General refuses to promise end to deaths of ‘punished’ conscripts

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

The Royal Thai Armed Forces will begin conscription of privates early next month, Assistant Army Chief General Weerachai Inthusophon said, adding that he could not guarantee that privates would not die as a result of punishment in the future.
 

In recent years, several conscripts have died after being physically disciplined. The latest case was that of 19-year-old military academy cadet Pakapong Tanyakan, who died after being punished at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School in Nakhon Nayok province last October.

 

Weerachai said he would try to prevent punishments that could lead to death, adding that the Armed Forces would quickly solve the problem in the case of a death, he said. 

 

Push ups were allowed as punishment, but corporal punishment was not, he added. Supervisors who conduct banned punishments would be prosecuted under the law as well as face military discipline, he added. No one has been prosecuted for Pakapong’s death to date.

 

This year, about 356,000 men across the country will be obligated report for conscription, but the Armed Forces will only recruit about 100,000 for service. Conscription will be held between April 1 and 12.

 

Conscripts receive about Bt10,000 per month for salary as well as an additional temporary living allowance, Lt-General Kathayut Saowakon, Army director of personnel, said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30341582

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-23

It's simply dreadful. God knows the abuse of young soldiers would be unconscionable enough if they were there of their own free will, but these lads are not. Conscription should be ended.

Business as usual........ 

What a thing to say.

regards Worgeordie

What a bizarre thing to say

Quote

Quickly solve the problem in the case of a death

Don't they realize it is too late by then !

4 minutes ago, cmsally said:

What a bizarre thing to say

Don't they realize it is too late by then !

What they mean is 'investigate themselves and find nothing untoward.'

If it were my son, the General would pay with his life.

'Conscripts receive about Bt10,000 per month for salary' - to be paid into a bank account in the Great Beyond after the poor, physically abused 'recruit' has been bullied and maltreated unto  Death ...

 

And what an unbelievable statement from a General - about not being able to 'guarantee that trainees will not die' as a result of their 'training'. My God! Talk about a 13th-World country!!

 

Truly unbelievable. Does he think it makes him sound "hard" or something?

 

Appalling and irresponsible remark by a high rank generals. Send a wrong message to the rank and file to continue with their wrongful training methods. He should take a strong role to look into the training that resulted in conscript deaths and give some assurances to parents that he will take a serious view. Pathetic. 

Disgraceful and unacceptable. 

29 minutes ago, Eligius said:

'Conscripts receive about Bt10,000 per month for salary' - to be paid into a bank account in the Great Beyond after the poor, physically abused 'recruit' has been bullied and maltreated unto  Death ...

 

And what an unbelievable statement from a General - about not being able to 'guarantee that trainees will not die' as a result of their 'training'. My God! Talk about a 13th-World country!!

 

The general is in good company. There are fairly few around that are eqipped with the gift to offer guarantees about the future.

 

But I agree that he sounds rather weird and should have addressed the issue quite differently.

Maybe yet another candidate for an inactive post.

 

 

well you see there are many who enjoy being able to torture a new batch of young men every year.

 

torture them to death.

My argument would be that if he can't guarantee these kids wont die as a result of the backward practices of the Thai military, then he has no right to conscript people.

Thailand land of the free...runs on fear, lovely

20 minutes ago, melvinmelvin said:

The general is in good company. There are fairly few around that are eqipped with the gift to offer guarantees about the future.

 

But I agree that he sounds rather weird and should have addressed the issue quite differently.

Maybe yet another candidate for an inactive post.

 

Well I suppose if was in an inactive post it he could avoid doing the push-ups.

1 hour ago, baboon said:

It's simply dreadful. God knows the abuse of young soldiers would be unconscionable enough if they were there of their own free will, but these lads are not. Conscription should be ended.

 

I don't disagree in any way.

 

Let me share, when I was a conscript in Australia for the Vietnam conflict, there was also severe punishments at times.

 

Just one example, one recruit stuffed up, so the whole platoon was punished. About 2.00 am in the morning the whole platoon was called out naked onto the parade ground, freezing point weather (0 degrees celcius, I forget what that was in fahrenheit).

 

The Sergeant told the whole platoon to line up (naked) in one long line, 50 recruits, and stand with legs wide apart, both hands on your head.

