US Navy helicopter surveys flooded areas of Thailand's capital, Bangkok
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, has third quarter net income of $1.3 billion, a 118 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, the company announced Thursday 3 November. The strong performance was due to a combination of what the company calls “a moderate natural catastrophe experience and positive one-offs.
That situation could change in the fourth quarter of 2011, with conntinuing flooding in Thailand taking a heavy toll on manufacturing in that country. Swiss Re says that with the floods still running it is not yet possible to estimate the damage.
Property and casualty alone contributed $1 billion to the financial results, thanks in part to the better than expected natural catastrophe business, but asst management business was responsible for $1.2b.
“Given the heightened volatility in financial markets as a result of economic uncertainties, Swiss Re has and will continue to maintain a conservative asset management strategy. Swiss Re’s exposure to sovereign debt issued by peripheral eurozone countries remains very low at USD 74 million. The exposure to Greek sovereign debt is nil,” a company statement notes.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Four specialists from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) were dispatched to Thailand by the Swiss government, which is also supplying CHF100,000 to help Thailand and Cambodia organize their flood aid efforts.
The team of four experts is made up of a water specialist, microbiologist, and two experts on flood containment and coping measures, says Bern. “They will provide their expertise in the areas of water management, the measuring of water quality, and in evaluating the condition of the dams and embankments.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Dublin is under water and three people are dead, five missing in Liguria, in northwest Italy, as heavy rains led to floods Monday and Tuesday. Thailand’s continuing woes from rivers swollen by weeks of heavy rain resulted in the second airport in the capital, Bangkok, being closed Tuesday 25 October.
Dublin is almost back to normal Wednesday after several public transport services shut Tuesday, following torrential rains the previous day and night. Other parts of Ireland still have roads shut due to flooding. The rainfall in October has set a record for the country.
Italy’s popular tourist towns in Cinque Terre, along the Ligurian coast, have been hit by high winds and rain. Three people have died and five are missing according to Spezia police Wednesday morning. Authorities are asking residents of the area to stay home if possible and to not drive their cars.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, CBS, Irish Times, TSR (Fr)
THAILAND – The Thai government has ordered the shut down of Bangkok’s second airport as floodwaters advance towards the nation’s capital.
The cabinet also ordered a five-day holiday for Bangkok and 20 other provinces affected by the worst flooding in decades, amid warnings a high tide would surge up the capital’s main river and escalate the disaster.
The Don Muang airport is used mainly for domestic flights.
Thailand has been hit by heavy monsoon rain since July, leading to flooding which has hit swathes of the country and left more than 360 people dead.
Links to: BBC News, Bangkok Post
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The massive flooding that has hit Thailand now threatens the capital, Bangkok, and its governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, has ordered the city to open its floodgates to let water run out to the sea through city canals. There are fears in some government quarters that the system may leak, causing flooding in the city itself, from the worst storms and flooding in 50 years. The Bangkok Post reports Thursday that the government has decided to “sacrifice” the eastern suburbs in its attempt to save the inner city and financial heart of Bangkok.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, CNN, TVNZ
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The governor of Bangkok offered what the Bangkok Post called “a testy response” Thursday 13 October after the minister for science and technology caused panic by issuing an evacuation order for northern Bangkok and nearby areas. The order was based on a misunderstanding and was corrected, but not before damage was done. The Bangkok Post reports that “Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said last night city residents should listen to him about when they should evacuate their homes. ‘Please listen to me and me alone. I will say when we should evacuate. Please believe me and only me. Don’t believe others.’”
The floods are the worst in 50 years, the result of typhoons and monsoon rains that have battered much of Asia. They have killed at least 280 people in Thailand since July, reports AP. The ancient city of Ayutthaya north of Bangkok has been badly hit and evacuations continue there.
“The three-month-old disaster has crippled manufacturing hubs in central provinces and destroyed more than 10 percent of rice farms in the world’s biggest shipper of the grain,” Bloomberg reports. But the country’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, says that Bangkok with its nearly 10 million people, will escape the flooding, with the army widening canals to drain more water outside the city.
