Thai-Dk Din debat side

Oprettet af eneber d. 30-11-2012 18:43

En dansk kvinde er angiveligt blevet udsat for bortførsel og knivrøveri af to mænd i Phuket i Thailand. Hun har forklaret, at hun kæmpede med mændene og blev snittet i højre side af ansigtet under kampen.

nu er to mænd anholdt i sagen. Det skriver Phuket Gazette

Fik et lift - og et chok
Den danske kvinde anmeldte, at hun var blevet bortført og truet med en kniv af to mænd omkring kl. 21.30 i mandags, ifølge politiet i Patong.

Hun fortalte politiet, at en af de to mænd havde overtalt hende til at hoppe op på hans motorcykel for at få et lift.

Men da hun sad på motorcyklen, hoppede endnu en mand op på den, så hun sad klemt inde mellem de to. Mændene kørte hende derefter til et afsondret sted, hvor de truede hende med kniven, før de tog hendes taske.

Indrømmede røveri
Umiddelbart efter anmeldelsen kørte politiet til et hus, hvor de anholdt en formodet gerningsmand. Under afhøringen indrømmede manden røveriet og navngav sin medskyldige. Medgerningsmanden blev derefter anholdt på et hotel i Phuket.

Manden forklarede desuden under afhøringen, at han havde samlet kvinden op i nærheden af et offentligt toilet langs Patong Beach Road, og mens han selv kørte motorcyklen, hoppede den anden mand bagpå, så den danske kvinde var klemt ind imellem dem og ikke kunne slippe væk.

Ifølge
phuketwan.com blev den danske kvinde behandlet for sine skader på et hospital. Hun rejser hjem til Danmark på søndag.

Kilde: ekstrabladet.

Redigeret af eneber d. 30-11-2012 18:47

Oprettet af yindee d. 01-12-2012 01:58

hej det kører godt lige fortiden , masser af dårlig omtale til / om Thailand i alverdens aviser

Tourist condemns Thai police injustice

Thai police are again under fire overseas after an Australian TV report about a man who lost his girlfriend in an accident and was then allegedly framed by police on Koh Samui.

Tragedy in Thailand, an episode of the popular TV show A Current Affair on Australia's Channel 9 network, accused Thai police of injustice and corruption.

Police responded on Friday by reopening the case and transferring the chief of the station in charge of the original investigation. However, the chief denied allegations of corruption.

During a getaway that was supposed to be the trip of their dreams, Jamie Keith faced his worst nightmare while dealing with Thai police after an accident that killed his girlfriend Nicole Fitzsimons, a former Channel 9 reporter.

The couple went to Koh Samui in Surat Thani province in October this year. On their last night on the island, they were heading back to their hotel after dinner when the accident occurred.

In the TV report, video footage from a surveillance camera in the area showed the couple slowing their scooter to make a right turn into the hotel when a speeding bike crashed into them.

The couple, who were not wearing crash helmets, were thrown off their scooter and Fitzsimons was severely injured. She died three hours later.

The accident took place at 11pm on Oct 18, according to Bor Phut police in Koh Samui district. The Thai driver was identified as Kongla Satue.

Mr Keith said he was not only saddened by his girlfriend’s death but also by the actions of the Thai police.

He was taken to the police station after being released from hospital, where he was handed a document in Thai. He said police demanded he sign a confession as the guilty party in the crash, in exchange for his passport, but he refused.

Six days later, Mr Keith reluctantly agreed to sign a document which stated there was no guilty party in the accident.

"Jamie and Nicole’s family were denied justice over the accident,” the show's presenter said.

"Grief is momentarily overtaken by disbelief when unscrupulous Thai police tried to turn the tragic loss of a young Australian woman into a pay day for themselves.”

In the video, Fitzsimons’ father said he was told that it would cost him between A$15,000 and A$30,000 (480,000 to 960,000 baht) to get Jamie out of the situation.

"They said it was an accident. That bloke is walking free, it burns me to see that,” Mr Keith said in tears.

