Thai PM Mulls Ban on Mekong River Massacre Movie

By The Irrawaddy 28 September 2016

RANGOON – Thailand’s Prime Minister said he will ban a Chinese-Hong Kong action film based on the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in 2011 by a Burmese drug lord from being screened in Thailand if it is found to “damage” the country.

“I have ordered authorities to check the content of Operation Mekong. If it is damaging, it will be banned,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan–ocha said on Tuesday, according to Bangkok Post.

“Operation Mekong”, directed by Dante Lam and due to open in movie theaters on Friday in Hong Kong, concerns the massacre in the Golden Triangle area of the river on Oct 5, 2011 when 13 Chinese crew members of two cargo ships were brutally killed by a Burmese drug-trafficking ring led by Naw Kham.

Naw Kham was brought to justice by Chinese police with the help of Thai and Lao authorities but blamed Thai soldiers for the murders. He was executed in March 2013 in China along with three accomplices, including a Thai national, for murder.

The executions were carried out by lethal injection following a ruling from a court in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.