Links to other sites: AP, Bangkok Post, Bloomberg, Thai Visa
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Hurricanes and tropical storms in Asia and North America, torrential rains in Africa: heavy rains and flooding are causing heavy damage and deaths. Irene drifted from a hurricane to a tropical storm by the time it hit New York, and while damage was less than feared, the storm killed 16 people in six US states over the weekend. Staten Island firefighters rowed scores to safety when flooding reached five feet, nearly two metres.
Eastern Uganda has had torrential rains that have rotted crops and poisoned some of the maize aid supplies, with cholera and hepatitis outbreaks feared. A government official says that water purification tablets and mosquito nets are urgently needed to stem poor sanitation related diseases.
Southwestern Nigeria, around the city of Ibadan, has had heavy flooding, with at least 20 people dead after a dam broke.
Fifteen provinces in Thailand have been warned to expect heavy monsoon flooding, as the country hunkers down for continuing torrential rains, with high sea waves of two to three metres expected in the Andaman Sea.
Links to other sites: allAfrica, Bangkok Post, BNO news, NY Times
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Thailand’s first woman prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was voted into office 3 July in a landslide victory but the promises of higher wages and a host of social improvements is prompting fears in the business world that inflation will rise. The country’s economic growth was strong in 2010, but inflation reached more than 4 percent (annual) in June and analysts say implementing even part of the promised package could have a significant impact on inflation in one of Asia’s most vibrant economies.
Shinawatra, sister of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is meeting with her party officials Wednesday to hammer out how to quickly implement some of the election promises.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Reuters, Wall St Journal
A regular airport scan spotted animals in a man’s suitcases, but the sheer size and variety of the smuggled wildlife were a daunting haul by any standards. The live creatures the Indonesian was caught with at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport as he was boarding an Air Asia flight home came from the local Bangkok market, he admitted.
“A man who went on a wildlife shopping spree in Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market was detained by authorities at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport yesterday as he tried to smuggle his haul—that included live snakes, tortoises, squirrels, spiders, lizards and even a parrot—out of the country inside three suitcases,” says the international wildlife group Traffic.
But the complete list is startling and included: 88 Indian Star Tortoises, 33 Elongated Tortoises, seven Radiated Tortoises, six Mata Mata Turtles, four Southeast Asian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle, three Aldabra Tortoises, one Pig-nosed Turtle “and even one Ploughshare Tortoise—the worlds’ rarest tortoise”, according to Traffic’s press release on the confiscation.
“Alongside these, he packed 34 Ball Pythons, two Boa Constrictors, several Milk Snakes, Corn Snakes and King Snakes as well as a Hog-nosed Snake.”
The full list, according to Traffic, which has a photo showing the man’s “modified” suitcase:
Ploughshare tortoise 1
Ceratophrys ornate (Argentine horned frog) 6
Radiated tortoise 7
Indian Star Tortoise 88
Common squirrel 22
Mata Mata Turtle 6
Bearded Dragon 19
Aldabra Tortoise 3
Theraphosidae (baboon spider) 18
Pig-nosed Turtle 1
Elongated Tortoise 33
African Grey Parrot 1
Ball Python 34
Boa Constrictor 2
Milk Snake 1
Corn Snake 2
King Snake 2
Lampropeltis zonata (kingsnake) 1
Lampropeltis calligasta (kingsnake) 1
Hog nosed snake 1
Spiny-tailed Lizard (Uromastyx ) 4
Sudan Plated Lizard 2
Chitra 4
The remains of Preah Vihear, an ancient temple built nearly 1,000 years ago and a Unesco heritage site, are at the heart of a dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that has claimed several lives.
More than 10,000 Cambodian villagers reportedly have been evacuated from areas along the Thai border and are waiting for relief from the Cambodian Red Cross and other local NGOs (non-governmental organizations).
Thailand’s prime minister says “the French offer to mediate in the Thai-Cambodian border is not wanted,” and he referred to the episode, where fighter planes flew close to the Cambodian border, as a mistake.
The Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry has also come out against a plan by Unesco to send a mission to inspect the temple following claims by Cambodia that it suffered severe damage in fighting between the two countries.
