Subject: Fwd = Mekong Fireballs not a hoax, insists TAT official
From: Frits Westra <fwestra@...>
Date: 10 Nov 2002 15:39
Forwarded by: fwestra@... (Frits Westra)
URL: http://search.bangkokpost.co.th/bkkpost/2002/nov2002/bp20021103/news/03nov2002_news11.html
Original Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 21:18:14 +0100 (CET)
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BANGKOKPOST.COM
Exclusive
GENERAL NEWS - Sunday 03 November 2002
MEKONG PHENOMENON
Fireballs not a hoax, insists TAT official
Refutes claim made by iTV documentary
Ploenpote Atthakor and Mongkol Kannika
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has rejected the claim in an iTV
documentary that the fireball phenomenon during the Bang Fai Phaya
Nark festival is a hoax.
More than 400,000 visitors flocked to Nong Khai province last month to
witness the annual event, during which about 800 fireballs reportedly
rose from the Mekong river.
The festival coincides with the end of Buddhist Lent, on the full moon
night of the 11th lunar month, and local legend claims the source of
the fireballs to be Naga, a mythical serpent living in the river.
``Non-believers came and saw the proof with their own eyes,'' said
Nuan Sarnsorn, of TAT's office in the Northeast.
In the absence of concrete evidence, the spectacle would remain a
mystery, he said.
But an iTV documentary, citing an academic's research, recently
claimed the illusion of fireballs rising into the sky had been created
with tracer bullets from AK-47 automatic rifles.
Mr Nuan denied TAT had promoted a hoax, saying media interest had
contributed more to the event's popularity.
``If it was a hoax, the organisers did extremely well to pull it
off,'' he said.
Thai Rak Thai MP Prasit Chanthathong said Nong Khai people felt the
iTV documentary was misleading. They were concerned the public would
start believing the report that the fireballs were created by Lao
soldiers firing their rifles into the air.
``The phenomenon has been happening for several hundred years. How did
anyone have a gun back then to create this show?'' Mr Prasit said.
From watching the documentary he got the impression the clip showing
Lao soldiers firing their rifles was a set-up.
Mr Prasit said he had learned that Vientiane had investigated the
soldiers shown in the documentary and punished them.
``I was told those soldiers were asked why they had wasted bullets
which were expensive,'' he said, and urged the public not to
immediately believe that the phenomenon was man-made.
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