Mental Health Department director general Squadron Leader Boonruang Triruangworawat said on Monday that 118,539 couples divorced last year.

The percentage of divorces among new marriages rose to 39 per cent from 27 per cent in 2006, he said, warning of the effect divorces can have on the mental health of the children affected.

Boonruang acknowledged that couples and families commonly endure pressure stemming from work-related stress and factors of social and economic status.

He encouraged spouses to communicate positively with one another in dealing with such factors and avoid using words “that will hurt feelings or cause your partner to lose their tempers”. Doing so “can turn a minor problem into a big deal”.

Spouses should, for example, avoid telling each other to shut up or to leave the house, and mustn’t blame recurring problems on each other, make accusations of infidelity, or accuse one another of being a long-term failure.

Boonruang also advised married people to avoid raising their voices and using coarse language with one another. “And don’t attack your partners’ relatives!”

He said a spouse should end an argument the moment he or she realises they’ve become angry.

“Take time to calm down and then start talking again to find a solution,” he said.

Eleven Cambodian tenants of the house in Praeng Nara Road were blinded by the smoke and unable to find their way out of the two-storey building as it was engulfed in flames.

Happily, neighbours forced open the front-door lock and let them out. Pol Capt Lertchai Fualongchai, deputy inspector of Samranraj police station, said no one was injured in the fire at 1am, although the building itself was badly damaged.

Fire engines took about half an hour to put out the blaze after it swept through the old building’s 13 units.

The two-storey shop-house, which has rented rooms both in the back of the ground floor and upstairs. was built with concrete on the ground floor and wood on the first floor.

Lertchai said the blaze is believed to have begun in a downstairs common area containing coined laundry machines.

A Cambodian woman, 26-year-old Sailuad Son, one of 11 Cambodian workers who rented rooms in the shop-house, said she saw smoke coming from upstairs and her friends running downstairs but all of them were trapped inside as the smoke prevented them from seeing how to get out until the neighbours’ intervention.

Lertchai said the house is owned by Wisanu Prawat, 67, who lived in another shop-house nearby. He would later be summoned for questioning at the police station.

Lertchai said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The shop-houses on the Praeng Nara road were built during the reign of King Rama V by a son of King Rama IV and the property is now owned by the Crown Property Bureau. There are about 100 units of the old shop-houses left and have been rented out for several years.

Only people close to the family attended the ritual, which was held at Wat Wiwekkaram in Tambon Bang Phra at 3.30pm.

Phakhapong’s mother Sukanya Tanyakan said the family was still worried about news reports about Phakhapong’s death. Some reports had presented incorrect information, she said, citing the example that her son’s fourth rib was broken – not four ribs as had been reported.

She declined to give further information about the case as she wished the family could complete all the religious rituals for him first. “Our family still wants to know the whole truth about what happened,” she said.

Phakhapong’s elder sister Supicha was grieving and refused to give any comment during the funeral, while his father Pichet said he still could not cope with the loss.

“Since the day it happened until now, our family still cannot sleep and cope with losing him,” he said, adding the family would not give any comment about the case investigation.

He said they would keep some of Phakhapong’s ashes at home and scatter the rest in a river in line with the Loy Angkhan ritual.

The case captured national attention after Phakhapong’s family came forward last month |to demand a transparent inquiry into the death |on October 17 of the first-year cadet at Nakhon Nayok’s Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School. His organs, which were removed in |the first autopsy at the military-run Phramongkutklao Hospital, were later sent for a second autopsy at the Central Institute of Forensic Science.

The family has said they thought Phakhapong’s death might have been caused by corporal punishment that he had received at the military school, and not by cardiac arrest as the academy had claimed and as Phramongkutklao Hospital stated in the initial death certificate and hospital autopsy report.

The latest autopsy reports have been widely shared on social media, while the cadet’s family declined to confirm the claim that Phakhapong’s body showed signs of physical injuries.

