The mother of a young amputee in Phichit, who lost her left leg two years ago because of cancer, is asking for help to get her daughter a prosthetic leg for better mobility.

The mother, Plubpueng Butrnoi, says doctors had to amputate the left leg of her 9 year old daughter Nattaporn two years ago to save her life. Phichit is in central Thailand.

After Nattaporn fell and broke her left leg, doctors diagnosed bone cancer and recommended the amputation as a precaution to help prevent a future reoccurrence of the cancer.

The mother says her daughter made her own decision to amputate, did not give up, and has ever since tried to live her life normally. The family lives in Tambon Ban Noi in Phichit’s Pho Thale district, and the girl is now studying in the fourth grade of Ban Noi School.

Pranee Puengchai, one of the girl’s teachers, says the girl is a good student and has remained active despite the amputation. The mother says the girl must see doctors regularly and needs a new crutch.

Since the family is poor, the mother says she would welcome assistance for the medical expenses, a new crutch and perhaps a prosthetic leg for the girl.

The mother’s phone number is 06 5010 1825.

The Royal Thai Army has helped its Cambodian counterparts clear landmines along the Sa Kaew border in Thailand’s east. Together they’ve cleared around 1.72 million square metres in the past financial year.

Lt Gen Sitthipol Nimnual, director of the Thailand Mine Action Centre visited the border at Sa Kaew’s Ta Phraya district where the TMAC-Cambodian Mine Action Centre project has been carried out.

PHOTO: ASEAN members will be piling pressure on Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi over the regional Rohingya crisis.

Myanmar ‘State Counsellor’ Aung San Suu Kyi is heading to Bangkok to attend this weekend’s 34th Summit of the ASEAN. It’s believed the Rohingya refugee crisis will be a hot topic for discussion at the Summit.

Myanmar’s state-run media report that Suu Kyi was invited by Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is hosting the two-day event as chair of ASEAN for this year.

Meanwhile ASEAN’s muslim-majority countries are planning a ‘firm tone’ in their in-Summit discussions when it begins on June 23.  The firm tone is a departure from ASEAN’s usual mild attitude toward Myanmar, based on the group’s principle of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. Other ASEAN members say they have lost patience with Myanmar over the slow progress on serious human rights violations, which have been condemned by UN investigators as “genocide”.

Muslim-majority nations in the region such as Indonesia and Malaysia are believed to be driving the criticism against Myanmar.

Suu Kyi has been under fire internationally over her down-beat response to the plight of the Rohingya. Among the ASEAN membership, Malaysia has been particularly critical of her failure to tackle the problem. Her response, so far, has been to side with Myanmar’s military or no response at all.

Suu Kyi says that she has already met with diplomats from member ASEAN nations – Laos, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and the ASEAN secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi. The Secretary General led an assessment team on a visit to Rakhine late last year.

An estimated 750,000 Rohingya fled the Rhakine state in Myanmar over the border into neighbouring Bangladesh since August 2017 amid well-documented allegations of atrocities committed by Myanmar’s military. The purge attracted broad support from the Buddhist-majority Burmese people.

Myanmar’s ‘puppet’ President Win Myint has also been invited to the Summit.