The attack seriously injured Thaweesak Yodmaneebanphot, president of the Hmong Club of Thailand and the kamnan of Tambon Por in Chiang Rai’s Wiang Kaen district, and his three-year-old son. His wife and their five-year-old daughter were killed.

Police yesterday found spent casings of at least two types of gun: an AK47 assault rifle and a shotgun. According to the ongoing police investigation, Thaweesak was heading back home with his family when someone opened fire on their pickup at about 5pm on Tuesday.

The shooting happened on Ban Rom Fah Thong-Ban Pha Tung Road in Ban Rom Fah Thong village in Tambon Por of Wiang Kaen district – just four or five kilometres from Thaweesak’s home.

Police believed the attack was well planned, as the gunmen apparently surveyed the landscape before choosing their shooting angle. Several footprints were found at the scene.

A policeman familiar with the investigation said the attackers must have chosen to hide behind large trees on a hill.

“We have not yet spoken to the surviving victims. They are still being treated at a hospital,” Chiang Rai deputy police chief, Pol Colonel Pasawee Chotethianchaiwat, said. Thaweesak is a prominent local leader in the border zone between Thailand and Laos.

He has long spoken up for the rights to land for the landless locals in Wiang Kaen and Thoeng districts. He has also fought against investors’ encroachment on forestland.

He has also organised several activities for Hmong people to strengthen and empower them.

THE FAILURE in the implementation of the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) has led to the prolonged and severe haze season in the northern region of Southeast Asia, while the goal of a haze-free Asean by 2020 was far from achievable, environmentalists said yesterday.

Greenpeace called for tighter regulations to control the overseas operations of big food companies, as it highlighted that contract farming through the subsidiaries of the multinational corporations was a major factor behind the high number of haze hotspots this dry season in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia as well as the severe seasonal haze in the north of Asean.

Despite a slight improvement in air pollution from the accumulation of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) in the North of Thailand yesterday, PM2.5 daily average levels in some areas such as Chiang Mai and Lampang were still above the country’s safe average. Unusually, the haze problem in the North this year is more severe at this time of the year as compared to previous years.

The air pollution monitoring stations of the Pollution Control Department (PCD) reported yesterday that Chiang Mai and Lampang still had a problem with the harmful level of air pollution. The PM2.5 daily average level of these provinces reached 66.56 micrograms per cubic metre of air and 58.47 micrograms respectively, which was higher than the safe standards of both Thailand and the World Health Organisation.

The PCD’s safe standard for PM2.5 daily average level was 50 micrograms, while the WHO safe standard was set at 25 micrograms. The Chiang Mai University Climate Change Data Centre said that the smog problem in the North was not only the result of increasing open burning activities within the region after the 60-day ban on burning ended. He said the hotspots outside the country also contributed to transboundary haze that also affected Thailand.

Greenpeace country director for Thailand Tara Buakamsri said the ongoing air pollution over the northern part of Southeast Asia and also in the North of Thailand pointed to the failure of the AATHP implementation and uncontrolled expansion of monoculture farming in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia through the contract farming system.

“Asean’s haze agreement cannot prevent or solve the problem of transboundary haze in the region, because it lacks the power to force the member countries to take constructive measures to tackle transboundary haze,” Tara said. However, he pointed out that the main reason for the recurrence of the haze problem in northern Asean was the result of expansion of monoculture farming and rapid deforestation in these countries.

“From the satellite data of Nasa, it was seen that Cambodia has the highest rate of deforestation in Asean. This is partly the result of contracted farming investment in the country, which in turn increases the number of hotspots from open-burning activities in agricultural sector,” he said.

“A similar problem has also been noticed in Laos and Myanmar, as big food companies continue to invest through subsidiaries and expand monoculture farming in these regions. This requires burning during the dry season to clear leftover material on the field to prepare for the new crop in the rainy season.”

He called for control over contract farming in these countries through tighter regulation, similar to how Singapore had imposed strict rules on multinational palm oil companies that invested in Indonesia. Otherwise the regional goal to be haze-free by 2020 will be impossible.

  The private sector will be invited to bid for the project, which is estimated to cost Bt37 billion, as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme with the government providing land and other facilities.

Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean and Japanese builders and other investors have expressed interest in the planned motorway, which will start at the southern city of Hat Yai and end at the Sadao district bordering Malaysia.

The new route will serve more than 20,000 vehicles per day and shorten the current 90-minute commute from Hat Yai to the Malaysian border to only 60 minutes while reducing traffic congestion on the Petchakasem Highway, the South’s only main highway towards the Thai-Malaysian border.

Arkhom said the project will also boost a special economic zone near the border, facilitating bilateral trade via the Sadao customs checkpoint, which is worth around Bt325 billion a year, and via the Padang Bezar border checkpoint, worth another Bt150 billion per year.

In addition, a large number of Malaysian and Singaporean tourists cross the border into Thailand so the new motorway will serve as a faster route to Hat Yai, the South’s largest commercial and tourist city.

Private investors who win the bidding will be awarded a 30-year contract to build and operate the four-lane motorway with toll fees ranging from Bt10 to Bt88 per vehicle.

