Koh Tao debacle: Shoddy work from beginning to end

The investigation into the murder of two British backpackers on Koh Tao was, from the very start, a muddled affair. Yet, despite public revelations of mishandling of the case by the police and widespread doubt about the guilt of the accused, the authorities were caught by surprise at the international outcry that greeted last week’s court ruling.
The sentencing to death of the accused, two Myanmar migrant workers, provoked a raucous street protest in Yangon and grumbling in Nay Pyi Taw. Irked government officials claimed the reaction was all a conspiracy to discredit the Royal Thai Police. It would be wonderful if it could be so easily imagined away.
The inescapable fact is that the controversy surrounding the Koh Tao case is only the latest global outcry directed at the Thai police force, whose reputation and credibility now seem irrevocably tainted in the eyes of most outsiders and indeed many citizens.
The Koh Tao investigation was compromised from the beginning, when police failed to properly seal off the crime scene. A rumour that the attack was carried out by someone linked to influential figures on the island was summarily dismissed and investigators quickly focused on the migrant community, refusing to even contemplate the possibility that Thais might have been involved. The police gave no explanation for this shift in focus, which saw Myanmar migrants Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun arrested and charged with the despicable crime.
Respected forensic scientist Pornthip Rojanasunand, who has clashed with law-enforcement officials in the past, was denied access to the investigators’ findings. That decision suggests that the police allowed emotion to overrule duty and professional ethics. Dr Pornthip was, however, able to testify subsequently in court that the police had failed to analyse blood found at the crime scene and might have destroyed evidence by prematurely moving the body of one victim.
More doubts were raised over the failure to run comparative DNA tests the female victim’s clothing and a hoe that was the purported murder weapon. Pornthip, acting on behalf of the defendants, conducted that test and found that the DNA on the hoe did not match that of the accused.
The court presumably attached more credence to prosecution testimony that the suspects’ semen was found on the female victim’s body, even though analysis of the DNA samples of three people was, in the view of other witnesses, done too hastily.
Most troubling of all for the police case – and for the police force’s reputation – is the fact the defendants, having withdrawn their confessions once a lawyer was belatedly provided, claimed they had admitted to the crime after being tortured. The court did not even take this point into consideration.
In spite of these many doubts and shortcomings, the national police chief, Pol Gen Jakthip Chaijinda, had the audacity to suggest that an unnamed political group had instigated the ensuing protests to discredit his men. Deputy police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Piyaphan Pingmuang wondered aloud why, of the 126 murder cases involving Burmese in this country in the past year, no others met with protest.
The simple answer is that none of the other cases caught the interest of the foreign press, which stemmed from the fact that the victims in this murder were citizens of Britain, where the news media are not only highly opinionated but also alert to the hazards of Thai tourism.
Moreover, the story evoked an all-too-common narrative – defenceless migrant workers becoming ready scapegoats in criminal probes and the victims of the whims of the rich and powerful. Those from Myanmar know all too well the pitfalls presented by working here, beginning with horrendous labour conditions. The protest in Yangon – which forced the Thai embassy to close out of security concerns – was at core an expression of anger over Thai attitudes and behaviour towards their countrymen.
In what can only be viewed as a bid to save face, Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan ordered a hunt for the “masterminds” behind the protest rallies in Myanmar and Thailand. Rather than making matters worse, he should be pushing for a reform of the police force.