Shooting of protest guard stemmed from previous dispute: police

Gen Adul Saengsingkaew said the other seriously injured guard was an innocent bystander.

Meanwhile, the protest to be held in neighboring Surat Thani today (Sept 3) by rubber growers in the South could draw at least 10,000 people. So, police yesterday prepared about 1,000 officers from Surat Thani, Phuket and Phang Nga to handle the crowd. 

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday, before flying to China to attend the 10th China-Asean Expo in Nanning, that the Internal Security Act would not be implemented for the rally in Surat Thani. Related agencies would cooperate to control the demonstration and talk to protesters, she said. 

In regard to the shooting at the protest at Ban Toon railway crossing, police spokesman Maj-General Piya Uthayo said police interviewed four hospital staff and six youngsters and guards who witnessed the “close range” shooting. He said the protesters had only let five unarmed officers gather evidence so far. 

Piya said two protest leaders tried to stir up the protesters and escalate the protest, and that they had appeared at the anti-Thaksin regime protest at Lumpini Park in Bangkok. So, police would probe to see if there were links to that movement.

Earlier, Deputy PM Pol Gen Pracha Promnog said police found that witnesses said they saw the deceased in an argument prior to the shooting. Pracha said that, as a gunpowder test on the injured guard showed the shots were fired at close range, police presumed it was not done by officials, most of who were camped 10 kilometres away. 

He said the shootings took place at a protest site that was tightly guarded, so outsiders or officials could not get in to shoot the guards.

Pracha urged the Rights and Liberties Protection Department chief Police Colonel Narat Sawettanant to visit the province and provide some Bt100,000 in assistance money to the deceased man’s family. Pracha said he would call a National Security Council meeting late yesterday to assess the situation at Nakhon Si Thammarat because people were adversely affected.

Meanwhile, the body of protest guard Sirichai Boonnuwong, 29, was sent for an autopsy at Surat Thani Hospital. The injured guard Sitthisak Chaingam, 25, remained in an intensive care ward with hourly surveillance at Maharat Hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat. 

In related news, Weerachai Sritharachiyanont, a village head in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Pak Panung district, was gunned down yesterday morning. Police was investigating if the murder was related to the ongoing rubber planters’ protest.

In Surat Thani, Manoon Oopla, chairman of the Wiang Sa Agricultural Co-op board and a leading demonstrator, estimated yesterday that at least 10,000 people would join the “peaceful” protest today at Surat Thani Co-op, to demand that the government back a rubber price of Bt101/kilogram for ribbed smoked sheets (RSS) and a raw sheet price of Bt92/kg. 

He said Surat Thani Airport would not be closed but couldn’t promise whether roads would be blocked – as that depended on whether the government gives them a positive response, or if they have to escalate the protest.

Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong, in his capacity as National Rubber Policy Committee head, said he would meet 12 to 15 leading rubber growers from the protest in Cha-uat at Government House tomorrow (Sept 4). He planned to discuss measures to help rubber farmers, before presenting their requests to the committee on Thursday. The government was ready to listen and negotiate provided their demands were rational, he said.