Abhisit to meet police, Suthep blames men in black

[Khun Don]

Abhisit to meet police, Suthep blames men in black
The Nation December 9, 2011 10:19 am


Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva is scheduled Friday at 1.00 pm to give his statement on the last year's political disturbances.

Abhisit will be accompanied by his chief lawyer Bundit Siripan. He is to meet 10 investigators at the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

Police has sought Abhisit's statement on his role as the then prime minister overseeing the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation tasked to keep peace in the face the red-shirt rallies.

The police interview of Abhisit is part of the forensic checks into the cause of 16 killings suspected to involve security forces. Altogether 91 people died in connection with violent incidents from March to May last year.

On Thursday, Democrat MP Suthep Thuagsuban, accompanied by his lawyer and former attorney general Kanung Luechai, gave his statement as the then deputy prime minister and CRES director.

Emerged from his meeting with investigators, he said he told police that he was responsible for the April 10, 2010 crowd control.

He said he issued the order as CRES director and that Abhisit had no involvement in the operations.

He asserted he acted within his mandate given by the emergency decree and that the security forces had carried out their work within the legal limits.

The violence and bloodshed on Rajdamnoen Avenue happened by the men in black, he said.

He is scheduled to meet police for a second interview on December 14 to outline incidents leading to the May 19, 2010 crowd dispersal at Ratchaprasong Intersection.

Chief investigator Maj General Anuchai Lekbumrung said he was confidence the report on the 16 deaths could be wrapped up by the December 17 deadline.

[Khun Don]

Abhisit defends protest handling as 'tolerant'
Court order cleared way for crackdown

Published: 10/12/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

The previous government's handling of last year's red shirt protests was based on tolerance and complied with international standards, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

Speaking before talking to police investigators, the former prime minister said operations were undertaken following a court ruling that the protests were unlawful.

"The court ruled that the government was duty-bound to maintain law and order. So the authorities were told to follow the appropriate steps in doing so," he said.

Mr Abhisit was referring to the Civil Court's order that cleared the way for the government to take measures to move protesters from the Ratchaprasong area.
He said he was not worried about police questioning because he was telling the truth.

"I'm confident that in the end the public will approve and understand all the truth," he said.

The Democrat leader was the second to give a statement to police about the operation after former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban turned up for questioning on Thursday.

Mr Abhisit said he was in charge of the overall situation, while Mr Suthep was responsible for operations and tactics. Mr Suthep was in charge of national security at the time of the protests and the director of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation.

Both were accused by the red shirt movement of ordering a crackdown on protesters that resulted in 92 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries.

The Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) is investigating 16 of 92 deaths following clashes between protesters and security forces in April and May.

Police said they needed to interview Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep before they could finish the investigation.

The Democrat leader was accompanied to the MPB by Democrat MP Sirichoke Sopha and lawyer Bundit Sripan.

He told reporters he had prepared documents to clarify his government's handling of the protests.

The former prime minister's team was greeted with boos and jeers from a group of 20 red shirt supporters led by Darani Kritboonyalai.

Emerging from the questioning, Mr Abhisit urged the government not to meddle with the police's job while voicing confidence that police would do their work in a transparent manner.

Earlier in the day, he called on Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung to stop commenting on the issue and let police investigators do their job.

"What he says isn't in the line of the investigation. So he should hold his tongue, otherwise police will feel under pressure," he said.

Pol Maj Gen Anuchai Lekbamrung, deputy MPB commissioner, said police had finished questioning Mr Abhisit. The investigation into the 16 deaths should be completed by Dec 17 and submitted to the prosecution.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

POLITICAL CHAOS
'Men in black' are policemen, Chalerm claims
The Nation December 13, 2011 1:00 am


The armed "men in black", much mentioned during last year's political violence, are in the media limelight again after Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung yesterday claimed those men donned police uniforms during the day.

"I would like to reiterate here that they are policemen," Chalerm said.

He went on to say that a group of policemen from the Northeast carried out the assassination of Army specialist Maj-General Khattiya Sawasdiphol.

Khattiya was fatally shot while giving an interview to the media at the red-shirt rally in the heart of Bangkok in May last year.

"I am following up on this case," Chalerm said.

