit, Wirathu attended a seminar on Crisis in the Buddhist World at the Asian Institute of Technology Conference Centre, which was hosted by World Alliance of Buddhist Leaders on February 23 last year.

Representing the Ma Ba Tha organisation, he received a World Buddhist Outstanding Leader Award during the seminar.

The group, led by Chiang Mai deputy monastic chief Phra Thepmangalajarn who is also Wat Tha Ton abbot, said such action hurt Buddhists’ sentiment and created bad feeling among the public.

They urged authorities to use more gentle or compromising methods to handle the case and said they would return next week to hear the answer.

Chiang Mai’s National Office of Buddhism branch director Prapan Khamjoy said the temples with links to Dhammakaya were located mostly in San Sai and Hot districts and so far none had created any difficulties.

The NCPO head invoked Article 44 of the Interim Charter to issue the order to declare Dhammakaya Temple as an area under control and subject to a search for its fugitive former abbot Phra Dhammachayo.

The President of the Association of District Clerk, Boonyarit Nipawanich, meanwhile, submitted a request to the Department of Special Investigation’s (DSI) Northern Operations Centre director Pol Lt Colonel Sa-ard Sunthorn to have officers investigate monks in Dhammakaya Temple.

He claimed some monks – seen in video footage and in newspaper photos tussling with officers this week – may be undocumented migrants or stateless people.

He said that if some of the “monks” were non-Thai, they and those harbouring them could violate the 1979 Immigration Act.

Sa-ard said he would pass the request to the DSI chief, as the matter could be a national security issue.

When a client complained about poor signal in the area near the besieged Dhammakaya Temple, the company apologised for the inconvenience and said that “the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has asked AIS for cooperation to restrict mobile phone usage in areas under control [declared by Article 44] in Pathum Thani.

However, the signal block was meant to be part of a covert operation at the besieged temple.

“[Blocking the phone signal] is a secret operation. No one should leak, tell, or confirm the operation,” a source told The Nation.

“But the AIS reply to its client is confirmation and it is a real evidence,” he said.

The source said that officials ordered AIS to remove the message from Facebook to destroy the evidence.

A telecom industry source told The Nation that the company followed an order to designate the affected area a controlled area. So far, there has been no official explanation from NBTC about the order.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and police have been searching the temple for fugitive abbot Phra Dhammachayo since February 16. The fugitive ex-abbot is wanted on money laundering charges.

The operation continued for seven days but officers failed to locate the monk.

The DSI then elevated its search by contacting the NBTC to have all phone operators – AIS, Dtac, TrueMove H, TOT – block mobile phone and Internet signals in and around the temple.

The measure was a bid to control the temple’s information dissemination, said DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang on Friday afternoon.

In fact, the order to block the phone and internet signal has been in place since Wednesday but users were not aware until the AIS call centre confirmed the order.

At 12.10pm on Friday, a reply from the AIS Call Centre on Facebook to a user who complained about poor signal, said: “Hello….[the name was blacked out]. We apologise for the inconvenience. Since the NBTC has asked AIS for cooperation to restrict mobile phone usage in areas under control [declared by Article 44] you will not be able to use your mobile in the following affected areas:

– Wat Dhammakaya and surrounding areas of around 500 metres

– Tambon Klong Neung and Klong Song in Klong Luang district, Pathum Thani

– Area behind Talad Thai Market, Rangsit

The Facebook reply was then captured and circulated on social media, which was official confirmation of the order to cut mobile phone and internet usage in the area.

A NBTC source said the regulator was upset with the AIS call centre for confirming the blocking to the public.

Police investigators have concluded that the 10 suspects – including Phuket bombing suspect Muhammad Muhi, 21, and Trang arson suspect Abdul-Kadae Salae, who are in custody – should be indicted, Srivara said.

He added that police were confident that they had sufficient evidence to prosecute all of the suspects.

Eight fugitives were still being hunted and believed to be hiding in southern border provinces, he said.

The attacks on August 10 to 12, 2016 in Prachuap Khiri Khan and six upper Southern provinces led to four deaths and more than 30 injuries.

Srivara said police would request military court-issued arrest warrants for Phuket bombing suspect Yusoh Maetimoh and two other men, whom Muhammad implicated as his conspirators in the planting of bombs at four locations in Phuket.

