BANGKOK: An Italian photographer killed while covering the Thai military’s crackdown on anti-government protesters inBangkok three years ago was shot by a high-velocity bullet like those issued to soldiers, a judge said Wednesday.

The inquest said it was unknown who fired the bullet and stopped short of outright blaming the military. Rights groups have repeatedly called for Thailand’s government to hold the powerful army accountable for its part in the violence.

A Bangkok South Criminal Court judge said that the inquest into the death of 48-year-old Fabio Polenghi showed the fatal shot “was fired from the direction of security forces” who were mobilized to quash the demonstration in central Bangkok.

It was likely Polenghi was killed by a bullet from the .223 cartridge which was used with M-16 and HK33 rifles issued to soldiers on the ground that day, the inquest said.

The findings were a stark reminder of a battle fought between the Red Shirt protesters and the government under then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, which led to at least 91 deaths during the two months of demonstrations on the streets of Bangkok in 2010, and of a political divide that remains in the country.

Polenghi was shot as he tried to take pictures of the army’s assault on the Red Shirt encampment.

Testimonies from the inquest that began last July showed the bullet went in Polenghi’s back and came through his left chest. The judge said the bullet went through his heart, lung and liver, causing excessive bleeding until he died at the hospital on May 19, 2010.

Born in Italy in 1962, Polenghi had been a fashion photographer for many years but was transitioning to news.

Elisabetta Polenghi, 48, his younger sister, was among 13 witnesses who testified in the court case. She was accompanied by her mother and her elder sister to hear the court’s order on Wednesday.

“It was positive but it’s not the solution,” Elisabetta Polenghi said of the inquest’s results. “The solution will come when the responsible will be asked to go out of their duty, away from position that can hurt people.”

The Polenghi case is the eighth inquest initiated by Thai authorities to seek the cause of deaths of those killed in the violence. The court previously ruled that five people were killed by guns used by military personnel, while two inquests were inconclusive on who committed the killings.

Abhisit’s government approved the use of live ammunition under limited conditions and deployed sharpshooters and snipers during the demonstration.

The Red Shirt-allied government that succeeded Abhisit’s agreed last year to pay compensation to all the victims of violence in order to promote political reconciliation.

Rights groups have repeatedly called for the government to hold the army accountable.

“It’s the first step towards achieving justice in this case and we’re encouraged that the judges effectively acknowledged that the bullet came from state security forces,” said Shawn Crispin, a Southeast Asia’s representative of the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists. “It’s clear that the family of Fabio is going to fight this and will effectively try to establish and hold to account those at the highest ranks of the chains of command that ordered soldiers to shoot that day.”

Thai authorities have a long history of shielding military personnel from prosecution in political bloodsheds in recent decades.

Polenghi’s lawyer Karom Polpornklang said Wednesday the inquest will be used in a future court case against Abhisit and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban, who controlled a joint government-military center that ran the operation ending the protests.

BANGKOK- A fire swept through a remote camp in northwestern Thailand for refugees from Myanmar, killing 36 and destroying hundreds of make-shift shelters, officials said on Sunday.

The fire, which broke out on Friday in Mae Hong Son province, about 900 km (550 miles) north of Bangkok, has left more than 2,000 people homeless, provincial governor Narumol Palavat told Reuters.
Narumol said 115 people were hurt in the blaze, 19 of them seriously. Authorities were investigating the cause, with initial reports suggested the blaze was sparked by a cooking accident.
Most of those living in the camp are ethnic Karens — 3,500 refugees who fled fighting in Myanmar in 1992.
Karen insurgents began fighting for greater autonomy since Burma won independence from Britain in 1948. The Karen National Union signed a ceasefire with the Myanmar government in January 2012, halting one of the world’s longest-running civil wars.
Despite political reforms in Myanmar, ethnic tensions persist and the refugees do not want to return yet. Many were born in the camps and have lived there for decades.

Thailand: The toll from a blaze that swept through a camp in northern Thailand has risen to 42, a Thai official said Saturday, after hundreds of temporary homes for refugees from Myanmar were reduced to ashes.

Dozens of people were injured in the fire, which broke out on Friday at the Mae Surin camp in Mae Hong Son province, with women, children and the elderly believed to make up the majority of the victims.

Rescue workers were on the scene at the remote mountainous camp area, Mae Hong Son provincial governor Narumol Paravat told AFP by telephone.

“The latest death toll we can confirm through military walkie-talkies is 42,” she said, adding the toll was likely to rise further as rescue workers search the area.

Authorities believe the fire was sparked by an unattended cooking flame.

A local district official said hot weather, combined with strong winds caused the fire to spread quickly among the thatched bamboo shelters.

Police on Saturday said around 400 temporary homes had been incinerated, while the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Bureau said a school, clinic and two food warehouses had also been destroyed.

The Thai government pledged an investigation into the fire at the camp, which houses roughly 3,700 refugees.