Nakhon Nayok deputy police chief Pol Colonel Nipon Panitcharoen said yesterday that police had already received the latest autopsy results from the institute and would hold a meeting of investigators in one or two days to consider evidence linked to the young man’s cause of death and whether he had been killed.

He said police had interviewed more than 10 witnesses and received useful information so the case would be concluded soon. He added that no one could interfere with the police probe, which would follow the evidence and facts.

THAILAND IS still far from its goal of valuing human rights since the junta’s policies and actions have eroded rights, while many people do not even understand the principle.

Prominent Thai campaigners marked Human Rights Day yesterday to lament that the country was still far from its professed goal of ensuring everyone was accorded the freedoms they deserve.

The nation’s most severe human rights violation was the lack of freedom of expression, they said in an appeal to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to restore democracy to truly guarantee human rights for every citizen.

They also said Thailand faced many serious human rights crises. For instance, social movements across the country continued to be suppressed by authorities, the justice system was being used against human rights defenders, and many people in society still did not understand human rights and harmed others.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) commissioner and human rights defender Angkhana Neelaphaijit said that despite the government’s claim that it cherished human rights and had made them a priority, in reality it had done nothing to do so.

On the contrary, Angkhana said the government was doing the very opposite, enforcing many laws and regulations that violated human rights and curbing the activities of campaigners, both through law enforcement and by force.

In effect, the regime was deepening Thailand’s human rights crisis, she said.

“On the occasion of Human Rights Day, I would like to urge the government to do what they said and really push forward for human rights protection as per the national agenda by abolishing laws and regulations that diminish human rights and by passing human rights protections,” she said.

‘Lack of understanding’

Since she became an NHRC commissioner, Angkhana said she had noticed many conflicts among people affected by harmful projects and government policies, such as coal-fired power plant projects in the South and forestland reclamation policies, signifying the government’s lack of understanding of human rights principles.

The most severe human rights violation by this government regarded freedom of expression, which had been stifled by many NCPO orders and law, she said.

She cited NCPO order 3/2558, which grants military officers the power to conduct raids and arrest people without permission from a court and prohibits public gatherings of more than five people.

“Freedom of expression must return or we cannot resume the democratic administration of the country, as human rights principles and democracy are interrelated and cannot exist without each other,” Angkhana said.

Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Cross Cultural Foundation director, agreed that freedom of expression needed to be restored first so that people’s other rights could then follow and the junta could return democracy to the people.

“Freedom of expression is a basic right for everyone, but right now there are many laws that oppress this right and many people are prosecuted just for expressing their opinions,” Pornpen said.

She said there were serious rights violations regarding natural resources management, which was a major problem in Thailand, made worse by a lack of freedom of expression. Examples included a recent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations against the Thepa coal-fired power plant last month and lawsuits against environmental campaigners across the country, which were clear statements that people did not have the right to campaign freely, she said.

Pornpen also said many people, especially the middle class, did not understand human rights or their importance in society, as she had had direct experience with people misunderstanding her campaigns to defend the rights of marginalised people.

“It is ironic that the lack of awareness and understanding of human rights by the middle class is because Thailand previously had good human rights protections and this group of people had easy access to fundamental rights that everyone should have, such as safety in life, healthcare and education,” she said.

“However, their wealth makes many of them unaware of the importance of these rights and unaware that all people should have these rights as well, since many marginalised groups of people such as hill tribes, LGBTQ and the poor are deprived of these rights.”

Human Rights Day falls on December 10 every year to mark the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

After receiving a report of a home intrusion and robbery, police went to the victim’s two-storey home in Tambon Si Pran at 7am.

Sawaengha Police Station superintendant Pol Colonel Krittidech Sirichannont said they had found a blood trail that indicated where the intruders had fled the house belonging to village headwoman Pornnipa Khongyai.

