Wednesday, February 11, 2009

THAILAND UPSET with ANGELINA JOLIE REFUGEE COMMENTS

BANGKOK (AFP) - - The Thai government on Wednesday chastised US actress Angelina Jolie and the United Nations refugee agency for commenting on boat people from Myanmar, whom the Thai army stands accused of abusing.

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt visited a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border last week, and the Hollywood actress urged the Thai government to respect the rights of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group from Myanmar.

Thailand's military has recently been accused of detaining and beating hundreds of Rohingya who fled abuse and poverty in Myanmar , before towing them back out to sea in ill-equipped boats with little food and water.

"Angelina was not focused on the Rohingya, but was visiting Myanmar refugee camps," said Virasakdi Futrakul, permanent secretary of the Thai foreign ministry.

"It was a coincidence that the Rohingya was a hot news issue at the time, therefore we must warn (UN refugee agency) UNHCR that they should not comment on this issue because they have no mandate on this issue."

Virasakdi also said that the UNHCR should not have brought Jolie, its goodwill ambassador, to one of the nine refugee camps stringing the Thai-Myanmar border which are run by Thailand's interior ministry.

"The Thai government will issue a reprimand letter to UNHCR asking why it allowed Angelina Jolie to visit the refugee camps," Virasakdi told reporters.

Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR spokeswoman in Bangkok, told AFP that both Jolie and Pitt had camp passes issued by the Ministry of Interior, and said the visit was arranged with the cooperation of the foreign ministry.

While touring the northern Ban Mai Nai Soi camp home to 18,000 refugees from Myanmar, Jolie said she hoped Thailand would be "just as generous to the Rohingya refugees who are now arriving on their shores."

Hundreds of Rohingya have been found adrift at sea off the coasts of India and Indonesia in the last few months, with many of the migrants giving similar accounts of mistreatment and abandonment at the hands of the Thais.

Thailand has denied the claims of cruelty, but has taken a harsh stance toward the boat people. They insist the Rohingya are economic migrants and say they will not be offered any refuge in the kingdom.

"We have the right to arrest them ... we will not set up holding centres for the Rohingya but will put them in prisons," said Virasakdi.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

DOG FOUND after 6 MONTHS — and a COLD WINTER

Golden retriever was found in 27-below weather in rural Montana


HELENA, Mont. - A golden retriever named Buck that darted from his owners last summer after being spooked by a train whistle and went missing for six months is back home in Washington state, thanks to several residents of rural north-central Montana.

The 7-year-old dog survived despite apparently spending most of the winter exposed to heavy snow and temperatures well below zero before he was found taking refuge under a collapsed building.

"I've never had a miracle happen to me, so I don't really know what to think," said Kim Halter of Bonney Lake, Wash.

Halter said she, her husband and two of their sons were on a family trip to Montana in August when they stopped at a rest stop along U.S. Highway 2 in the small town of Chester.

"The dog was normally never on a leash. Big mistake," Halter said Thursday. "But he was always next to my son. He never left his side, so we never really had a problem.

"We were under the trestle when the horn blew. When Buck heard the whistle, he took off like a shot. None of us even saw him."

Halter said Maxine Woods, who lives across the highway, was waving her arms and trying to tell them that their dog ran away.

"He just basically disappeared," Woods said Friday. "He was just going faster than any dog I've seen run."

Woods joined the search for the dog.

Town helped, but no Buck
"She got in her car and then she started calling people and before you knew it everybody around there was looking for our dog," Halter said. After two days of unsuccessful searching, the Halters, brokenhearted, resumed their travels.

"We went to the library and the librarian in Chester made us posters and wouldn't charge us a dime for them," Halter said. The family put up posters in banks and post offices in the small towns around the area.

"That was about all we could do," she said.

After a few false sightings, the family didn't hear anything for six months.

As fall turned into winter, heavy snow fell in the Chester area and temperatures occasionally fell into the 20-below-zero range.

"Every time we'd hear about the weather we would just cringe," Halter said. "I would just cry even harder, thinking 'Where is my Buck?' And of course I couldn't let my son (17-year-old Jason) know. I never let him see me cry because he kept the faith and kept the hope.

"He would tell me all the time that Buck's coming home," she said of her son, who had had the dog since it was a puppy. "He actually thought he was going to walk home like in (the movie) 'Homeward Bound.'"

27 below when Buck was spotted
It was about 27 degrees below zero early on Jan. 25, the day Jason Wanken spotted a stray dog on his family farm just north of Chester.

"We spotted this dog out here on the farm, just on and off, going through the creek and whatnot," Wanken said. "We just never had a prime opportunity to go over and get him."

Later in the week, Wanken used a snowmobile to bring some food to the dog, which had taken up residence under a collapsed building.

Wanken's mother had remembered the name of the golden retriever that had gone missing last summer and told Wanken to see if the dog would answer to the name Buck.

"The next day, I took the boys out with me and I had a full bag of food with me and I just rattled that bag," he said. "I started to feed it and could actually pet it then."

Wanken and his wife were able to use food to lure the dog into a kennel and took the dog to Wood's house.

"I thought it couldn't be this dog, though, it's been too long," Wanken said.

Woods called Halter on Saturday, Jan. 31.

"She e-mailed me three pictures and when I was on the phone with her I received the pictures, and we both started crying and I said that was him," Halter said.

Underbite confirmed find
Confirmation that the dog had an underbite sent the Halters on a 750-mile trip. "We drove all night," she said, arriving in Chester Sunday afternoon.

"When we got to the Wankens, he ran right up to us and it was absolutely without a doubt him," Halter said. "It was a miracle. He looked at us and we looked at him and we were all crying. It was beyond amazing."

No one seems to know where Buck had been between Aug. 13 and Jan. 25.

"From the time he left us until the time Jason Wanken found him, there is no clue where he's been or what he's done," Halter said. "Only he knows. I almost feel like taking him to a pet psychic to see if they could tell me. Only he knows his secret and he's keeping it to himself.

"I tell ya one thing, he hasn't stopped smiling since he got home and neither have we."