Arkhom said the Cabinet is expected to grant approval later this year and construction would start in 2019 with completion in three years.

WIPO director-general Francis Gurry, who travelled to the North along with Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) chief Tossapol Tungsubut on Tuesday to observe the production process, urged people to help sustainably conserve the sources of such outstanding items.

Tossapol quoted Gurry as saying that he was impressed with Thai agriculture and handicrafts as seen in his recent visits to the Chiang Mai Celadon Factory as well as two other sites in Lamphun. “This is a great opportunity for these communities to receive a PR boost on the world stage,” Tossapol said.

He said his department had registered Chiang Mai Celadon ceramics as the northern province’s geographical indication product. The department has joined with the manufacturers to control product quality while bearing in mind its cultural and community roots, and would help marketing them for export to global markets.

Tossapol said the government saw the importance in protecting the various Thai provinces’ geographical identification products, which have unique selling-points and wanted to conserve them with sustainability. This, in turn, would help raise the products’ value and prevent product copying.

Tossapol hoped that Gurry’s visit would help inform potential customers in other countries, especially in Europe, where people placed importance on buying products with originality. This would help boost the Thai operators and communities’ ability to compete effectively in the world market.

On Tuesday, the AMLO committee resolved to seize 97 assets worth Bt213.300 million over the 2011-16 tax fraud charges filed against businessman Thongchai Rojrungrangsi and other business associates in the zero-dollar tour scandal, he said.

The case against Thongchai and associates, including AO Transport Co, came up as part of the Thai authorities’ crackdown on tour operators who reportedly offered Chinese visitors free or very low-cost hotel and flight packages to Thailand but then lured them into buying overpriced souvenirs during the trips.

The committee also resolved to seize three assets worth Bt81,000 in the methamphetamine possession case involving a 27-year-old suspect Bancha Surin and others, who were arrested in Chiang Mai in 2015. Their arrests had led to the police discovery that Bancha’s father, Somjit, was also allegedly dealing with drugs in the North from 2001-14, Rommasit said.

In a case of human trafficking involving the prostitution of Myanmar girls under 18 filed against Bangkok-based Nataree Entertainment massage parlour owner Prasert “Ko Luck” Sukkhee, 58, the AMLO committee resolved to seize 48 assets. The AMLO has also sent a request to the court for the state to appropriate three items worth Bt1 million.

In addition, the AMLO committee agreed to request court orders for the state to appropriate 80 assets worth Bt31 million from six other cases.

The AMLO generally would seize assets temporarily during a case investigation for inspection, allowing suspects or their associates to provide explanations about asset origins within a given period of time. After a ruling by the court in the cases, it proceeds with a request for the state to appropriate the assets.

In the cases of assets that are expensive to maintain, perishable, or depreciating that pose a potential burden to the state, AMLO may opt to hold auctions to sell them off.

As the last remaining remnant of the old Mahakan Fort Community was dismantled and the last residents packed their belongings and moved away yesterday, the BMA disclosed that it was unlikely the park would include a learning centre, as this was in conflict with the original Mahakan Fort Park plan.

BMA city planning department director Sakchai Boonma said that the design and construction costs for the public park at the former site of Mahakan Fort Community were not yet finalised. The BMA would have to submit the design to the committee for the Rattanakosin and Old Cities Conservation and Development for approval first, he said.

However, Sakchai said there were three available options for development of the Mahakan Fort Community area: a public park only, a park with replicas of antique wooden houses, or a park with a museum dedicated to the history of old town Bangkok.

“Currently, we cannot estimate the budget for the Mahakan Fort Park project, because we still do not have the final plan for it,” he said. “But the initial plan for the park, which does not include the history learning centre, will require a budget of around Bt90 million.

“The BMA has already acquired Bt60 million from the government to renovate Mahakan Fort and the old city wall only. We will have to wait for park design approval from the Rattanakosin and Old Cities Conservation and Development Committee first before we can estimate the budget, arrange bidding to find a builder, and designate the date of completion.”

He said the BMA would push forward the development of this project and submit the park construction plan to the committee later this year, as it only meets twice a year. In the meantime, the city planning department will build a temporary park in the area for public use.

According to Sakchai, the latest BMA design for the park will consist of the old concrete building on the north side of the park, which will be transformed into a small museum about Bangkok’s old town. The rest of the park will be open lawn and trees only.

The plan is in conflict with the BMA’s promise to community members and a group of academics that it would preserve some of the valuable antique wooden houses as part of a learning centre about the history of the community.

As for the effort to re-house and compensate the evicted community members, Sakchai said the BMA had provided every former resident with up to Bt100,000 for relocation expenses and a budget to start a life elsewhere.

The BMA had not directly supported the people in finding their new homes, as many of them already have another house or had returned to their hometown.

Meanwhile, the last remaining dwellers of the community were tearfully moving out from their homes yesterday. Most of the residents decided to dismantle their own houses in order to collect the wood to build at another location in the future.

AN ENVIRONMENTALIST began a hunger strike yesterday over the construction of court officials’ residences at the foot of Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep mountain.

