AV Front Eye Volume 15 Issue 8 News Desk - Tel: 076-236555February 23 - 29, 2008 Daily news at www.phuketgazette.net 25 Baht The Gazette is published in association with Heritage American fugitive plan for Andaman IN THIS ISSUE nabbed in Rawai NEWS: Yachts get tracked; Sea Sea Gypsies ask for help; By Natcha Yuttaworawit Boat blows up; PIA gets more PHUKET (Gazette, Nation, BANGKOK (Nation): The taxis. Pages 2 & 3 Kom Chad Luek): A man wanted Natural Resources and Environ- for child molestation by police in ment Ministry plans to propose the INSIDE STORY: .Smoking laws leave puffers perplexed. the US state of Missouri was Andaman Sea as a Unesco World Pages 4 & 5 arrested on the afternoon of Heritage site next year, a senior February 12 and has been turned official said on February 18. AROUND THE NATION: Tourism over to the US Federal Bureau National Park, Wildlife and minister gets straight to work. of Investigation (FBI) for extra- Plant Conservation Department Page 7 dition. Director-General Chalermsak During questioning, the sus- Vanichsombat said his office had AROUND THE REGION: Looking pect, Earl Russel Bonds, tried to back at forgotten times in assigned Dr Sakanan Plathong, a kill himself by cutting his left wrist Krabi. Page 8 lecturer on Marine Ecology at with scissors, but police seized the Prince of Songkhla University, and AROUND THE SOUTH: Girl killed scissors from him in time. Chulalongkorn University experts after hitman's suspected Bonds, 42, was handed to to make a report of Andaman blunder. Page 9 FBI agents at Phuket Interna- marine conservation areas. tional Airport on February 13 and The initial report should be PEOPLE: Phuket’s running Bonds in custody at the Phuket Immigration Office, where he tried flown to Bangkok to await an completed within six months, while man stops briefly for an inter- to take his life by slashing his wrists with a pair of scissors. Photo extradition order to the US. the world heritage site proposal view. Pages 14 & 15 by Yongyot Preuksarak. Bonds was with his Thai boy- will be made in 2009, he said. LIFESTYLE: Get your rocks off; friend when officers from Phuket Most Wanted television show employee of STN Company Ltd, The director of the Na- Finally someone sees sense. Tourist Police and Phuket Immi- aired by the local Fox Television which described itself as a “busi- tional Park Research Division, Pages 18 & 19 gration Police arrested him at a affiliate in that city. ness management and develop- Songtham Suksawang, said he rented house on Soi Yanui in Rawai Phuket Immigration Police ment services company”. had invited academics, marine SPORTS: Cricket update; YFH about 2 pm on Ferbaury 12. Superintendent Pol Col Police failed to locate Bonds experts and public representa- league; Prime Minister Cup; Police said Bonds entered Chanatpol Yongbunjerd told the at the address on the work per- tives to discuss details of the Dive cleanup; Two holes in Thailand August 30 last year and Gazette he first received a re- mit, but subsequent investigation plan. one; Patong dart league. worked as an English teacher. He port from Immigration headquar- revealed that he had changed jobs The Andaman Sea has the Pages 34 & 35 later worked as a freelance col- ters in Bangkok that Bonds might and begun working as an English- potential to be listed thanks to the PROPERTY: Construction: umnist for an overseas publication. have been hiding out somewhere language teacher and freelance biodiversity of its marine parks Back to school; Home of the Bonds did not resist arrest on the island. writer, Col Chanatpol said. and the Moken (indigenous sea Week: Family fun; Property and admitted he was the person The initial investigation did At the time of arrest, gypsy) culture. It covers 18 na- Watch: The market comes of on an FBI wanted list, but re- not get far due to a lack of de- Bonds had overstayed his permit- tional marine parks, including the age; Gardening: Bert loves fused to answer further questions, tails and the fact that Bonds was to-stay issued by Immigration, he Phi Phi Islands, he said. lettuce. Pages 37-42 police said. listed as an African-American, added. K. Sakanan said the Anda- Police said Bonds asked for which led investigators to expect Bonds last year applied for man was an outstanding candi- tranquillizer pills during his brief him to have a much darker com- work as a travel writer with the date due to its natural resources, PLUS detention at the Phuket Immigra- plexion than he actually does, Col Gazette under the name Chris especially Phang Nga Bay’s tion Office before FBI agents Chanatpol said. Bonds and supplied as a writing limestone cliffs and rare marine AROUND THE ISLAND 10; GOOD picked him up. He grabbed the Immigration Police had vis- sample a Web link to a fiction LIVING 12; HAPPENINGS 