Police initially believed there were bombings at three locations, but Muhammad’s testimony led them to a fourth location where an unexploded bomb was hidden in a Chinatown market on November 28, 2016. The new evidence led police to apply for arrest warrants for the three men on charges of possessing explosives, attempted arson and being part of criminal racketeering.

DHAMMAKAYA TEMPLE disciples plan to file a complaint with the United Nations against the junta-led government regarding the invocation of the all-powerful Article 44 to declare the temple compound a “controllaed area”, Phra Sanitwong Chareonrattawong, the communications chief of the temple, said yesterday.

As the search operation at the temple entered its eighth day yesterday, police were still unable to find former abbot Phra Dhammachayo, despite an enormous police presence, numerous negotiations, a threat to cut power and water, and the strict screening of visitors entering and exiting the compound.

Police yesterday obtained two new arrest warrants for Dhammachayo for encroaching on a national park in Phang Nga, according to Royal Thai Police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen. So far, for the wanted monk alone, 13 arrest warrants have been issued.

At about 6am yesterday, 50 troops demolished a barrier that had been set up to block a gate near the Boon Raksa building where they believed the fugitive monk was hiding. But the move to enter the compound only led to a confrontation and tussle between troops and about 500 disciples and monks.

The troops eventually withdrew after failed negotiations while temple monks and disciples tried to set up tin sheets and concrete pipes as a defence.

Phra Sanitwong, who inspected the scene after the scuffle, said that if the junta order is revoked, the temple would be willing to allow officers and journalists to search the compound.

He said senior monk Phra Thatta-cheevo had not resisted the search.

Phra Sanitwong also said disciples were planning to petition the UN about the Article 44 order, alleging the use of violence resulting in injuries to temple supporters and a lost diamond earring in the Monday tussle at Gate 5. At 1.30pm, Klong Luang district chief Sirichai Traisansri, Klong Luang Police Station superintendent Pol Colonel Khemapat Phothipitak and National Office of Buddhism (NOB) officials led a team to negotiate with temple monks and disciples who were gathered at the Klong Luang Central Market in protest. Sirichai said he and officials were trying to tell protesters to return to their residences because the market owner had already filed a police report saying he had nothing to do with protest. However, protesters remained, saying the Article 44 order must be revoked before they disbanded.

It was also reported that officers had separately apprehended six monks and 22 lay followers at an herb garden near Gate 4 yesterday and submitted them to a three-hour questioning session before releasing them at 1pm. A source at the DSI said the lay people had promised not to visit the temple while the operation was ongoing.

The six monks – three registered with Dhammakaya and the rest with temples in Uttaradit and Kanchana-buri – were encouraged by NOB officials to cooperate and sent back to their own temples, the source said.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday at Government House that he had given permission for officers to gradually use light to heavy measures using their own discretion. Urging the fugitive monk to surrender and enter the judicial process, Prayut said the government had no intention of destroying a religious site.

Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan said the operation would go on until the wanted monk is found.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvadhana said the DSI and police would enforce the law, although he did not elaborate.

In an interview on Facebook Live with Nation Multimedia Group’s digital journalist Suthichai Yoon, the minister said officers and soldiers were legally allowed to enter the temple to find Phra Dhammachayo. “We are not there to negotiate or to take the temple’s conditions and consider them. We are there to enforce the law,” he said.

However, Suwaphan said every party involved would avoid violence. Police will summon the temple’s leaders again after they failed to report themselves to police, he added, saying that they could be arrested if they resist.

Police set up roadblocks after a tip-off that drug traffickers driving a Mitsubishi sedan and a Mitsubishi pickup truck with Phayao-registered licence plates would transport drugs from the border district of Mae Sai district to a location further into the country. Police spotted the suspects early yesterday and managed to intercept the two vehicles on the Mae Chan-Chiang Saen Road.

The suspects were identified as Kua Sae-yang, 26, Hur Sae-thor, 26, and Khomkrit Thanawu-tthichai, 18. They reportedly confessed to be hired by a Hmong resident in their village at Bt150,000 to bring the drugs to a storage in Chiang Kaen district.