They are part of the Hmong refugees in Thailand who fled in terror and fear after hiding in remote jungle areas in the mountains of Laos. They have been chased and eliminated by the Lao and Vietnamese military. After days of negotiations with relevant UN agencies and supporting governments, who raised concerns with Thailand on behalf of the 194, their forced deportation was understood to have been suspended. But Thai police trucked 152 of the 194 refugees to Nong Khai - to the police station they fear the most, near to the Thai-Lao border. That usually means deportation.

This very same Nong Khai police station made headlines recently with another forced deportation. Nong Khai police dumped 52 Hmong refugees and one baby on the Lao side of the border last month. The 52 terrified refugees had begged the Thai authorities not to send them back to Laos. There have been reports that these people were shot and killed by Lao authorities.

The 152 refugees sent to Nong Khai last week had a solar-panel satellite telephone and informed us that they were beaten and pressured to sign, with their thumbprints, an agreement to return to Laos. But they do not want to return to Laos, and declined to sign with their thumbprints. The police confiscated the phone, and we have heard nothing further from them.

The Lao Hmong refugee crisis in Thailand is largely connected to a merciless military crackdown by the Lao Hmong. More than 10,000 people have hidden for more than 30 years in the remote mountains of Laos.

Most of the 152 Hmong refugees are under the protection of the UNHCR, registered or in the process of being registered as "persons of concern". They are considered to face serious risk of persecution or death if returned to Laos. If Thailand proceeds with the suspended deportations, it would be in direct violation of international law.

Rebecca Sommer

Representative at the UN for the Society for Threatened Peoples International

New York

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Model of US universities won't work in Thailand

Re: "Financial support for needy students equals a better standard of new graduates", Letters, December 11.

Burin Kantabutra thinks that Thai universities can duplicate the US model of financing. He writes: "The best and the brightest Thais will flock to our highest quality schools - the poor will be on scholarships while the rich who meet the same entry standards will get in, but pay high costs. And what's wrong with that?"

Unfortunately, there is plenty that is wrong. In this model, the poor will never get good scholarships or a "full ride" because Thai universities are also poor. Let's look at the numbers. There are endowments to top American universities: for Harvard, over $25 billion, for Stanford, over $13 billion. For the University of Chicago, Burin's alma mater, the sum is over $4 billion. Endowments to the University of California Berkeley, a state university, top $5 billion. Chulalongkorn, Thailand's "rich" university, is relatively impoverished.

Moreover, there has been no tradition of alumni or corporate support to Thai universities. If Burin randomly polled 100 Chula and Thammasat alumni on the amount of donations made to their beloved universities, the amount may not buy lunch for 100 students.

Given the Thai context, the answer lies elsewhere. The government should build on the best state universities to make them standard bearers. The best and the brightest can compete for admissions to Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Kasetsart or Chiang Mai, while the government continues funding in research, faculty compensation and infrastructure support to continually elevate their levels of excellence. With this approach, to compete with the likes of Chulalongkorn and Thammasat, top private universities need to become a Thai Stanford or a Thai Harvard … and that is most welcome. In Thailand, support for higher education should be one of the most pleasant burdens society can bear. The rate of return on investment is immeasurable. Burin's free-market paradigm imported from Lake Michigan does not fit.

Tunyatape Suwanjindar

Bangkok

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Thaksin's legacy is nothing compared to other leaders

Re: "Thaksin lawyers to table evidence", News, December 12.

It's apparent that from now on Thaksin Shinawatra will be busy "defending" his reputation both as a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen and as an effective and respectable national leader.

Thaksin's personal problems began with his past as a businessman. He was prosecuted in the Constitution Court for concealing his assets and becoming embroiled in a scheme to evade paying taxes to the state prior to taking office. He was acquitted despite what some critics termed as the "damning evidence of guilt".

His quality as a politician and a national leader has also been brought into question. He was accused of being insouciant and disrespectful to people in high national esteem, and criticised because of his grubby way of treating other people, being selfish instead of altruistic, and for his cruelty and indifference to the law.

