Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Brid

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Subject: Thai Policeman Pays up to Stop Bride Suicide

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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.