02 March 2009
:: 20:03:12 pm 1164
This should
be read by anyone interested in what happens when a foreigner in Thailand
decides to single handedly take on the system and fight for justice. I hope
that this account will offer some guidance to anyone in a similar situation.
In November
2008 I received an email from “Alan” ( full name Ilhan Ozturk) asking for my
assistance. I thought it was just another one of the many similar emails I’ve
received from my readers over the last two years. However, even though his
English was at times hard to understand, the story Alan had to tell attracted
my attention.
I spoke to
him on the phone and he decided to travel from Bangkok to Pattaya to see me at
my office where we chatted for some time. I became very moved by what he told
me and my interest was further aroused when I realized I was well acquainted
with one of the key antagonists involved in his story.
At about
11:45 on the 5th December 2006, a speed boat operated by a well known local
operator was carrying a group of Turkish tourists from Pattaya Beach to Koh
Lahn island, a trip lasting just 15 minutes. The sea on that day was
particularly rough and red flags were flying advising boats to stay ashore. The
19-year-old boatman ignored the warnings and headed at full speed for the
island oblivious to the requests from the passengers to slow down.
At
approximately 1 km from its destination the structure of the boat failed, the
hull split and the vessel began to take on water and sink. The 18 passengers
onboard then realized that their number was more than the boat’s official
capacity of 12 and with a sense of panic discovered that there were only 13
lifejackets onboard.
The tour
leader took command of the situation and told everyone to calm down, reassuring
them that they were not far from the rescue services and help would arrive
within 10 to 20 minutes. He handed out the limited number of lifejackets to the
passengers, but not to himself, even though he knew he wasn’t a strong swimmer
and wouldn’t manage to survive long in the water.
As the boat
sank the passengers ended up in the rough sea swimming and hanging on to
anything available to keep them afloat. Another boat passed by and managed to
pick up a few of the passengers but inexplicably continued on its journey
without waiting for additional help to appear.
The rescue
team didn’t arrive until 2 pm, 2 hours after the accident. It remains a mystery
as to why the rescue service, based on Koh Lahn just a few minutes from the
scene of the accident, took so long to respond.Most of the passengers were in
shock and two of them were admitted to the ICU at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. The
tour leader, who had remained calm and reassured his group throughout the
crisis, disappeared into the sea and he was never seen alive again. The tour
leader was Alan’s younger brother, Ilhami. He was 36 years old and married with
a young son
.
.
At the time
Alan was running a restaurant in Pattaya and on hearing of the accident he
rushed to the scene to help search for his brother. He contacted local
officials to help with the search but none was forthcoming. Even the company
which owned the boat was not interested in offering any assistance. To Alan’s
surprise and dismay the search was called off after a few hours. No other
attempts were made, either officially or otherwise, to find Ilhami’s body.
Two days
later his brother’s body was found, purely by chance, by a fisherman. Alan
assumed local officials would assist him with the necessary arrangements such
as the autopsy and the procedure to send his brother’s body back home to
Turkey. However, neither local and government agencies nor the boat company
offered any help at all and the burden was on Alan alone, grieving at the loss
of his brother, to fund the costs and take care of all the practical and legal
formalities.
After sending
his brother’s body home, Alan decided to sue the boat owner, who happens to be
a well connected businessman in Pattaya who I’ll call “Mr. H”. Mr. H refused to
take responsibility even though the boat was revealed to be in a poor condition
and lacked a technical certificate and insurance. It was then suggested to Alan
that he sue the boatman who had been charged with reckless operation of his
motorboat. The boatman also had no licence.fter 2 long years the criminal case
against the boatman finally ended. The young man confessed and he was punished
with a jail term of two years. With no previous criminal record, the sentence
was conditional and he was free to go back to his job driving rotten, uninsured
boats from Pattaya beach to Kho Lahn every day.
Alan’s
brother “Ilhami”
” I JUST WANT
JUSTICE FOR THE DEATH OF MY BROTHER” Alan
By this time,
in 2007, Alan had learned that there was more to the case than he previously
realized. The boat owner, it seems, had friends in high places, including high
ranking Pattaya officials and the police. His lawyer had suggested that Alan should
sue Mr. H for negligence. It would be a civil case and might take some time,
but it was the only way to get something out of this very influential and
powerful man.
At our
meeting in my office Alan showed me a big stack of documents including letters from
his embassy, the TAT, the Minister of Transportation, The Pattaya TAT and the
Pattaya City hall itself.
I really felt
sorry for Alan, who was reaching the end of his tether. It also became very
apparent he had difficulty communicating with his lawyer and I decided to get
myself involved.
Mr. Sanit Boonmachai
Among the
many officials Alan had tried to contact, but without success, was Mr. Sanit
Boonmachai whose department at Pattaya City Hall has ultimate responsibility
for the licensing and control of all marine vessels in Pattaya. Alan told me
this man was very powerful. I smiled and told Alan “Yes, he is. I also know why
this guy has been avoiding you”. Unbeknown to Alan, one of the main election
canvassers for Mr. Satit and his team of officials was Mr. H.
That day we
went to City Hall and, not surprisingly, Mr. Sanit was unavailable to see us
and we instead ended up enjoying the hospitality and smiles of the City Hall
secretaries and hostesses. We had lunch at a small restaurant where we spoke
further and I could ask Alan what exactly he wanted.
He was now
becoming very frustrated. His brother had been dead for two years. The boatman
was forgiven and now back at work. Alan originally intended to sue the Mr. H
for 12 million Baht but was told he needed to lodge security with the court, an
amount which was beyond his means. He consequently reduced his claim to 1.6
million Baht.