Links to other sites: BBC News, the Bangkok Post and the Phnom-Penh Post
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Two Geneva-based UN organizations, the International Organization for Migration and the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees) say that refugees from Myanmar/Burma have been pouring into Thailand in the wake of Myanmar elections Sunday 7 November. The elections have been widely denounced by other countries as fraudulent, with citizens not having the freedom to vote correctly. Fighting has broken out in some areas.
The IOM says that “the fighting between the Myanmar military and an ethnic minority armed group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), following the Myanmar elections on Sunday, resulted in an estimated 12,000 people fleeing into Thailand at the Mae Sot and Three Pagoda Pass border crossing points. In Mae Sot [the IOM Monday] transported some 5,000 people from the Thai side of the Moei River to a safe former military compound designated by the Thai authorities. All the refugees came from the town of Miwaddy on the Myanmar side of the river.”
The Mae Sot refugee camp is designed to hold a maximum of 2,000 people.
The UNHCR says in addition to the Mae Sot area people it worked early this week with some 3,000 refugees in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, at a school at Three Pagodas Pass.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visited Myanmar refugees in Thailand in March 2009 to draw attention to their plight: some have been living in refugee camps for over 20 years. New fighting in Myanmar is straining the existing camps (video link below)
UNHCR provides a first-hand description of the scramble by international organizations, working together Monday, to cope with the sudden influx of refugees in Thailand:
“Refugees started pouring across the border early in the morning on foot and on inner tubes across the Moei River. Some told our staff they felt their lives were at risk after their houses were attacked, while others said they fled the sound of fighting.
“Local people have been pitching in as well, and we have asked that they co-ordinate their efforts with us to make sure that those who are most in need get helped first. One man delivered 1,000 blankets to the new site, which we plan to distribute today to the most vulnerable.”
“Many collected their children from school and fled to Thailand with only the clothes on their back, some even barefoot.
Thailand’s government is trying to put a pricetag on the cost to its tourism industry of the protests which turned violent in recent weeks. It estimates that losses were at least $2 billion, but numbers could go higher as officials obtain figures from the industry. The government released travel figures Wednesday 3 June showing that while traffic to Phuket International Airport has risen steadily since January, travel to Bangkok’s airport in May fell 30 percent compared to the same period in 2009. Thailand’s tourism office is preparing a set of incentives to encourage travellers to return, but it appears likely it will put the initial emphasis on the countryside, rather than the capital.
Links to other sites: Canadian Press, Daily Travel News
Government troops in Bangkok are reported to be shutting down pockets of resistance in the city after the surrender of Red-shirts leaders, but the violence that swept through the city Wednesday appears to have spread to cities in the north, including the tourist haven of Chiang Mai. The government announced that protesters set fire to some 30 buildings in the capital, and troops were given orders to shoot arsonists. Central World, the country’s largest shopping mall, has suffered badly from fire damage and one side of a high-rise in the centre is in danger of collapsing.
Links to other sites: The Age, Australia, New York Times
Reuters video of fires in Bangkok
©2010 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
The leaders of Thailand’s anti-government Red-shirt protest movement surrendered early Wednesday, telling their followers to go home, and initially, they did. The encampment where they have stayed in a standoff with troops for the past two weeks quietly emptied. And then the reaction set in and violence took over, with what the Wall Street Journal describes as “some of Bangkok’s priciest real estate” set on fire. Great plumes of smoke rose over the center of the city by Wednesday evening, with troops unable to control the crowds.
Bangkok and much of the country have been put under curfew.
Links to other sites: BBC, Sydney Morning Herald, Wall St Journal
Thai gov’t troops break through Red-shirts, protesters put up white flag
Update 10:00 Four people are reported dead as government troops in Thailand have broken through a barrier to the Red-shirts encampment in the centre of Bangkok Wednesday 19 May. Tanks have moved into the streets surrounding the area and troops are offering safe passage to those who want to leave the encampment, according to Bloomberg/Business Week and other reports. Leaders of the Red-shirt protesters say they are still hoping negotiations will go ahead, while the government says some of the movement’s leaders have escaped from the encampment, and they are asking citizens to be on the lookout for them.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, Reuters and Reuters live coverage
Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay 17 May in Geneva called on the government of Thailand and protesters to “step back from the brink” of disaster and hold talks to end violence there.