“It’s a cruel world there (Thailand), and we have seen it; there are no laws."

The criticism comes about a month after the father of a Dutch woman who was assaulted and raped posted a video “Evil Man from Krabi” condemning the Thai police for their negligence in bringing justice for his daughter.

The show in Australia has rattled the Thai police. Pol Col Samran Machareon, chief of the Bor Phut station, was transferred to the Provincial Police Region 8 office on Friday.

Pol Lt Gen Yongyuth Wanichchareon, chief of the regional police, signed the transfer order, which took effect immediately, and reopened an investigation into the case.

He admitted flaws in the probe by the Bor Phut police, in whose jurisdictiojn the accident occurred. He has handed over the investigation to a senior officer at the Provincial Police Region 8.

He criticised the Bor Phut police for failing to file a charge against Mr Kongla and said Pol Col Samran had to take responsibility.

But the Bor Phut chief insisted that both Mr Kongla and Mr Keith were charged with reckless driving and the case was investigated fairly.

He defended his subordinates, saying they did not demand money from Mr Keith or force him to confess that he was the guilty party.

"The document he signed was a police report which included the damages on which the two parties agreed," he added. "The police had to keep his passport as part of the procedure and it was returned to him after he signed the report without any condition or money in exchange."

Thanongsak Somwong, chief of the Samui Tourism Association, urged the police to be transparent in the investigation to bring justice to the victim.

The case must be handled in a straightforward manner and the police should not rush to wrap it up, he said.

Poor handling of the case could jeopardise the image of the island in the eyes of Australians as the high season is approaching, he added.

http://www.bangko...-injustice

Oprettet af thai d. 02-12-2012 04:42

Crisis of tourist safety

The string of bad PR incidents that have left behind an alarming number of dead and seriously injured visitors to the Kingdom are greatly compounded by inaction or worse on the part of police and can only be countered by strict reform of local law enforcement agencies

On Tuesday in Australia, Channel Nine's A Current Affair programme called the actions of Koh Samui police "callous, calculated and evil" as they attempted to extort money last month from a man after his fiancee, 24-year-old dancer and sportscaster Nicole Fitzsimons, died in a motorcycle accident.

On Thursday in The Sun, a British tabloid, a prominent story about a violent attack in October by a machete-wielding "rape gang" of Thai youths on a young British couple in Ao Nang, Krabi, included many details of other such cases, scams and safety issues around the Kingdom.

The Evil Man of Krabi YouTube video, made by the father of an alleged rape victim also in Ao Nang, Krabi, in July, has garnered more than 500,000 views since Oct 23.

While these could easily be seen as isolated incidents in a country where millions of tourists have had wonderful experiences, they are backed by a multitude of reports in foreign and local media that seem to indicate a general malaise in law enforcement, an unwillingness to address the heart of issues and a tendency to blame victims of crimes, as the Kingdom lurches from one PR calamity to another.

The reports on A Current Affair and in The Sun are somewhat vague on details such as dates and times _ and could easily have been embellished for viewerships and readerships used to a regular diet of sensationalised news. One problem is that such stories are so easy to take at face value.

Jamie Keith, the survivor of the motorbike crash that killed Fitzsimons on Koh Samui, said on the programme that local police took him to the station after the accident and asked him to sign a statement that the crash was his fault.

"I was vulnerable and they were obviously after one thing and one thing only; it was my money," he said. "They threw that report in front of me asking me to sign, otherwise they would take my passport."

The bribe money requested, the report alleges, ranges from A$15,000-30,000 (480,000 to 960,000 baht). He refused to pay, but six days later Koh Samui police agreed to return Mr Keith's passport only on the condition that no one would be charged over the crash.

"Only accident, no one's fault, no video," he was told by police. CCTV footage aired on the programme, however, shows a motorbike with two helmetless passengers slow to a halt and wait for traffic to pass before making a right turn. A speeding, out-of-control motorcyclist hits them from behind.

"The suspect paid his way out," said the deceased's father.