I told him if
he carried on with the court case, it could take up to 5 years to get the 1.6
million so it may be better to come to a compromise. Alan said he’d already had
five such “compromise” meetings and four times Mr. H never turned up. It had
already cost him a lot of money to travel back and forth from Bangkok to
Pattaya and sometimes from overseas. At the last meeting, two months previous,
the defendant’s lawyer said they agreed to pay 400,000 Baht.
Alan refused
the offer and was really upset that such a small value was put on his brother’s
life and the hardship facing his brother’s son and widow. Mr. H had also
claimed Alan’s brother refused to wear a lifejacket and that at the time of the
accident he was drunk.
Alan’s next
meeting was to take place the following day at the Pattaya District Court,
where I agreed to be his interpreter.
In the two
months since the offer of 400,000 Baht, Alan had thought things through
carefully and, with his mother now very sick back home, he had come to the
decision he would just accept the amount on the table and put this all behind
him, even though he instinctively felt the defendant would never actually pay.
Anyway, the
next day we went to court. I also invited along an English friend as an
observer. There were several cases to be heard that day, Alan’s being the last.
The second case involved two young Thai men who were sentenced to 4 years in
jail for stealing 10,000 Baht’s worth of electric cable. Police handcuffed the
shocked pair and led them away as their families cried on the bench behind us.
The irony of
their harsh sentence was not lost on us as we compared it to the levity of that
handed down to the boatman responsible for the death of Alan’s brother and the
suffering of the other passengers. Not to mention the loss of income of several
million dollars to the Thai tourist industry following holiday cancellations in
Turkey, where the case was widely reported in the media.
Mr. H hadn’t
bothered to turn up and the reason why was plain when his representatives
informed the court that the offer of compensation had been reduced from 400,000
to 100,000 Baht.
Alan was very
upset and refused to accept that amount of money. The defendant’s legal counsel
completely dominated the proceedings and I could see that Alan’s lawyer
appeared hopeless and intimidated.
It was
virtually impossible for Alan to put his case until, when we realized the opposition
were asking the court to postpone the proceedings for another full year, we
[Alan& I] had to raise our hands for permission to talk. Luckily the Judge
listened to us and scheduled the next meeting for 23rd January 2009 when, she
advised, Mr. H and his full legal counsel must be present.
And so it was
that on the 23th January, we returned to the court again. In the meantime Alan
had had more meetings with government officials in Bangkok who, it seemed, were
becoming more sympathetic to his cause. One government department had ordered
their Pattaya counterparts to send observers to the court.
This time Mr.
H was present and sat with an air of authority and confidence bordering on
cockiness. It was fascinating to see the change in his demeanor as a small
group of uniformed officials, the observers requested by Bangkok, entered the
court. He showed obvious surprise and a sense of uneasiness.The judge was not
the same as before but once again Alan’s lawyer was obviously scared of the
defendant. He hadn’t prepared the necessary papers and his performance was
borderline incompetence. I did my best to help as friend and interpreter but I
was limited as to how much I could get involved in the court proceedings.
Unfortunately,
the case was once again postponed – this time until the end of this year
(2009).
Although
downhearted, Alan was encouraged by the court appearance of the official
observers. He had also decided to give his case more publicity, especially
outside Thailand.
With this in
mind it now seemed a good idea to Alan to broaden the spectrum of officialdom
involved. So we went to see the head of the Pattaya Immigration Police, Police
Colonel Arnonnun Kamollut who gave us a
warm welcome and showed a genuine interest in Alan’s case. He even contacted
two top ranking officers of the Tourist police and invited them to join us
together with a lawyer and his assistant and some other officials. We all had
lunch together and spent nearly two hours discussing Alan’s case and its
implications. I must admit this show of support was unexpected and was
certainly a morale booster for Alan.
It was agreed
they would use their contacts and influence to try and persuade Mr. H to show
some understanding and come to an amicable agreement with Alan.
We left the
immigration office feeling very optimistic and Alan returned to Bangkok.
At the Immigration with Tourist
Police
Two weeks
later, I received a call from the Pattaya Tourist Police. The news wasn’t good.
They had approached various officials including the Pattaya City Mayor but
no-one seemed interested in contacting Mr. H. Nobody cared.
And so, I
have decided to publish Alan’s story. If we can’t help him here in Thailand,
the least we can do is to bring his story to a wider international audience.
Alan hopes that this will help Thailand to be a safer place. I also think there
are some lessons to be learned here, for Thais and non-Thais alike.
I’m now back
to my usual work routine again [with more emails from readers in need of help]
but I still think of Alan every now and then.
Alan’s next
day in court will be in December 2009. I know I’ll be there too and if anyone
wants to join us, you are welcome.
Warina
Punyawan
editor@pattayadailynews.com
20 March 2009
Meetings in
Bangkok between Alan and Government officials have revealed some unbelievable,
if not disturbing, facts.
It appears
that the boat that sank near Koh Larn was not reported to the Bangkok Ministry
of Transportation. No information or message was sent from Pattaya regarding the
incident.
It was as if
the vessel was a “ghost” boat which was never operated and could therefore
never be involved in an accident.
The Inspector
General of the Ministry of Transportation Khun Pawasut Chunganuwat was
surprised to discover that everything was covered up in order to save the boat
company, which was operating without no license or insurance.
The company
didn’t need to go through the usual channels of authorisation, registration and
insurance as, it seems, knowing influential people in the local government was
enough insurance for them.