THE NATION, Bangkok, April 1, 2003 Original Story
DRUG-SUSPECT KILLINGS: Police 'refusing' to help govt. probe
Published on Apr 1, 2003
Justice Ministry officials say requests for reports into
murders have been ignored
Police have apparently refused to cooperate with a
government investigation into the "silencing" of more
than 1,000 people in the first month of a crackdown on
drug trafficking, senior Justice Ministry officials said
yesterday.
The attorney general, his deputy and a deputy
permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry
complained that police had failed to submit a single
report to the investigating committee on the estimated
1,000 cases of murdered drug suspects.
The lack of police cooperation had blocked the work of
10 teams of public prosecutors looking into the
matter, they said.
But Police Spokesman Maj General Pongsaphat
Pongcharoen yesterday said police had not received
any requests for such reports.
"We have checked and found no request was
submitted through any channel. So we sent a letter to
the Office of the Attorney General to tell us again what
they want to know about the deaths," Pongsaphat said.
Following police reports at the end of February that
more than 1,000 drug suspects had been killed, there
was mounting public concern that the pressure to
apprehend a large number of criminals may have led
to unlawful executions.
Strong criticism prompted Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra to form a committee headed by Praphan
Naikowit, a deputy attorney general, to launch a probe
into the matter. Praphan in return, formed 10 working committees.
"So far, we have not received a single report on the
killings in February or March although we sent a letter
to the Royal Thai Police asking for the reports to be
sent in by March 28," Praphan said.
"As a result, the 10 teams have nothing to
investigate," he said.
Thongthong Jantharangsu, deputy permanent
secretary of the Justice Ministry, said he did not
understand why police had failed to submit the reports
to the Praphan committee.
He said he would extend the deadline from March 28
to April 2. Should they fail to comply, he would inform
the prime minister.
"If police still refuse to submit the reports after the
issue has been raised at the meeting of government
agencies, we will inform the prime minister that we
cannot work because of the lack of police
cooperation," Thongthong said.Attorney general
Wichian Wiriyaprasit said he was perplexed at the
lack of assistance as the order came from the prime minister.
"As such, I suspect the silencings were carried out to
prevent the dead from implicating police," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, the acting
deputy director of the Justice Ministry's Forensic
Science Institute, said it was impossible for a drug
suspect to commit suicide by immersing his head in a bucket of water.
"So we won't call this suicide," she said, referring to a
report from Hua Mark police station that drug suspect
Hong Khampu had committed suicide by drowning
himself early Sunday morning inside a detention room.
Pornthip said she couldn't investigate because
the case was outside her institute's jurisdiction.
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