Leaders of the two sides reportedly held a brief phone conversation where a ceasefire was proposed, but elsewhere, the Pillay’s words appear to be falling on deaf ears, with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s foreign minister suggesting Tuesday 18 May that the current prime minister could well be investigated by the ICC (International Criminal Court) for charges against humanity in the wake of shootings by troops in Bangkok.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, Sky News, UN news
Eight dead, fourth journalist shot in two days and tourists under attack as crisis deepens
A gun battle is underway in the capital of Thailand, Bangkok, several media are reporting late Sunday Swiss time.
The red-shirt protests also appear to have spread beyond Bangkok as the government backed down from its threat to call a curfew but declared a two-day holiday in the face of a deepening crisis, reports the Bangkok Post Sunday evening (Swiss time). Eight people are now known to be dead, and a fourth journalist was shot and wounded Saturday as the government attempts to seal off the protesters. The luxury Dusit Thani Hotel, where a number of foreigners including journalists are staying, came under attack with gunfire in the early hours of the morning, Bangkok Time.
Protest leaders have called for UN-moderated talks, which the government promptly rejected.
Links to other sites: AFP, Bangkok Post, CNN, Reuters
Cleanup in Bangkok underway, gunshot injuries reported
The Thai government is moving to close the red-shirts protesters encampment but appears to be having mixed success and is reported to be shooting at some intersections in the heart of commercial Bangkok, with several injuries reported Friday. At least one person was killed Thursday, but details remain murky and journalists in the city report that it is difficult to obtain numbers of people injured, from hospitals. The crisis in Thailand is now having a stronger impact on the economy, which relies heavily on tourism. Reuters reports that “the cost of insuring Thai debt jumped the most in 15 months and Thai bond yields fell to a nine-month low on Friday as the wave of violence prompted investors to rush to the relative safety of government debt. Five-year credit default swaps, used to hedge against debt default but also to speculate on country risk, jumped by more than 30 basis points to 142 basis points.”
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, BBC, Reuters
Police in Bangkok, Thailand shot rubber bullets into a convoy of red-shirt protestors Wednesday. A crowd fought back with stones , with the melee reportedly killing one soldier, who was shot in the head, although it is unclear exactly what happened. A number of people were injured, according to the Bangkok Post, which says the confrontation took place near the National Memorial, close to Don Muaeng airport, on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road.
Links to other sites: Al-jazeera, Reuters
[Reuters video] Bangkok’s elevated train system was briefly brought to a halt by red-shirt protestors, and the government has vowed to step up measures to fight the seven-week old crisis that has killed 26 people and led to serious disruptions, including hitting the country’s vital tourism industry hard. The protestors are now starting to wear shirts of other colours to better blend into crowds to avoid arrest.
Protestors tell Reuters they are changing tactics
Government riot police in Bangkok confronted red-shirt protestors Friday morning on the main Rama Iv road before stepping back, following a grenade attack late Thursday that killed one commuter and sent 75 to hospital with injuries. The government has blamed unnamed terrorists for the attacks.
Tensions have been running high as the red-shirt protestors have stepped up resistance to the government, and several foreign governments, including Australia, Britain and the US are recommending that travelers avoid Thailand. A number of business along Silom Road, the Wall Street of Bangkok, were closed Friday in the wake of the violence.
Links to other sites: AP, BBC, Bangkok Post, Xinhua
More than 40 countries have now warned their citizens of the danger of traveling to Thailand, according to CNN/Financial Times, the stock market was hit hard Monday, with Thai Airways shares falling more than 13 percent. “The Ministry of Finance said growth in gross domestic product, once estimated at 3.5 to 4.5 per cent for 2010, would be cut by 0.2 to 0.5 per cent because of the unrest. “More than 20 people are reported to have died in weekend clashes, with the Red Shirts opposition group saying the time is past for talk, as it steps up efforts to remove the prime minister from office.
Links to other sites: CS Monitor, Huffington Post essay on travel to Thailand and Kyrgyzstan
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A US official in Geneva says that the United States “is very concerned” over the possibility of Iran becoming a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Iran is one of five countries presenting themselves for four seats. The vote will take place 13 May. The other countries vying for the Asia region seats are: Thailand, Qatar, Malaysia and the Maldives.