Nikom Putta, who heads the Mae Ping River Conservation Group, is conducting his peaceful protest in front of the Court of Appeals Region 5 headquarters.

The Court of Appeals Region 5 owns the project that is seeing the construction of residences for court officials and judges on the mountain next to its headquarters.

While environmentalists say that the headquarters is not in the forest zone, they firmly believe that the 45 houses and nine condo buildings being constructed have encroached on Doi Suthep forestland.

Nikom said yesterday that court officials should not use houses and condo buildings that were built on the controversial site.

“Let these buildings stand only as monuments to the mistakes,” he said.

He said he would continue his hunger strike and keep praying to encourage all sides to talk, admit that mistakes had occurred, and embrace a peaceful solution.

Nikom spoke up after Chamnan Rawiwanpong, who previously headed the Court of Appeals Region 5 and now heads the Supreme Court’s Bankruptcy Division, suggested amid the stand-off that court officials should be allowed to use these structures for 10 years.

The residences, which are being built at a cost of nearly Bt1 billion, are almost complete.

The construction site, authorities have insisted, sits not in the forest zone but just next to the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

Nikom said while the courts might say that the constructions were legal, they were not being fair.

“How can the court clear forest land for its officials’ residences while people are prosecuted for encroachment?” he said.

He said one should not accept what was perhaps legal but unethical.

Nikom is affiliated with the Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest, which pland to stage a march from Chiang Mai’s Tha Pae Gate to the Statues of Three Kings this Sunday.

People from all walks of life in Chiang Mai fly green ribbons to show their stance in favour of protecting forestland. 

“I expect about 1,000 people to turn up,” the network’s coordinator, Teerasak Rupsuwan, said yesterday.

He said his network now included 31 organisations, up from 16 at its inception.

“Court officials can just rent a place [to live] as they have done over the past many years,” Teerasak commented.

Chiang Mai-Loving Group member Bunnaroth Buaklee, who has joined the network, said that so many locals had begun wearing green ribbons as a stance against the court’s move to occupy the forest land that they were now running out of stock.

This Friday, monks will stage a ritual at Doi Sa Ket Temple to ask that authorities return the forestland as merit-making.

During the two-hour annual general meeting of ITD shareholders at Bangkok’s Rama Garden Hotel, the company board members, including Premchai, provided updates on various projects including the Dawei Special Economic Zone project in Myanmar, mining investments abroad and the appointment of a new board later this year.

When a Thai Investors Association representative asked about the impact from the tycoon’s arrest along with three companions in the Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary in Kanchanaburi, Premchai said the matter would not affect the firm’s business in Thailand or any other country.

He said bidding for business contracts continued without any disruption and shareholders’ benefits were well taken care of. The atmosphere at the meeting was peaceful and no one expressed objections or asked about issues beyond the agenda.

On Tuesday, deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul said the Criminal Case 8 office public prosecutors had decided to file an additional charge against Premchai of illegal possession of guns and ammunition which were found during the police’s subsequent search of his Bangkok home.

Previously, the regional public prosecutors office on April 4 had resolved to charge Premchai with six offences relating to his alleged poaching in Thung Yai Naresuan.They were: colluding to carry guns into public places without permission; colluding to hunt protected animals without permission; colluding to hunt wildlife animals in a wildlife sanctuary without permission; colluding to possess the remains of protected wildlife animals without permission; colluding to hide or receive wildlife remains acquired by illegal means; and colluding to collect items in national conservation forests without a permit.

“Khao Chi Chan Buddha is one of the Thai religious masterpieces which was royally commanded by HM King Rama IX,” the esteemed former Fine Arts director, Suvit Rasameeputi, said at the seminar that formed part of the celebration of the 236th anniversary of Rattanakosin.

The spectacular Buddha on the surface of Khao Chi Chan Mountain was made to commemorate His Majesty King Bhumibol’s Golden Jubilee in 1996. The image was designed using computer software and then drawn on to the side of Khao Chi Chan using a laser.

“King Bhumibol then ordered the use of high technology – a laser – to draw the outline of this masterpiece. King Rama IX then ordered then-Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkong to supervise this project,” revealed Dr Suvit.

The image of the Buddha, sitting cross-legged, with one hand resting on his knee and the other in his lap, is engraved into the northern face of Khao Chi Chan. The 109-metre-tall and 70-metre-wide image was carved into the rock and then marked out in gold on the recommendation of the-then Supreme Patriarch.

He added King Rama IX also played a key role in expanding Saranrom Palace.

Collected at Bangkok’s National Museum, the Royal Barge named Narai Song Suban was built during the reign of King Rama IX in 1994, the only barge built during King Bhumibol’s 70-year reign. The Royal Barge Procession only occurred 16 times in that entire period.

Named as the Supreme Artist, King Bhumibol himself was a jazz musician and painter. He promoted dramatic and musical arts for more than 70 years, said drama expert Chavalit Sunthanon.

“Prince of Mother encouraged her children to love Thai arts. She dressed them in dramatic Thai costumes – Khon and Lakhon,” Chavalit said.

He added that King Rama IX not only promoted high dramatic art in the court like Khon, he also promoted local art forms, such as Nora, a dance from the south of Thailand.