Ten camps strung out along the Thai-Myanmar border house a total of about 130,000 people, who first began arriving in the 1980s.

Many of the refugees have fled conflict zones in ethnic areas of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Families often live cheek-by-jowl in simple bamboo-and-thatch dwellings.

Many of the camp residents have been registered with the UN as refugees, and an ongoing resettlement programme has allowed tens of thousands to move to third countries.

After a new quasi-civilian government replaced the long-ruling junta in Myanmar two years ago, Thailand announced it wanted to shut the border camps, raising concern among their residents.

But so far the displaced residents have been allowed to stay and the Thai government has stressed that it will only send them back when it is safe.

Many of the refugees are from Myanmar´s eastern Karen state, where a major rebel group, the Karen National Union (KNU) signed a ceasefire deal with the new regime last year after decades of civil war.

Vast numbers of people fled the former Myanmar junta´s counter-insurgency campaign, which rights groups say deliberately targeted civilians, driving them from their homes, destroying villages and forcing them to work for the army.

Thailand’s internal ivory trade is currently legal, but wildlife groups say smuggled African tusks are mixed in with native stocks and skyrocketing demand here is helping fuel the worst poaching crisis in sub-Saharan African in two decades.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made the pledge during Sunday’s opening meeting of the 178-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, in Bangkok.

She said her government would tighten local controls on Thailand’s local tusk trade by systematically registering domestic elephants and ivory products. Then, “as a next step, we will work toward amending the national legislation with the goal of putting an end to (the) ivory trade and to be in line with international norms,” she said.

Yingluck gave no timeline, though, and Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, deputy director of Thailand’s department of parks and wildlife, told The Associated Press there were no immediate plans to institute a domestic ban.

He said that could happen “step by step in the future — maybe,” but called it “the long-term goal.” For now, the government will focus on boosting measures to tighten domestic trade controls and slow the flow of African ivory from entering Thai markets.

Thai traders currently have the right to buy or sell ivory obtained legally from domesticated stocks, and Theerapat said taking those rights away could be tantamount to the struggle to ban assault weapons in the United States.

“You cannot change everything overnight,” he said. “It’s going to take time.”

Asked how Thailand’s legislation might be amended, Theerapat said there was a push to add African elephants to Thailand’s own lists of protected species, a move that would allow law enforcement to impose higher fines and harsher jail terms on smugglers.

Carlos Drews, head of the World Wildlife Fund’s delegation to CITES, welcomed Yingluck’s pledge but said “the fight to stop wildlife crime and shut down Thailand’s ivory markets is not over.”

Yingluck “now needs to provide a timeline for this ban and ensure that it takes place as a matter of urgency, because the slaughter of elephants continues,” Drews said.

Around 70 years ago, up to 5 million elephants are believed to have roamed sub-Saharan Africa. Today, just several hundred thousand are left. Last year, 32,000 elephants were killed on the continent, according to the Born Free Foundation, which says black-market ivory sells for around $1,300 per pound; much of it ends up as tourist trinkets.

Thailand is one of the world’s top destinations for smuggled ivory — second only to China, according to the wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC. The group has called for CITES members to impose economic trade sanctions against Thailand, along with Nigeria and Congo, which would halt those nations’ ability to trade in all 35,000 species regulated by the convention.

CITES banned the international ivory trade in 1989. But the move never addressed domestic markets like Thailand’s, where trading remains legal as long as only ivory from domesticated elephants is involved.

Curbing the trade in “blood ivory” is at the top of the agenda during the global biodiversity conference, which lasts two weeks. Around 70 proposals are on the table, most of which will decide whether member nations increase or lower the level of protection on various species. These include polar bears, rays and sharks that are heavily fished for shark fin soup.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Thailand’s government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever Thursday, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country’s southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people.

The agreement was announced in Malaysia’s largest city, Kuala Lumpur, between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front, also known by its Malay-language initials, BRN. It is seen as a positive step, but is unlikely to immediately end the conflict because several other shadowy guerrilla movements also fighting in southern Thailand have yet to agree to talks.

“God-willing, we’ll do our best to solve the problem. We will tell our people to work together,” Hassan Taib, a Malaysian-based senior representative of the BRN, said after a brief signing ceremony with Lt. Gen. Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary general of Thailand’s National Security Council.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who met with his Thai counterpart, Yingluck Shinawatra, later Thursday, said Thai officials and the insurgent representatives would hold their first meeting in Malaysia within two weeks.

Najib described the signing as “merely the starting point of a long process” because many issues have to be resolved, but added that it was a “solid demonstration of the common resolve to find and establish an enduring peace in southern Thailand.”

Yingluck said talks would be conducted “within the framework of the constitution” of Thailand to address the root causes of the unrest.

“I have to say we are seeing a better direction in solving the problem, and I consider it a good start,” she said after meeting with Najib. “We need to move forward as soon as possible.”

The first round of talks will focus on how both sides can cooperate, said Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab of Malaysia’s National Security Council.