In the two Krabi incidents, police ostensibly did their jobs; in the rape case, the main suspect was eventually arrested, and it was the provincial court that released him on bail. After last month's gang attack on 21-year-old Britons Jack Cole and April Clifton _ apparently a rape attempt on Ms Clifton that left Mr Cole with over 30 stitches, deep blade wounds, nerve damage and a fractured skull _ an 18 year old and a 19 year old were arrested and handed three and 10-year sentences. Three others have been arrested but not yet convicted.

Visitors often remark how safe they feel in Thailand compared to other large cities in the West, and the violent crime rate is lower than in the US. Nevertheless, despite its economic growth, the Kingdom is increasingly seen as a wild and dangerous place to visit.

New Zealander Sarah Carter, 23, died in Chiang Mai in February last year in a hotel where at least three others died mysteriously within a short period. For months the hotel wasn't inspected properly, and Chiang Mai Governor Pannada Disakul defended the hotel and the city, dismissing the deaths as coincidences caused by food poisoning or pre-existing ailments _ despite similarities in symptoms resembling that of poisoning by chemical toxin.

Tourism Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa quoted Krabi's tourism police chief's assertion that the Evil Man of Krabi case couldn't be considered rape because the victim had dined with the suspect that night.

The reactions to murders and rapes of foreigners as well as accidents too often seem to indicate, at best, a lack of sympathy, and at worst a disinclination to bring perpetrators to justice. Where foreigners are concerned, officials too often seem to assign partial blame to the victim.

The problems are less of "cover-ups" and conspiracies, as many foreign news reports have alleged, as of the bungling of such cases from the beginning, then a compounding of the situation through ignorant and ill-advised statements and counter-accusations.

As the Evil Man of Krabi father told the Bangkok Post Sunday, just a statement from the authorities along the lines of "We get the point, don't worry, we'll handle this and protect our tourists", would be reassuring to victims and their families and do much to staunch criticism. Instead, police and politicians have too often seemed terrified to say anything that might damage tourist revenue _ when the reality is that doing nothing in the hope that the focus will go away or shifting blame are far more damaging.

Sarah Carter's father founded thailandtraveltragedies.com _ since taken offline _ to warn other backpackers of dangers they might face in the Kingdom. The Nicole Fitzsimons Foundation (www.nicolefitzsimons.com) was also launched in memory of the talented young sportscaster.

The problem for Thailand is that these forums to preserve the loving memories of the tragically deceased quickly become, as one poster described it, "Thailand hate sites". Numbering initially in the dozens, soon thousands of posters have added their own tales of woe and extortion at the hands of the Royal Thai police _ from Krabi and Phuket to Koh Samui to Bangkok and the far North _ or the lack of justice in cases where crimes were committed against them. These aren't people deliberately aiming to hurt the Kingdom's reputation but those who feel they haven't received justice. If only one out of 10 of the tales is true, collectively they point to something very rotten at the heart of Thai law enforcement.

Thailand in economic terms is an upper middle income country, not the third world country many foreign news outlets claim _ but the reports are unfortunately quite accurate in describing law enforcement as slow, ponderous, underfunded and pervaded with self-interest and corruption. There are many officers who do their jobs with diligence, distinction and bravery, but these are too easily overshadowed by a minority who prey on victims at their most vulnerable, who see foreign targets as especially wealthy and defenceless, and who are respected by peers more through their ability to accumulate wealth and rank than their skills at bringing the guilty to justice.

With more regional alternatives for tourism such as Myanmar opening up, the Kingdom needs to take steps to halt the PR collapse. If the tourism minister can't make the necessary assurances, a body with more media awareness and competence should be appointed. There needs to be more oversight of action and non-action taken by individual police districts. Tourist police should be given more training and enforcement powers; at the moment they are little more than a translation service in uniform. While the political will for police reform is negligible at the moment, promoting the rule of law rather than favour is crucial for Thailand's long-term stability and prosperity.
http://www.bangko...ist-safety