Iran would like the seat, says the official, “for legitimacy.” But the US is worried that the council, still struggling to leave behind the tattered reputation of its predecessor organization, the UN Human Rights Commission, will be weakened by the presence of a country with Iran’s poor record on human rights. The US was highly critical of Iran in February when it came up for its UPR (Universal Periodic Review). This is a regular assessment each country undergoes by others, of its human rights performance.
Fortunately, says the official, who asked not to be named, the other candidates are anxious to have council seats.
The US is not alone in arguing against admitting Iran.
Thailand’s prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has told the nation on television 15 March that he will not give in to demands by tens of thousands of red shirt protestors that he resign today, insisting that changes must be the result of elections where voices of people other than the protestors have a chance to be heard. The protestors gathered outside the army barracks Monday where Vejjajiva had gone when a rally with an estimated (BBC numbers) 100,000 took place Sunday, but he left in a helicopter shortly after his TV appearance.
The red shirts back former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has remained abroad following a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, which he and his supporters say was politically motivated.
Opposition group UDD leader Natthawut Saikua responded by saying 1,000 litres of blood will be taken from donors Tuesday and spread outside Government House to force government workers to walk across a bloody trail.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, BBC,
Bangkok, Thailand / Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland and Thailand currently have 15 weekly flights, but this could soon change thanks to a new agreement signed Monday by the two countries, in Bangkok. They have signed an “open skies” agreement, reports the Bangkok Post/TNA, which allows for unlimited air services “between and beyond” the two countries. It is also designed to encourage tourism and trade and to promote more air services.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Thailand began at dawn Monday the forcible return of some 4,000 Lao Hmong refugees to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic from two camps in northern and northeast Thailand, prompting a swift, highly critical response from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres. Security personnel loaded Lao Hmong onto trucks for the journey back, according to Guterres. “UNHCR did not have access to the site, and has not been allowed to assess the international protection needs of those living there.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A group of Lao Hmong refugees who were rounded up in Bangkok in November 2006 to be deported are still being held in detention, in two cells at an immigration detention centre in Nong Khai, Thailand. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) demanded Tuesday 17 November that Thailand release the group, which was part of a larger pool of internationally recognized refugees. Four countries have offered to re-settle them.
The UNHCR in Geneva recalls the background to their detention:
“Many of the Hmong living in the highlands of Laos took part in the war that engulfed Laos in the 1960s and 1970s. When the Pathet Lao came to
power in 1975, many tens of thousands of Lao Hmong fled to Thailand seeking asylum, and large numbers were resettled in Western countries,
mostly in the United States.
“The situation of the Hmong today is very different from what it was inthe 1970s, but the Nong Khai group are part of the legacy left by a
troubled past. Originally 147 refugees, they were rounded up for deportation and transferred on 08 December 2006 to the Nong Khai immigration
detention centre on the Mekong River border with Laos where they have been held since. With babies born in detention, the number now stands at 158.”
Tensions are rising sharply between Cambodia and Thailand, with Cambodia refusing Wednesday 11 Novmber a demand for extradition from Thailand for Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand is now reviewing its cooperation agreements with Cambodia. Thaksin was to stand trial on corruption charges in Thailand when he fled the country in 2008, saying the trial was politically motivated. Cambodia has said that it does not consider the charges valid because they are politically motivated, but it limited its response to the extradition request to a simple refusal without explanation, according to local media. The BBC’s reporter in Bangkok reports that Thaksin and Cambodia’s Hun Sen are golf partners and close friends.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, BBC, Independent, UK,
Thailand’s former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has arrived in Phnom Penh to take up a job as economic advisor to Cambodia. The wealthy businessman’s arrival Tuesday 10 November in the Cambodian capital prompted Thailand to suspend its cooperation agreement with Cambodia in protest. The latest move in worsening relations between the two as a result of the job offer to Thaksin follows Thailand’s removal of its ambassador last week. It has also suspended a memorandum of understanding that covers a shared waterway. A Thai government spokesperson says the government will issue an extradition order to Cambodia for Thaksin, who served two terms as prime minister before he was deposed in 2006 and charged with corruption in 2008.