Violence has occurred nearly every day in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since the insurgency erupted in 2004. The militants have mainly targeted security forces and teachers, who are seen as representatives of the government of the Buddhist-dominated nation.

Muslims in the border region, which was an independent Islamic sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand in the early 20th century, have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Bangkok, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. But the insurgency remains murky, with militants making no public pronouncements on their goals.

Paradorn said Thai security forces would continue to patrol the region.

“It’s not unusual that there might be groups that disagree with the talks, so our military operations will continue. But the discussion will have to carry on at the same time,” Paradorn told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday before leaving for Malaysia.

He said fewer than 1,000 insurgents are living on the Malaysian side of the border. Most are ethnic Malays.

The Thai government and military have struggled to identify legitimate participants for the peace process, as the militant leadership is not clear and no groups have stepped out to take responsibility for the daily attacks in recent years. The insurgency is believed to be highly decentralized, with local units having the freedom to choose targets and campaigns.

The BRN is one of several separatist movements that have made public calls for a separate state in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south. It is unclear how many groups of insurgents the Thai authorities intend to bring in.

“This is a welcome development,” said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. “Not only that it is the first time the Thai government recognized the status of a separatist group, but also the process has included Malaysia as the facilitator of the talks, which will likely draw more participants in the peace process.”

Other experts argue that bringing more insurgents to the negotiating table will not be easy.

“There are several groups who would like to talk to the Thai authorities, but they won’t come out because the Thai government cannot guarantee their safety. What they want is amnesty, which the Thai government can’t promise,” said Panitan Wattanayagorn of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

NARATHIWAT, Thailand: Marines fending off a major militant assault on their base in Thailand’s violent south killed 16insurgents in an overnight shootout, authorities said Wednesday. It was the deadliest toll the Muslim guerrillas suffered since more than 100 died in a single day nearly a decade ago.

About 50 militants wearing military-style uniforms attacked the marine corps base in Bacho district in Narathiwat province just after midnight Wednesday, said Capt. Somkiat Ponprayun, theprovincial marine corps special task force chief.

The shootout ended with 16 militants killed and the rest fleeing, Somkiat said. The death toll was reduced from the initial figure of 19 given out earlier Wednesday by regional army spokesman Col. Pramote Promin.

Somkiat said soldiers who fended off the attack suffered no casualties. He said the marines had been tipped off by the locals and warned of the assault.

Fighting in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces has occurred on a near daily basis since the insurgency flared anew in 2004, and more than 5,000 people have been killed. Security forces, as well as teachers, have been targeted by insurgents because they are seen as representatives of the government.

Muslims in the deep south, a Muslim-majority region in the Buddhist-dominated country that was once independent, have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Bangkok, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. But the insurgency itself remains murky, with militants making no public pronouncements on their goals.

The losses Wednesday were the most since guerrillas launched simultaneous attacks on police stations and checkpoints in the three provinces in April 2004, triggering clashes in which more than 100 militants were killed, 32 of them at the Kreu-Sae mosque in Pattani where they were holed up.

Cmdr. Thammanoon Wanna, who oversees the marine corps base, said the troops had braced for Wednesday’s assault after authorities discovered a sketch that mapped out the insurgents’ plans on a militant who was shot dead in recent days.

Regional army commander Lt. Gen. Udomchai Thammasaroraj said in an interview on ThaiPBS channel that the army has declared a curfew for the area within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the base for Wednesday night into Thursday.

“The insurgents were uplifted because of a surge in their successful attacks in recent weeks, so this is a significant loss on their side,” said Sunai Phasuk, a Bangkok-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. “From now, authorities will certainly have to be very concerned about their retaliation.”

On Sunday, suspected militants killed five soldiers and wounded five others in two attacks that included a car bomb blast in Yala province that was detonated as a truck carrying six soldiers passed. The militants then opened fire on the soldiers, killing five of them, and took away the dead soldiers’ rifles.

Officials from security agencies are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss safety measures for the southernmost provinces.

The verdict came despite repeated calls by rights groups to free Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, who has been jailed since 2011. It also underscored the harsh nature of Thailand’s lese majeste laws, which have been criticized as a violation of free speech.

The articles in question were published under pseudonyms in Somyot’s now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine, which he launched in 2009 to compile political news and anti-establishment articles from writers and contributors.
Judges found both articles in question contained content that defamed the royal family and argued that Somyot, as a veteran editor, knew that and chose to print the stories anyway. The court handed down two five-year jail terms — one for each story.

Somyot said he would appeal the verdict but would not seek a royal pardon.
Although Somyot’s articles were published in 2010, he was only arrested the following year after launching a petition drive to revoke Article 112 of the nation’s criminal code, which mandates three to 15 years in jail for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent.”

“The courts seem to have adopted the role of chief protector of the monarchy at the expense of free expression rights,” Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The court’s ruling appears to be more about Somyot’s strong support for amending the lese majeste law than about any harm incurred by the monarchy.”