Of Mystery Deaths, Patpong Clashes & Quite Some Skeletons

Glorious kingdom. Today’s news alert by Thaivisa contained three teasers leading to stories, well … Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra was right on target in the recent Spiegel interview when he assured that “in Thailand, the law of the jungle prevails.” And you expect harmony?

The first story linking to the Phuket Gazette is a kind of mild: “Mystery illness kills foreign tourists on Phi Phi.” Concludes the paper: “Poisoned drinks, faulty air conditioning, carbon monoxide and chemicals from a water treatment plant near the guesthouse have all been mentioned as possible causes.”

The second story “Patpong vendors clash with pirate good police” is only surprising because shots were fired and tourists ran for cover. But now get this, the third story: Containers full of bodies reported discovered off the coast of Sattahip. Why does Thailand never seize to amaze.

Pattaya One News has some background:

Containers full of bodies reported to have been discovered off the coast of Sattahip

A disturbing story now from Sattahip District involving the discovery of containers thought to contain dead bodies. The story first broke last week on Thai TV Channel 3 following the discovery of a container surrounded by reportedly hundreds of skeletons. This discovery was made almost two months ago but remained a closely guarded secret until the story was leaked to the press last week. We understand that a total of 8 containers have been found in three separate locations between Phie Island and Pram Island and 30 nautical miles off the Coast of Juang Island which are all located in the Gulf of Thailand. For many years fishermen have reported the capture of skeletal remains in their fishing nets, however many cases have remained unreported. There is a suggestion some of the containers have been at the locations for up to 20 years. Now that the exact locations of the containers have been identified and a full report has been made to the Police, it is thought these containers will now be recovered and the contents will be revealed. Locals fear the worse and suggest the containers are full of bodies, but this cannot be confirmed until the containers are recovered. We will follow this story and update you when new information is received by us.

Twenty years … that covers quite some ground.

Could be anyone’s grave.

But guess what, we will never know whose grave it is and why they died.

It’s just one of those peculiarities about Thailand.

Once you’d start asking questions you could bring down the whole place.




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May 7, 2009 | Filed Under Being Farang, News & Media, Tidbits 

Comments

12 Responses to “Of Mystery Deaths, Patpong Clashes & Quite Some Skeletons”

  1. CS on May 8th, 2009 9.50 am

    Bodies from the 1976 or 1992 massacre I predict.

  2. John on May 9th, 2009 10.43 am

    I love this place. Dozens of skeletons found and not even the Thai media seem to mind.

    Or have I missed any follow-ups?!

    Any sane society would cry out loud.

  3. BangkokDan on May 10th, 2009 10.53 am

    Here’s a Channel 3 report:




    BangkokDan

  4. Chdarat on May 13th, 2009 11.20 am

    I often wonder about Thai news. How do we define something as news worthy and how Western media news can superficially appear the same but the moment you try to dig deeper then we find a lot of hearsays!

    But then again, the coverage of the Songkran protest by major Western channels turned Thailand into mini-Afghanistan and a lot of people believed that all of Bangkok was affected.

    Perhaps news reporting can only be from one perspective, one view point and can never be a panorama, umm a pun I see on the BBC’s program!

  5. CS on May 13th, 2009 2.05 pm

    The yellow shirts’ team exaggerated the impact of the red shirts for publicity.

    Stupid way to promote tourism.

    The tourist mafia doesn’t help Thailands reputation either:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/29324583@N05/sets/

  6. anonymous on May 15th, 2009 7.24 pm

    Referring to your cheeky News Feed link

    BANGKOK POST – No Containers of Bones on Seabed (giving up the search after one day?!):

    I can’t believe what a skeptical comment you added to the News Feed that AbsolutelyNoContainters packed with dead bodies have been found in the seabed off Pattaya after an AbsolutelyThoroughAndPainstakingISO9002 search was conducted by the Thai Military’s Underwater Isoc Special Forces SEALS Unit that, after all, would have been the exact same unit that created any such non-existent dead bodies, packed them in containers, put them on a barge, towed them out to sea and then, using a large crane, carefully lowered each container onto the seabed …

    Shame on you for being so AbsolutelyCynical in the midst of the present situation that requires all journalists in Thailand to AbsolutelySupport the existing AbsoluteStatusQuo!

  7. whoopla on May 16th, 2009 1.47 am

    Poor anonymous lost the plot and forgot to click on the link …

  8. BangkokDan on May 17th, 2009 8.57 am

    The mystery drags on, but luckily we get Porntip involved:

    ! THE NATION – “Dr. Death” Porntip Seeks Quick Move on Container

    BangkokDan

  9. Joy on May 17th, 2009 1.00 pm

    Thai government and military always know how to cover up their mess, this is Thai way.

  10. whoopla on May 17th, 2009 5.09 pm

    Life is Cheap in Thailand:
    http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/143552/porntip-container-will-not-be-salvaged

  11. number&number on May 19th, 2009 4.47 am

    PM fears disturbing the Sattahip marine ecosphere; container-loads of human skeletons are to remain undisturbed in the Submerged and Out-of-Sight Thai National Closet. This lack of action will certainly cement any international perception of human rights in Thailand.

  12. CS on June 2nd, 2009 7.14 am

    It’s been a long time since the news broke.

    The Thai Navy divers have removed any bad news by now.

    The containers will be empty I predict.

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