Sonthi: Thaksin aide a suspect

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/01Nov2006_news01.php

Council for National Security (CNS) chairman
Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin yesterday implicated
a close aide of deposed prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra in the disappearance of human rights
lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit. Gen Sonthi, also the
army chief, said the information came from a working
committee, but refused to give further details. ''We
have all the information, from a working committee,''
he said. A source said the alleged mastermind
behind Mr Somchai's abduction is a senior police
officer who was Mr Thaksin's classmate at the
Police Academy.
The source said Gen Sonthi's information came
from three channels _ senior police officers on a
working panel he set up, former justice minister
and deputy prime minister Pol Gen Chidchai
Wannasathit, and national police chief and CNS
member Pol Gen Kowit Watana.
According to the source, Pol Gen Chidchai brought
up the matter when Gen Sonthi visited him while he
was in the custody of the coup-makers.
The CNS is setting up a committee to oversee the
Somchai case, said CNS secretary-general Gen
Vinai Patthiyakul.
Either Gen Anupong Paochinda or Gen Saprang
Kalayanamitr, both an assistant army chief, would
chair the committee, he added.
Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of the missing lawyer, urged authorities to exercise
caution, saying forensic evidence was of paramount importance.
''I don't want anything done in haste,'' she said. ''It's better to have forensic
evidence in hand. I'm afraid if we have only circumstantial evidence, the wrongdoers
will go unpunished,'' she added.
She said the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which is in charge of the
case, had been on the right track but did not try ''hard enough'' to seek evidence.
Mrs Angkhana welcomed speculation that DSI chief Pol Gen Sombat Amornwiwat would be
transferred back to the police force, saying the officer should not remain at the DSI
because he did not care sufficiently about human rights.
Metha Martkhao, coordinator of a working group on human rights defenders, called on
Gen Sonthi to see the matter through.
''He must take responsibility for his words and reveal [everything behind] the
abduction to the public. It's still unclear who the man is,'' Mr Metha said.
He said Pol Gen Chidchai should be summoned to testify in court regarding the
lawyer's disappearance.
Mr Metha said Gen Sonthi's remark coincided with evidence that there was a call from
Government House to one of the five defendants in the case during Mr Somchai's
abduction. However, the evidence was ruled inadmissible in court because telephone
records were incomplete and the copies obtained were not certified.
Mr Metha said Mr Thaksin should be tried in the International Criminal Court if he is
found to have a hand in Mr Somchai's disappearance.
He also expressed concern about the CNS' slowness in making the DSI work harder and
quicker on the case despite the new lead.
DSI spokesman Col Piyawat Kingket said the agency would ask Gen Sonthi to forward
evidence or hand over his informants as state witnesses.
He said the information, if true, would be a breakthrough. ''If what Gen Sonthi told
the reporters about Mr Thaksin's close aide is true, it will be very useful to the
investigation. Whoever gave such information might have been in the former
government,'' he said.
Mr Somchai went missing on March 12, 2004 while he was defending suspected Muslim
separatists. He was seen forced into a car by a group of men on Ramkhamhaeng road.
Five police officers were arrested and tried in connection with his disappearance.
One was found guilty of illegal detention and sentenced by the Criminal Court to
three years in prison. The others were acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, city police chief Viroj Chantarangsi went ahead with the appointment of a
police officer accused of provoking scuffles during an anti-Thaksin protest at a
shopping complex, a police source said.
Pol Col Ritthirong Thepchanda, chief of the Metropolitan Police Division 6, becomes
deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau today.
His promotion is reportedly opposed by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont who recently
discussed the police reshuffle with Gen Kowit.
Pol Col Ritthirong was caught on video talking to the assailants of anti-Thaksin
protesters shortly before the scuffles broke out. He failed to intervene in the
incident in which three people were injured.

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all COck-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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