Earlier this month, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and party senior member Suthep Thaugsuban testified to police about the deaths of 16 people who were killed during the unrest last year.

Back then, Abhisit was the prime minister and Suthep the deputy PM in charge of security affairs. Suthep at the time was also serving as the director of the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES).

Khattiya was among the 16 victims.

Chalerm said he was speaking up now because he wanted to deter some groups from wreaking more havoc on the country.

"Please stop," he warned. "I am trying to catch you because you are trying to do a bad thing." He added that the mastermind behind these groups was now suffering from Parkinson's disease.

Asked whether he had evidence to back up his claim, Chalerm said: "If I weren't ready, I wouldn't say it."

He said one man in black was also seen riding a Harley-Davidson for a senior figure in the Government House compound last year. "He was once a police sub-lieutenant in Buri Ram. He's now a ranking general," Chalerm continued.

The deputy prime minister suggested that the police group that he claimed used to serve as men in black was involved in the recent bomb-planting incident in front of the Government Lottery Office.

That incident did not cause any casualties.

According to Chalerm, this group of policemen joined with some politicians, some of whom have since lost power, and "regular movement" groups in staging the incident.

Pheu Thai MP Pracha Prasopdee said he knew the initials of the person with Parkinson's disease Chalerm talked about.

"I once received a complaint that this man also encroached on a public area of a housing estate," he said.

Pracha blamed the man and his accomplices for trying to undermine the current government.

"They are afraid that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to Thailand," he said.

Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut urged Chalerm to stop influencing police investigations by giving public comments on cases.

"I also wonder if he has personally hired detectives, because he seems to know everything," he said.

[Khun Don]

Protest deaths probe report by Sat
Published: 13/12/2011 at 03:46 PMOnline news: Local News

Police investigators are expected to conclude reinvestigation into the deaths of 16 people during last year's anti-government protests by Dec 17, Metropolitan Police deputy chief Anuchai Lekbamrung said on Tuesday.

Pol Maj-Gen Anuchai, the chief investigator, said much progress had been made in the reinvestigation into the 16 deaths which the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) suspected they might have been caused by the government's security force involved in the crackdown on red-shirt protesters in April-May last year.

Former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who testified to the investigators on Friday, and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who did so on Thursday, were cooperative.

He said the two gave useful information and handed over more evidence including CDs to the investigators, but declined to go in detail.

Asked whether charges would be made on government authorities involving in the crackdown, Pol Maj-Gen Anuchai said the investigators were responsible only for reinvestigating the cases, gathering more evidence, and preparing a conclusion report.

It was the DSI that was responsible to lay charges if some authorities were found with evidence to have caused any deaths, he said.

He said the police report would not point out whether or not any authorities were in the wrong.

The report, when completed, would be forwarded to the prosecution to examine and decide whether or not to forward the cases to the court.

Pol Maj-Gen Anuchai said Mr Suthep, as director of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) responsible for the crackdown, would testify to the investigators for the second time tomorrow, Dec 14, at 2pm.

In the first testimony, Mr Suthep gave information about the situation on April 10 last year. Tomorrow, he would give more detail on the situation during the month of May 2010, he said.

After receiving more information from Mr Suthep, the investigators would ask for more witnesses, documents, pictures and videos from both Thai and foreign news media.

The reinvestigation report was expected to be complete by Dec 17, when the cases were to be forwarded to the prosecution, Pol Maj-Gen Anuchai said.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

Suthep meeting with police
Published: 14/12/2011 at 03:55 PMOnline news:
Former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban was meeting with police investigators on Wednesday for the second time to give more information on his role in connection with his handling of the crackdown on red-shirt protesters in April-May last year.

Mr Suthep arrived at the Metropolitan Police headquarters at 2pm with more documented evidence for the investigators.

He was greeted on arrival by about 10 red-shirts holding up placards and hurling verbal abuse at him.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

In the line of fire ... but spared by fate
Published: 18/12/2011 at 12:00 AMNewspaper section: News

A photographer saw a man shot dead in front of him at Wat Pathum Wanaram and now police are hoping his photos can help reconstruct events

340632.jpg
EVIDENCE: Tickner’s photo on his police statement.

