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Friday 7 October 2011

Chuwit's video nails paddy, gas smugglers [Rice smuggled from Cambodia to Thailand]


Rak Prathet Thai MP Chuwit Kamolvisit yesterday took the House floor to show four video clips depicting the smuggling of paddy, gas cylinders and workers from Cambodia to take advantage of the Thai government's subsidies.

By Olarn Lertrattanadamrongkul,
Atapoom Ongkulna
The Nation
October 7, 2011


"The pledging scheme for paddy at Bt15,000 per tonne is about to start today and the smuggling ring has already been hard at work to falsify Cambodian paddy as Thai-grown," he said.

Chuwit said the paddy smuggling took place at three border districts, Aranyaprathet, Ta Phraya and Khok Sung.

In the first clip, smugglers were seen using pulleys to lift paddy packaged in fertiliser bags across a small waterway to the Thai side. A group of workers then proceeded to repackage the paddy in gunnysacks.

Chuwit said Cambodian farmers stored their paddy in used fertiliser bags while Thais used gunnysacks.

In the second clip, smugglers carried paddy bags from a 20-wheel trailer parked at a remote area to the Thai side. Chuwit said he detected some 20 to 30 spots for paddy smuggling. The paddy price in Cambodia is around Bt7,000 per ton.

In the third clip, smugglers were seen dumping empty cooking gas cylinders into the waterway to have them floated to the Thai side. Chuwit explained the empty cylinders would be refilled at the subsidised price before being smuggled back into Cambodia.

In the fourth clip, a pick-up truck was seen transporting a number of Cambodian workers through a checkpoint with the banner "Ranger Volunteers 1302." Chuwit said the incident happened on the Sri Phen Road.

He alleged that smugglers used illicit drugs to bribe checkpoint officials. The drugs were concealed in a baby-powder box, he said.

He said he suspected powerful figures were backing the smuggling operations because border areas were off limits to villagers.

In his rebuttal, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said the government would intensify anti-smuggling measures.

Chalerm conceded that paddy smuggling was a reality after he had sought and received confirmation from Deputy Interior Minister Thanis Thienthong who is also MP for Sa Kaew.

He said authorities in charge of the price intervention for paddy would work harder to prevent irregularities. In regard to the manning of border checkpoints, he said he would ask the prime minister to alert the Defence Ministry about the flaws.

Deputy Finance Minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom said he would check whether customs officials were involved in the smuggling.

Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul said he would convene an inter-agency meeting of officials in charge of Thai-Cambodian borders to map out smuggling suppression.

He said he and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen shared the same view on the fight against border smuggling.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The thai Government has promised to buy thai farmers the rice more expensive than the market price.It is normal that all sellers and buyers of rice to cambodia,vietnam, laos, and the other countries of the region want to sell their rice to the traders and peasants thai.It is the law of the trade. We buy here where the price is cheaper to sell there where the price is more expensive. These are traders thai and thai peasants seeking to buy the cheaper rice from other countries of the region to sell more expensive to the thai Government.This thai Minister said anything. No, There is not contraband.This is the right time to sell rice to the farmers and merchants thai.

All these videos are not sincere but are tricks mounted by thai politicians.

Anonymous said...

We have always noticed it several times that each time that Thailand has internal political problems, Thai politicians sought always to dismiss the causes of these problems on the neighbouring Cambodia.
This becomes a tradition among them or what?