Flashermac Posted April 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 One of my Farang colleagues actually saw the mock hanging at Thammasat. It was in response to the police beating and hanging several labour organisers in Nakhorn Pathom (if memory serves me). He said no one who saw it thought it depicted someone it shouldn't have. A Thai colleague actually knows the student who was "hung", and he said the student to this day denies it was meant to be anyone other than the police victims. But a Thai language newspaper and the Bangkok Post carried a doctored photo which made it appear that it did! That infuriated the Village Scouts and the right wing extremists. The student protesters realised they were in for it, but "fearlessly" decided to stand their ground and be massacred. It reminded me of Kent State, where the NG draft dodgers fired their old M-1 rifles at student protesters in Ohio. The public reaction in both instances was largely that "they got what they deserved". It was a very disturbing time to be in LOS, since everyone was concerned by the recent communist takeovers of Thailand's neighbours to the north, east, and southeast. I remember how Peace Corps asked us to give them a map of our house, so we could be "rescued" by helicopter if the commies overran Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzzz Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 This is a sensible perception but too frequently the courts are not straight ....Sadly, the truth revealed could include a corrupt court, among others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted April 20, 2014 Report Share Posted April 20, 2014 Aha got it ...the photo was doctored which threw fuel on the fire of violence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 > It reminded me of Kent State, where the NG draft dodgers fired their old M-1 rifles at student protesters in Ohio. The public reaction in both instances was largely that "they got what they deserved". Wrong! This set off the USA in to two distinct camps...those against the VN war and those for it. I remember as I was in the university and all the students boycotted classes for some days/weeks. My Canadian friend who's father was teaching in Arizona, decided to leave the USA and return to Canada because of the Kent State shootings!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 I was just back from RVN when it happened and not yet returned to studying. I heard many people saying the students deserved it. By then the universities were already organizing anti-war protests, so I am not surprised that they reacted differently than the "man on the street". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted April 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Meanwhile, back at the topic ... REUTERS IN ROW OVER ROHINGYA PULITZER PRIZE - STAFF DRINK CHAMPAGNE WHILE RESEARCHERS SURRENDER Wednesday, April 16, 2014 Reuter’s news agency was attacked today for celebrating a Pulitzer Prize in champagne while two journalists who provided critical assistance on their story face jail. Reuters journalists Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall were commended for their ‘courageous reporting’ over two years on the plight of the Rohingya minority in Burma – but the on the ground journalists who provided them with vital information and meetings – tomorrow face jail for libel for the Reuters report. Jason Szep is himself pictured on the Reuters website drinking champagne to celebrate the award but in south Thailand to where the Rohingya have been fleeing from Burma, journalists Alan Morison, 66, and Chutima Sidasathian,33, say that all efforts to contact Reuters for support have failed. And Jason Szep, claimed Morison, has several times simply put down his phone. Sidasathien and Morison have been covering the Rohingya problem for 7 years and it was Sidasathien who took Jason Szep to see her personal contacts on the story in Phang Na southern Thailand, where brokers and agents explained in detail links to the military and how the persecuted people were smuggled to Malaysia – at great cost in money and in lives. She also assisted on follow up stories. “Reuters have not spoken to us since we were charged with libel for their story, “ said Morison, a former CNN editor today. ‘I called Jason on his mobile in Thailand but he just puts it down. Attempts to speak to somebody in Reuters in Washington have also failed.†Ironically the couple who run the news website Phuketwan based on the Thai holiday island of Phuket are being sued over one paragraph from a Reuters report which suggested the Thai Navy were implicated in the trafficking of Rohingya. Several other news organisations also carried the same story in Thailand but have not been prosecuted. ... http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/04/reuters-in-row-over-rohingya-pulitzer.html p.s. Andrew Drummond has been one of the very few covering this news ... lots more on his site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jitagawn Posted April 21, 2014 Report Share Posted April 21, 2014 Ironic to say the least ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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