Former leaders with accomplishments will never die in the minds of the people. Former US president Bill Clinton is one example who, despite his personal blemish in a sexual misconduct scandal, still demands respect from people around the world.

Only time will tell if Thaksin is worth the respect and trust some of his die-hard supporters still have for him.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

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 'Policy corruption' or just simply organised crime?

November 2001: Shin Corp became the biggest shareholder of iTV with a 53 per cent stake.

September 17, 2002: iTV submitted an appeal to the Arbitration Court seeking a ruling on the station's dispute with the PM's Office over terms of concession contract.

January 30, 2004: the Arbitration Court allowed iTV to pay a lower fee and adjust its contents more towards entertainment. iTV won consent to pay an annual fee of either 6.5 per cent of revenue or Bt230 million (whichever was higher) in a drastic cut from an original rate of 44 per cent or Bt1 billion a year (whichever is higher). The court also allowed iTV to adjust its news/entertainment programming ratio from 70:30 to 50:50. 

Policy corruption? How about organised crime?

The previous Thai regime took the reins of government in hand to enrich the principals of that regime. The above summary of "mob" moves on one public asset is a saga in just one area during its reign. Now, no one can find the evidence needed to convict the principals of the previous regime. The mob has lost its godfather, but remains alive and well and is regrouping under new families in Bangkok. The family business remains protected, intact.

Wikipedia has the following definition of the Cosa Nostra: "The mafia is a kind of organised crime being active not only in several illegal fields, but also tending to exercise sovereignty functions - normally belonging to public authorities - over a specific territory.... It is therefore a form of criminality implying some conditions: the existence of a modern state claiming the exclusive right to legitimate monopoly over violence; an economy that is free of feudal bonds….; the existence of violent people able to operate on their own, imposing their mediation even on the ruling classes". The same article translates "cosa nostra" as "our world, tradition, values".

How should we translate "cosa nostra" into Thai?

John Francis Lee

Chiang Rai

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Beware of crony politicians regrouping for a comeback

Where are the anti-coup protesters' eyes and ears when they claim the present government is worse than Thaksin's clique? So far, I'm not aware of anybody suing Supinya (or any other opposition voice) for Bt400 million. Nor has anybody been beaten up for shouting "Sonthi, get out!"

I think it must be pointed out very clearly that the present government might have its shortcomings, but it is many times better and many times more democratic than the previous one. Which government gave the police the licence to kill anybody they wanted simply on the suspicion they might be a drug dealer? Under which government were environmental and political activists killed and nobody bothered to catch the killers?

The question I have is this: How could such a liar and demagogue have been elected in the first place? Who gave us the trouble in the South? Who feasted on corruption and nepotism? The present government?

Sonthi and his men have to be lauded for doing away with the political nightmare of Thaksin and his TRT cohorts, something the demonstrations early this year were not powerful enough to achieve.

The thing I fear most now is that after the next elections we'll get the same bunch of professional politicos that came with Thaksin. Any bets that Newin and others like him will be elected again come next autumn?

If anybody wants to fight for democracy, then here is your job: to make sure those corrupt and selfish politicos do not get back into the driver's seat!

Sam Munich

Bangkok

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Iran's president a beacon of light in a dark, dark world!

The president of Iran is hosting a Holocaust Denial Conference in Iran this week. It's all rather ironic. President Ahmadinejad really has the most beautiful smile, a smile that beams right out like his attractively dark twinkly eyes and is set off by the pearliest teeth to ever grace a Holocaust Denial Conference.

While many warn he is a dangerous, war-mongering maniac, a medievalist fanatic and recent graduate of honour from the Thaksin Shinawatra school of diplomacy, I suspect these people are simply jealous of his olive-skinned good looks and movie-star presence. One only has to look at that St Francis of Assisi smile to just know he's tolerant, friendly, hospitable, scrupulously honest, trustworthy and kind to animals! His overriding patriotism and utter devotion to his Ayatollah are wonderfully meritorious by civilised standards. Once his critics have been wiped out, I for one am sure he will devote himself to tending the resultant social harmony, knowledge and perception.

Martin Collins

Bangkok

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