Military gunmen shot 6 unarmed people dead in Wat Pathum Wanaram: court
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Unidentified military sharpshooters stationed on Skytrain tracks killed five unarmed people at Pathum Wanaram Temple during the dispersal of a pro-Thaksin Shinawatra red-shirt rally on May 19, 2010, the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court ruled yesterday.
Another unarmed victim at the temple was shot dead by ground forces, the court said.
According to the inquest, Suwan Sriraksa, 30, a farmer; Mongkol Khemthong, 36, a rescue worker; Rop Suksathit, 66, a hired driver; Kamolket Akkahad, 25, a volunteer nurse; and Akkharadej Khankaew, 22, a hired hand, were killed by high-velocity .223 calibre or 5.56mm bullets fired by soldiers from the Army’s Third Special Warfare Regiment who belonged to an assault battalion based at Fort Erawan in Lop Buri. The soldiers were on the elevated railroad during the end stage of the crackdown.
Army spokesman Col Winthai Suwaree said the inquest was not a conviction, and evidence, including results of gun residue tests, would be presented in a following prosecution. He said Army weapons taken by red shirts were found inside the compound. No soldiers or police had arrived at the temple at the time the six died.
Atthachai Chumchan, 28, a law school graduate, was shot by .223 calibre or 5.56mm bullets fired from a battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment, another unit that was deployed on Rama I Road.
The troops were conducting peacekeeping and crowd-control operations from the Skytrain viaduct and Rama I Road at the order of the Centre for Restoration of the Emergency Situation (CRES).
No “men in black” or armed assailants were present, no arms were found at the scene of the killings and no traces of gunpowder were found on the fingers of the victims, the court said.
Payao, the mother of Kamolket, said she had full confidence in the court’s findings in this case because of the details pointing out who shot the six people. “In an amnesty bill, we must go into detail that state officials who over-reacted must not be pardoned,” she said.
Tarit Pengdith, head of the Department of Special Investigation, said that as the soldiers acted on the order of CRES, they were exempt from punishment under Article 70 of the Criminal Code.
The DSI would file premeditated murder charges against former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, now opposition leader, and then CRES director Suthep Thaugsuban for issuing the order to kill soldiers, Tarit said.
