Phuket Gazette Thailand News: More Nui victims found; Chiang Mai freezes over; DSI targets PDRC assets; Suthep vows Bangkok jam

– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: Police have found several bones at an uninhabited spot in Loei where a confessed serial rapist and murderer allegedly attacked and strangled a girl earlier this year.

DNA tests will be conducted to determine if the bones belonged to a 4-year-old girl who went missing on February 5.

The search for the bones in Loei began earlier this week after a man, known only as Nui, was arrested for allegedly raping and killing a 6-year-old girl in Bangkok on December 6.

He has pleaded guilty.

Police allege he told them he had committed many other crimes, including two in Loei.

Since then, police have checked records of missing children in the province. Two cases are very likely linked to Nui, one involving the 4-year-old girl who went missing during a festival, and the other involving a 7-year-old boy who disappeared at a merit-making event inside the compound of a local temple on November 10.

Loei police chief Maj-General Sakda Wongsiriyanont said searchers had scoured area where the boy had gone missing since Tuesday.

About 150 police and rescue workers conducted a further search yesterday and found the T-shirt the boy was wearing on the day he disappeared. The boy’s mother and grandmother burst into tears upon seeing the shirt. Nui has continued insisting that he molested the boy but did not kill him.

The Office of Forensic Science yesterday confirmed that DNA tests on a human skull found in Bangkok’s Soi La Salle belonged to the 6-year-old girl whom Nui said he raped and strangled on the night of December 6.

Pol Lt-General Jarumporn Suramanee, adviser to the National Police Office, said the DNA tests on the bones discovered in Loei would take more time.

Meanwhile, Galya Rajanagarindra Institute’s director Taweesilp Visanuyothin has suggested that Nui might be suffering from an anti-social personality disorder and deviant sexual preferences, but not mental disorder.

“He must have been fully conscious of his actions while committing the crimes,” Taweesilp said. He said his analysis was based on available information, not detailed examination yet.

“Police have not yet contacted us to arrange the suspect’s examination,” Taweesilp said.

His institute is one of the country’s key psychiatric facilities.

Sorasit Jongjarern, chief of Bangkok Remand Prison, said experts would be invited to determine the state of Nui’s mental health, though he too is convinced that the suspect is not mentally ill.

“I think he’s just drunk,” the prison chief said.

Corrections Department’s director general Suchart Wong-ananchai ordered Sorasit to closely monitor Nui round the clock out of concerns that he might commit suicide or be attacked by other inmates.

“There are no worrying signs,” Sorasit said.

PHUKET: People’s Democratic Reform Committee secretary general Suthep Thaugsuban declared that protesters would paralyse Bangkok traffics at least half a day on Sunday with simultaneous demonstrations around the capital.

He said about 1.7 million to 2.3 million people would join the demonstrations from 1 pm to 6pm.

He said the demonstrations would cover 577,000 square metres of Bangkok streets and adjacent areas in the city.

Rally stages would be set up at the Victory Monument, Ratchathevi, Pathumvan, Samyan, Lumpini Park, Siam, Ratchaprasong, Ploenchit and Asoke.

“On December 22, we will try not to make you, people, too tired. So, we have an appointment on December 22 and the demonstrations will begin at 1pm,” Suthep told the rally at the Democracy Monument Wednesday night.

“Those who live near [planned rally sites], please come out to join the rallies. I would like to invite you to join rallies on Rajdamnoen, Urupong Intersection, on Phetchaburi Road.

“We will set up small rally stages at the Victory Monuments and Ratchathewi Intersection, Pathumvan Intersection, Samyan, Ratchaprasong, and Asoke. There will be monitors for relaying the signal. Please join the rallies at your convenience.”

Suthep said the demonstrators would disperse at 6 pm and if Yingluck Shinawatra refused to resign as the caretaker prime minister, he would hold more mass and simultaneous rallies.

He said his group estimated that the rallies would cover some 577,000 square metres. At the calculation of three demonstrators per a square metre, there would be at least 1.7 million protesters if the areas are fully occupied, Suthep said.

PHUKET: There is no chance it will snow in Thailand soon, as meteorological conditions and the low altitude of most of the country would not permit it, experts said yesterday.

Their prediction came in the wake of speculation that the Kingdom could see snow following a sharp drop in temperatures across the country, and snowfalls in Egypt and Vietnam in the past few days.

“At best we can see frozen dewdrops on high mountains like Doi Inthanon in Chiang Mai,” National Disaster Warning Centre director Group Captain Somsak Khaosuwan said yesterday.

However, the leader of a people’s network that handles emergency situations, Piyacheep Vatcharobol, disagrees. He claimed yesterday there was a 90-per-cent chance that mountaintops 1,500 meters above sea level would experience snow. Average temperatures there would drop to -5 to -10 degrees Celsius, Piyacheep said.

Such mountaintop snow – possibly this month and in January – would result from an approaching “Little Ice Age” and reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, which had last taken place 800,000 years ago. Because of these factors, the world now saw snow in Egypt, Vietnam and Laos, said Piyacheep.

However, Somchai Baimoung, a meteorological expert, explained that there are three factors that contribute to generating snow: humidity, temperature and atmospheric lifting. Even though the temperatures in some parts of Thailand, especially in the high mountain areas, are falling below zero Celsius, there is no atmospheric lifting condition in Thailand. Moreover, the altitude of Thailand is not correct for the generation of snow.

“There is no chance for Thailand to have snow,” he insisted.

He explained the generation of snow is not related to the phenomenon of the so-called ” magnetic reversal of the Earth”.

Somchai said that snow in Egypt is not new. There are records of snowfalls in this country 100 years ago. Also, snow has fallen in Vietnam in locations at high altitude and with enough humidity and sufficiently low temperatures to generate it.

“The falling of snow in Vietnam is not surprising,” Somchai said.

Somsak explained the temperature in Thailand has dropped because a cold air mass from China still covers the country. This cold air cannot pass through to the sea because it is blocked by a low-pressure trough floating over the southern regions.

The Meteorological Department yesterday forecast for upper Thailand a temperature drop of another 2-3 degrees Celsius in the next three to four days. With more rain predicted for southe

— Phuket Gazette Editors

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