POLICE 'REFUSING' TO HELP GOVT PROBE

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.