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Thailand denies
abusing migrants
BRITAIN JOINS UNITED NATIONS IN
EXPRESSING CONCERN FOR BOAT PEOPLE
BANGKOK: Thailand’s government
has “categorically denied” mistreating
migrants following reports it towed
hundreds of desperate boat people back
out to sea and abandoned them.
Survivors say Thailand’s military
towed hundreds of migrants from
Myanmar’s Rohingya community out
to sea in poorly-equipped boats with
scant food and water. But the foreign
ministry said such actions had no place
in Thai policy.
“As for the serious allegations...
including that various forms of mis-
treatment were inflicted ... this must
be categorically denied as having no
place in policy and procedures,” the
ministry said in a statement released
late on Tuesday.
“Nevertheless, should concrete
evidence be presented, the Thai
government would serious look into
such cases and further verification
(would be) carried out,” it added. The
statement said Thai law required that
all migrants arriving along the south
west Andaman coastline be stopped,
questioned and their needs assessed.
It said those who had not smuggled
goods into the country received basic
humanitarian assistance before being
repatriated. Smugglers would be inves-
tigated and then ordered out, it said.
Accusations of mistreatment sur-
faced earlier this month after nearly
650 Rohingya were rescued off India
and Indonesia, some claiming to have
been beaten by Thai soldiers before
being set adrift in the high seas.
Hundreds of the boat people are still
believed to be missing at sea.
Abhisit has said authorities were
dealing with the boat people in a
humane way, but Britain on Tuesday
joined the United Nations in expressing
“concern” for the migrants’ welfare.
The foreign ministry statement said
an estimated 20,000 illegal migrants
were currently in Thailand and said
several thousand arrive each year, call-
ing the issue “a collective problem” for
regional countries to address together.
Meanwhile Thai authorities de-
tained a further 78 boat people from
Myanmar who were found off Surin
island on Monday, police said. – AFP
Illegal
Rohingya
migrants
receive
medical
Obama seeks Republican
support for stimulus plans
treatment by
a Thai health
official
after they WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama
had been struggled on Tuesday to placate Republicans
arrested in Congress who insist his US$825 billion
in Ranong (RM2.9 trillion) plan for reviving the troubled
province, US economy should include bigger tax cuts
southern and less spending. “The key right now is to
Thailand on make sure that we keep politics to a mini-
Tuesday. mum,” said the president, who met Republi-
cans in both houses of Congress a week after
taking office on a promise to seek consensus
and end partisan gridlock.
Republicans described the meetings as
cordial and said they appreciated Obama’s
willingness to listen but there was scant
evidence he had persuaded many of them to
back the measure.
Shortly before Obama arrived, House
Minority Leader John Boehner told fellow
Republicans that in its current form, he could
not vote for the stimulus and encouraged fel-
low House Republicans to vote against it, his
spokesman said. The House of Representatives
plans to vote on the stimulus later in the day.
Pressed on whether Obama expected to get
more than a dozen or so Republican votes in
the House, White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs said: “We’ll take what we can get.”
Obama told the legislators he understood
that some of them might not support the
measure but he said it still was important to
have the discussion.
“He said ... I understand that some of you
aren’t going to vote for this,” Gibbs said.
“That’s fine. But what ... he wants people to
do is have an exchange of those ideas.”
Meanwhile, a bloc of conservative Demo-
crats won a commitment from the White
House for efforts to balance the budget, ena-
bling many of them to support the stimulus
plan. In a letter to Congress, Obama budget
Queen escaped Australian
assassination plot: Ex-cop
SYDNEY: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II escaped
assassination in Australia nearly 40 years
ago when plotters tried to derail her train
on a mountain pass, a retired detective has
claimed.
Former detective superintendent Cliff
McHardy told the Lithgow Mercury a large log
was placed on the winding track in front of the
train carrying the monarch and her husband
Prince Philip to the town of Orange on April
29, 1970.
The royal train hit the log at Bowenfels
in the Blue Mountains, 150km northwest of
Sydney, but did not shoot off the tracks and
down a steep embankment as it was going
too slowly at the time, according to news
reports.
McHardy, now 81, said he was breaking his
silence on the alleged plot, which has been
kept under wraps for nearly four decades, in
a bid to flush out information on the culprits,
who were never arrested.
“It was one of the big regrets of my police
service,” McHardy told the Mercury, his local
paper.
| THURSDAY JANUARY 29 2009
EPAPIX
director Peter Orszag said the government
must eventually get back to paying for non-
emergency spending without boosting the
deficit. The letter appeared to win over many
of the conservative Democrats.
Regardless of how many Republicans
embrace it, the stimulus package is expected
to clear both the Democratic-led House and
Senate by the middle of February.
Even so, Obama wants the political cover
that some support from the opposition party
would bring for an unproven plan that will
hugely increase America’s budget deficit and
may or may not halt the economy’s down-
ward slide.
The new president faces an economic
crisis that seems to worsen by the day. Con-
sumer confidence has slipped to a record low
and major US companies are cutting tens of
thousands of jobs as troubles mount in the
financial industry.
“The main message I have is that the
statistics every day underscore the urgency
of the economic situation,” Obama said. “The
American people expect action.”
Republicans complain that Obama’s plan
would finance Democrats’ pet projects – such
as US$16 billion (RM57.6 billion) in grants for
college students – instead of creating jobs or
stimulating consumer spending.
“I think the president is sincere,” Boehner
said. “We look forward to continue to work
with him to improve this package.”
Republicans agree the stumbling economy
needs a rescue package. But they contend that
the Democrats’ US$550 billion (RM1.9 tril-
lion) spending proposal is excessive while
a proposal to cut taxes by about US$275 bil-
lion (RM990 billion) does not go far enough.
– Reuters
“We never came up with any decent sus-
pects because if we interviewed people we
seemed to be talking in riddles. We couldn’t
disclose what our inquiries were about” be-
cause of the secrecy, he said.
McHardy could not immediately be reached
for comment. But the Mercury said the royal
train struck the log in a railway cutting after
it was rolled down an embankment and then
placed across the tracks.
“The train continued on under brakes for
about 200m with the log still wedged under
the front wheels before finally coming to a halt
at the level crossing near Bowenfels station,”
the paper said.
The incident could not have been an acci-
dent or simple vandalism, McHardy reportedly
said, as the log was rolled into place after a
special locomotive had swept the tracks for
security, but before the royal train passed.
Among those targeted in the investigation
were suspected sympathisers of the Irish
Republican Army, which was waging a violent
struggle against British rule in Northern Ireland
at the time, McHardy told the paper. – AFP