16; species such as dugong, leather- AMBROSIA 17; MOTORING 20; scissors and cut his left wrist ited his home once earlier, but did story that won him first prize in a back sea turtles and the worm- WHAT’S ON 21; TAKE A B REAK when a police officer on guard not arrest him because they local writing competition held by hunting cone snail known as 23 & 24; LOOKING BACK 26; turned away to get him water for thought he did not match the The Boathouse in Kata. Beech Cone (Conus betulinus). PATTAYA, HOROSCOPES 27; EDI- the pills. FBI’s written description. The story is a first-person The Fine Arts Department TORIAL, LETTERS 28; FIRST PER- A native of St Louis, Mis- Further investigation with account of a child who is subject had also found some 500 pre-his- SON, ISSUES & ANSWERS 29; souri, Bonds has been charged in the help of the Tourist Police led to sexual abuse at the hands of toric paintings in the Andaman BOOKS, WORD C OURT 30; PUSH- the US with four counts of mo- finally to the arrest, Col his own father. region, he added. ING BUTTONS 31; BUSINESS AND lesting an 11-year-old boy in 2003. Chanatpol said. In a strange irony that hints His team would conclude MONEY 32 & 33; CLASSIFIEDS He was charged in 2004 and fled Bonds had been issued a at the cycle of such abuse, the and analyze the site’s potential 43-55. after posting US$10,000 bail, ac- work permit by the Phuket Em- story is entitled Escape From and formulate management plans cording to the popular St Louis ployment Service Office as an Home. within 12 months, he said. 2 PHUKET GAZETTE NEWS February 23 - 29, 2008 Sea gypsies SIPA called in to track visiting yachts By Janyaporn Morel every yacht that arrives – about 20 yachts a Hengcharoen. petition day during the high season – the device would SIPA was also charged with devising PHUKET CITY: In the name of better se- help patrol boats keep tabs on vessels in local an IT system that cross-linked Customs, Im- Governor curity, the Phuket office of the Software In- waters. migration and Marine Office databases. dustry Promotion Agency (SIPA) has been The device would be issued when the V/Gov Worapoj proposed that Chalong over violence given until the end of April to develop a de- yacht is checked into Phuket and returned OrBorTor and the OrBorJor provide offic- vice that allows Thai authorities to track when the yacht is checked out of the coun- ers to help smooth the registration process. By Janyaporn Morel yachts visiting Thai waters. try, he said. The registration procedure at the one- The proposal was announced on Feb- Every yacht arriving or departing Phuket stop service at Chalong pier is complicated, PHUKET: Villagers from the ruary 14 at a meeting of a special committee must register at the Chalong center, where with tourist arrivals filling in many forms, of- Rawai sea gypsy community have formed to review security, Customs and Im- the Customs, Immigration and Marine Office ten causing problems, especially for non-En- petitioned Phuket Governor Niran migration procedures at the “one-stop ser- (formerly called the Harbor Master’s Office) glish speakers, said V/Gov Worapoj. Kalayanamit, saying that their vice center” at Chalong Pier for people ar- paperwork can be completed. However, V/Gov worapoj added, “The safety continues to be threatened riving to Phuket on yachts. “After the yacht and its passengers have current system can’t track those yachts, and by the bullying tactics of some Leading the meeting, Phuket Vice-Gov- been registered [as arriving], they can berth officers on patrol boats can’t check when tourism business operators. ernor Worapoj Ratthasima explained that as or moor at any marina around the island,” boarding a vessel out on the water whether On February 14, 10 sea gyp- the Thai authorities physically cannot inspect explained Phuket Marine Office 5 Chief Olarn or not a yacht had been registered. sies led by Niran Yangpan sub- mitted a formal letter of complaint addressed to Governor Niran and Foreigner the Damrongtham Center at Brits charged over fake Phuket Provincial Hall, which serves as the provincial ombuds- charged man’s office. The letter stated that on Feb- after Patong ruary 11 three tourists hired Rawai ATM-card withdrawals sea gypsy Pian Sae-ngor to take By Sangkhae Leelanapaporn them to Koh Hei by longtail boat. death smash While the tourists were PHUKET CITY: A father, ashore and K. Pian was moored mother and son from the UK PATONG: An Englishman has waiting for them to return, three have been charged with using been charged with careless driv- other longtail boat operators ap- fake electronic cards to withdraw ing causing death after being in- proached him and forcibly re- more than 100,000 baht from volved in an accident at the south- moved the engine from his ves- ATMs while on holiday in Phuket.