Photo Courtesy of Than Khao Angthong

Pornnipa told police that she was sleeping alone at home when two men broke into her house at about 4am through the back window.

She said the men put a gun to her head and tied her up in her bedroom while they ransacked the house looking for her pistol, cash and valuables. After the men went to search an area on the ground floor where she told them that she had hidden her gun, she untied herself and pulled out the pistol from under her pillow.

The intruders returned to the bedroom just as she managed to arm herself and she opened fire at them. She said the men then fled through the back of house and sped away on a motorcycle.

It was reported that the two men had left with Bt5,000 in cash, a gold necklace worth about Bt100,000 and a mobile phone.

Photo Courtesy of Than Khao Angthong

Police officers collected evidence including eight spent cartridges and three bullets at the scene. Although officers contacted local hospitals to discover if anyone had sought treatment for a gunshot wound, they had not located any suspects as of press time.

Police would also check CCTV cameras along possible escape routes in the hunt for the intruders, Krittidech said.

Local people praised Pornnipa for fighting back, although they also noted that in her capacity as a village headwoman she had undergone some defence training that gave her the courage to do so.

The task force confiscated the wood during a December 7 raid and has held it since.

If the submitted documents proved that Metthatham Pothiyan Temple in Muang district legally obtained the wood, his task force would return it to the temple, Chaiwat said.

However if not, Phra Yen Mong, the abbot and the temple will face serious legal action.

Chaiwat, who heads the Phraya Sua task force under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, was speaking after examining the wood inside the temple.

He said that about 1,167 cubic metres of wood had been seized, comprised of 37 wood blocks and 6,360 wood planks. Earlier reports claimed that the wood found at the temple has an estimated value of about Bt1 billion.

But the rumours – which claimed the tax collected would be spent on improving police stations – were quickly denied on Sunday by government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

“The report is totally groundless. I’m not sure of the real intentions of those who created the information, but they are an ill-intentioned group of people,” the spokesman said.

The government of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha never had such a policy, Sansern said, adding that the government had supported Toon and his team in achieving their goal.

Sansern also dismissed widespread reports that Prayut had donated just Bt20 to Artiwara’s campaign when he met the rock star at Government House recently.

“It’s not true. However, the sum donated by the premier will not be revealed, as he does not want society to discuss it or argue over it. A donation is a matter of the feeling and heart of each donor,” the spokesman said.

He said the government wished that people would follow the news with discretion so they did not believe fake or distorted information shared online.

“We ask those who disseminated fake or false information to stop these acts or face serious legal action,” Sansern said.

Donations to the talk-of-the-town charity run yesterday topped Bt716,206,770.

According to the campaign’s website, kaokonlakao.com, as of press time Artiwara had completed 1,510 kilometres of the 2,191km marathon that has seen him run from the deep South province of Yala with the intended destination in the northernmost province of Chiang Rai.

The aim of the epic run was to raise Bt700 million in donations over 55 days to buy equipment for 11 hospitals.

A MASSIVE collection of century-old royal photographic glass-plate negatives and original prints recording old Siam’s transition to the modern kingdom has been designated as a “Memory of the World” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Documentary heritage submitted by Thailand now sits among new 78 Unesco “Memory of the World” listings, including the Shakespeare documents (a documentary trail of the life of William Shakespeare, from the UK and US), Indonesia’s Borobudur conservation archives, Vietnam’s imperial archives of the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945), Myanmar’s King Bayinnaung bell inscription and China’s oracle-bone inscriptions.

“The Royal Collection holds almost 35,427 glass plate negatives and 50,000 prints, covering a long and continuous period from 1855-1935,” said Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat.

The collection was previously preserved in three separate royal libraries of the original owners, King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) and Prince Damrongrajanubhab, King Monkut’s (King Rama IV) son.

In 1977, they were given over to the care of the National Archive in Bangkok. To date, 24,800 plates have been scanned for digital use and 4,149 plates have been included in the national database.

