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.
David Carradine, US actor who starred in more than 100 films as well as television and theatre, was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand, hanged by a nylon rope which may have been from the hotel room curtains. Police say there was no sign of forced entry and his death is being investigated. Carradine’s most famous recent role may have been as Bill in the “Kill Bill” movies by Quentin Tarantino. In the 1970s he became famous for playing a monk in the television series “Kung Fu.” CNN
Bloody riots that killed two protestors Monday night in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand are breaking up, with people going home at the urging of protest organizers as a police cordon began to tighten around them, reports the BBC. The protestors, who have occupied the land around the Government House for three weeks, have been demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who refuses to step down.
Protestors in Thailand have blocked access in Pattaya, a seaside resort, to a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian States, which includes with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New Zealand. The meeting was moved from Bangkok to the resort after recent demonstrations flared in the capital city. An estimated 100,000 people marching in the city to support deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra caused traffic chaos in Bangkok 9 April.
Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Two Swiss tourists are believed to be among those missing after a ferry capsized in rough waters during stormy weather. The boat was going from Phuket in Thailand to Similan, an island popular with divers.
A court in Thailand has forced the prime minister to step down, saying he must stay out of politics for five years, and his party has been disbanded. The announcement was followed by protestors saying they will leave the Bangkok international airport, where flights have been disrupted for several days. Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government has had a legal basis since January 2008 to use surveillance methods when people who receive disability benefits are “strongly suspected” of fraud and other means to clarify the situaton have been exhausted.
China cuts its interest rates by over a point to 5.58% for borrowers, the largest cut in 11 years, and share prices rose on the news. India’s Bombay Stock Exchange remained closed because of the series of shooting incidents in southern Mumbai. Thailand’s exchange made the smallest gain in Asia as its international airport remained closed for a second day and the prime minister refused to give in to protestors’ calls to step down. Bloomberg
Protestors in Bangkok, Thailand have taken over the control tower at the airport, saying planes must now have their permission to land. Some 3,000 passengers are reportedly stranded at the airport and 78 outbound flights are affected. BBC
Protestors in Bangkok fought each other in the centre of the city and a group fought police and then broke into the passenger terminal at the city’s new international airport, forcing its closure Tuesday night. Outbound flights were cancelled but inbound flights were allowed to land. Times, UK
One person was killed and 29 wounded, CNN reports, when a grenade was launched from a nearby building onto a tent where several people were sleeping, on the grounds of Thailand’s prime minister’s home, which has been occupied by protestors for several months.
Thailand’s army chief says the military will remain neutral and will not consider a coup, as the government meets in an airport terminal because protestors have taken over government offices. The worst street protests in decades in Thailand are pitting the populist government against the powerful “royalist elite” People’s Alliance for Democracy party. AFP
Thailand’s 73-year-old Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has lost his job after a court found him guilty of violating the constitution by hosting a cooking show called “Tasting while grumbling.” His cabinet is forced to resign at the same time but the PM could be back in the job within days, reports CNN.
; ?>/images/transportation_strip.png){kind=spacer}