[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Brid
- Subject: Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Brid
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 02:18:00
Subject: Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Bride Suicide
<<< I thought all of you may be interested in this.>>>
Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Bride Suicide
Reuters
18-NOV-98
BANGKOK, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A policeman in northern
Thailand has promised to pay for the marriage of a hilltribe
couple to stop the bride jumping to her death, police said
on
Wednesday.
Colonel Phanuwat Meepiera, chief of police in the northern
town of Mae Sai bordering Myanmar, spent two hours on
Tuesday coaxing the young woman down from a 20 metre
(70 ft) water tower from which she had threatened to jump.
Lah Zahyo, 18, a member of the Lisu tribe had said she
would jump from the tower after her fiancee told her he was
too poor to provide a dowry and to pay for their planned
marriage ceremony.
Zahyo abandoned her suicide bid after Phanuwat promised
to pay for the marriage and the dowry.
Thailand has been hit by a spate of suicides and suicide
threats which authorities have blamed on the country's
economic crisis and media coverage.
In recent weeks, several people have threatened to commit
suicide daily. Many have been talked down from tall
buildings.
Doctors say close media coverage of suicide bids has added
to the problem and have urged the press to play down such
cases.
Two weeks ago, local television stations broadcast video of
the fatal fall of a 25-year-old woman from the seventh floor
of
a building in Hat Yai in southern Thailand.
At least 12 people have made similar suicide attempts since
that fatal fall, and four have died in the process, police
said.