The massive collection portrays old Siam through to the modern Kingdom of Thailand during the reigns of King Mongkut (Rama IV) to King Prajadhipok (Rama VII).

‘Admirable work’

“This collection offers an unparalleled chronicle of a critical period in the history of modern-day Thailand and its relations with the rest of the world,” Misako Ito, communication and information advisor for Unesco Bangkok told The Nation.

“Thailand’s National Archive has done admirable work in preserving the collection using digital technology and now, with the inscription of the collection on the Memory of the World register, we take one step further in ensuring that this precious heritage is safeguarded for and appreciated by future generations.”

The Unesco website trumpets the collection for documenting the important transformations underway in Siam at a time of massive worldwide change. The collection depicts “national(ly) and international(ly) important personalities, places and events, from the age of western colonisation in Asia which prompted Siam to examine its national identity and to reform its society – through the years of the First World War, when Siam sided with the Allies and shared the victory, and the aftermath of the war including the worldwide political, social and cultural changes – affecting Siam and leading to the dawn of its constitutional monarchy.”

The rare photographs record historical events including the royal coronations of all four Kings. The historical photography includes “The King of Siam’s eclipse” on August 18, 1868. Through his calculations, King Mongkut was able to predict the solar eclipse two years before it happened. The collection shows the series of phenomena he captured in Hua Hin. The series of King Rama V’s European trips, undertaken as part of his modernisation of Siam and his opening up of the country to the outside world, are highlighted in this collection.

A century ago, King Rama VI committed Thai troops to battle halfway around the world bringing Siam to the Allied side in the to First World War and sharing the victory.

The most important historical images cover the kingdom’s transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional democracy, which began when Rama VII agreed to a codified constitution to resolve the bloodless coup of 1932. Also included in the collection is a series of photographs of the official ceremony granting the first constitution at Ananta Samakhom Throne and images of the Brahmin ceremony at the Giant Swing at Bangkok City Hall, a tradition terminated under King Rama VII. There are also a series of pictures of Siam in pre-modern days, when it was often called “Venice of the East” in recognition of its people’s lives along the rivers and khlongs.

The royal collection is the fifth heritage archive from Thailand recognised by Unesco.

Arts and sciences

Previous honours include the archival documents of King Chulalongkorn’s transformation of Siam (1868-1910), epigraphic archives of Wat Pho, The King Ram Khamhaeng inscription, and the “minute books” of the Council of the Siam Society – 100 years of recording international cooperation in research and the dissemination of knowledge in the arts and sciences.

The Memory of the World Register now includes a total of 427 documents and collections, coming from all continents and safeguarded on various materials from stone to celluloid and from parchment to sound recordings.

Toon reached Chai Nat yesterday, day 39 of his charity campaign as public donations reached Bt690 million. The total hit Bt700 million later in the afternoon.

Toon started the first 14.5-kilometre leg of his run at the PTT petrol station on Bang Bua Thong-Chai Nat road in Suphan Buri at 3am. Many fans, including people from Suphan Buri and Chai Nat, waited along the roadside to cheer him on.

Artiwara was warmly received by a crowd at the day’s first stop, a CP Seed shop in Hankha, where he was treated to a choir concert and a check-up by a nurse. After a brief rest, Toon and his group ran the 12-kilometre second leg, joined by popular luk thung singer Koong Sutthiraj.

Many celebrities greeted Toon at the end of the second lap at the Tambon Sankhaburi Municipality in Chainat’s Sankhaburi district. At the second rest point, Toon was received by Maj-General Itthipol Suwannarat, commander of the 13th Army Circle, and Chainat deputy governor Parinya Phothisat. The two jointly handed Toon Bt2.152 million that Chainat people had donated for the fundraising drive.

During his second rest, Toon joined with the 13th Army Circle band to sing a popular song from his band Bodyslam, “Saeng Sud Thai” (“The Last Ray of Light”).