It's unsettling to think that the bullet with your name on it was collected by another soul.

But that's what Australian photographer, Stephen Tickner, a key witness in the investigation of the six deaths at Wat Pathum Wanaram, found out recently when he travelled to Bangkok to give evidence to the Metropolitan Police Bureau inquiry into the killings.

At 5.49pm on May 19, 2010, Tickner was standing not far from the entrance of the temple in the middle of Rama I Road, changing his camera lens, as he heard gunfire approaching from the direction of the Siam Paragon mall.

A young man in a white shirt was sprinting down the road towards him. As he reached Tickner, he suddenly fell violently to the ground. The photographer was unsure what had happened.

''It's not like a Hollywood movie with lots of blood,'' he said.

Had the young man tripped over or been shot? Tickner turned around and saw the man, Atthachai Chumchan, 28, had crawled to the median strip under an overhead railway line and was lying on his back, his white shirt now covered in blood.

With the help of a monk, Tickner dragged Atthachai into the temple compound, but his life could not be saved.

One of the medics treating Atthachai, along with two others who were also wearing distinguishable red cross armbands, was also killed by gunfire that evening.

Tickner, a freelancer, had always believed Atthachai was killed by soldiers advancing down the road. But when he gave his statement to police on Dec 8 and 9, he learned from the autopsy report that the bullet had entered Atthachai's right shoulder at a 35-degree angle, puncturing both his lungs. The shooter had been stationed on the median strip and police believe Tickner was his target.

''To be honest, when I looked at that autopsy, that threw me quite a bit,'' Tickner told the Bangkok Post Sunday. ''What I realised is that if he hadn't been where he was at the time, the bullet would have hit me.''

When asked if there was a theory that he was the target, Tickner said: ''There is now. Police say this is their thinking on this, that in fact they probably had me targeted and because he [Atthachai] was running so fast it was just luck _ bad luck for him, good luck for me _ which is a bit disturbing.''

Police have told Tickner he is a key witness in the case; his digital photographs, with date and time stamps, are crucial in helping them reconstruct a timeline of events.

The veteran photographer was at the temple, a designated safe haven, from late that afternoon until around 7am the next day.

Police told Tickner they placed more store in his statement than in other witnesses, as he is a foreigner with no political agenda and has prior experience of working in live fire zones, such as East Timor.

''They seem to put a fair bit of weight on it, but that's not for me to judge,'' said Tickner, from Newcastle in New South Wales.

The photographer said he did not capture any images of soldiers firing from the railway line, but he is certain there were no gunmen in the temple and no running gun battles outside.

In statements to the Department of Special Investigation inquiry into the shootings, officers and soldiers from the Special Forces Regiment at Lop Buri said seven soldiers were deployed on the BTS track on the Wat Pathum Wanaram side to provide cover for ground troops.

One unnamed soldier said they had exchanged gunfire with armed persons inside the temple and there was a 10-minute gun battle on the BTS track.

But Tickner said from his observations there was nothing to justify any sort of shooting.

''To my knowledge there were no weapons inside the temple,'' he said. ''I pointed out to [police] in follow-up statements that I'm press photographer, so if I'd seen a red shirt or a black shirt with so much as a slingshot in their hand I would have photographed them as a matter of course.

''But those photos don't exist. The photos inside the temple show kids on mats, mothers, fathers, all these kind of people. Certainly there were some guys there, but they were nothing like the black shirts I'd seen in previous days.''

Tickner gave a statement to the DSI in September 2010 and said he was contacted via email by metropolitan police in August this year after they had seen some of his photos on the red shirt protests on a website.

When asked if he was surprised at a second request to make a statement, Tickner said it made more sense with a change of government as police had been given a ''green light'' to conduct a full investigation.

He said as a photo journalist he had reservations about being a witness for police, but part of his decision was based on the fatal shootings of Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi and Japanese cameraman Hiroyuki Muramoto during the 2010 unrest.

''It becomes a question of, do you try to stop that type of targeting of journalists by not giving evidence, or do you try to stop it by making people in positions of authority accountable for their actions,'' he said.

Tickner says he will stay in Thailand for now and is willing to testify if the prosecution cases proceed.

BANGKOK POST