 

The sergeant walked along at the rear of the line with a baseball bat and selected recruits at random to hit that recruit very strongly up between his legs, hitting directly on the genitals area.

 

The drill corporal then put a mark on the back of the recruit just hit. The recruit just hit had to stay in the line. The sergeant continued to very slowly select recruits at random until he hit/punished every boy the same way, until all 50 had been punished.

 

We all stood there in freezing point weather until it was all completed, took about 3 hours.

 

A few days later, when we had to attend compulsory lectures with the camp chaplain, the chaplain asked nicely if there was anybody who wanted to talk privately about any problems they were having.

 

Two or three recruits then spoke privately (together) to the chaplain, they mentioned the baseball bat incident. Within about 20 minutes they were in the military police jail and held there until that batch of recruits moved out of basic training (I guess 3 weeks later) and they had to start rookie training again.

 

But hey, it's not OK, regardless of country, and the staff responsible for the violence should be subject to even more serious punishment including jail time and shaming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could mention the recent court case against 16 instructors at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate that collapsed due to a shoddy investigation by the Royal Military Police, just to say it happens in the best of Armies, but it would probably be deemed to be off topic or a troll post. Back on topic, at least they didn't kill anyone.  

24 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

I don't disagree in any way.

 

Let me share, when I was a conscript in Australia for the Vietnam conflict, there was also severe punishments at times.

 

Just one example, one recruit stuffed up, so the whole platoon was punished. About 2.00 am in the morning the whole platoon was called out naked onto the parade ground, freezing point weather (0 degrees celcius, I forget what that was in fahrenheit).

 

The Sergeant told the whole platoon to line up (naked) in one long line, 50 recruits, and stand with legs wide apart, both hands on your head.

 

The sergeant walked along at the rear of the line with a baseball bat and selected recruits at random to hit that recruit very strongly up between his legs, hitting directly on the genitals area.

 

The drill corporal then put a mark on the back of the recruit just hit. The recruit just hit had to stay in the line. The sergeant continued to very slowly select recruits at random until he hit/punished every boy the same way, until all 50 had been punished.

 

We all stood there in freezing point weather until it was all completed, took about 3 hours.

 

A few days later, when we had to attend compulsory lectures with the camp chaplain, the chaplain asked nicely if there was anybody who wanted to talk privately about any problems they were having.

 

Two or three recruits then spoke privately (together) to the chaplain, they mentioned the baseball bat incident. Within about 20 minutes they were in the military police jail and held there until that batch of recruits moved out of basic training (I guess 3 weeks later) and they had to start rookie training again.

 

But hey, it's not OK, regardless of country, and the staff responsible for the violence should be subject to even more serious punishment including jail time and shaming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can only hope the scum response got their payback somewhere along the line.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Weerachai said he would try to prevent punishments that could lead to death, adding that the Armed Forces would quickly solve the problem in the case of a death, he said. 

Lord have mercy....!!

And an esteemed colleague of this chap is running the whole country.....

15 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Appalling and irresponsible remark by a high rank generals. Send a wrong message to the rank and file to continue with their wrongful training methods. He should take a strong role to look into the training that resulted in conscript deaths and give some assurances to parents that he will take a serious view. Pathetic. 

 

Could make the same comment about your idol and some approx. 100 young soldiers who suffocated to death in the South of Thailand.

 

Did your Idol take any action? Did he even acknowledge the deaths? NO and NO. 

 

Pathetic...

 

 

 

 

16 hours ago, webfact said:

adding that he could not guarantee that privates would not die as a result of punishment in the future.
 

In recent years, several conscripts have died after being physically disciplined.

so these conscripts show up on day one and this guy says 'we might kill you' ?!

 
Could make the same comment about your idol and some approx. 100 young soldiers who suffocated to death in the South of Thailand.
 
Did your Idol take any action? Did he even acknowledge the deaths? NO and NO. 
 
Pathetic...
 
 
 
 

100 soldiers suffocated in Southern Thailand..... what’s the story there?


Sent from my shed using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

A standard statement from the military...most of whom (and most definitely including this tosser) have the intelligence of a split pea!

16 hours ago, baboon said:

Conscription should be ended

 

It should be bought back into many Western countries... Society in general is going downhill fast, no respect anymore, for anything !!

10 minutes ago, lemonjelly said:

100 soldiers suffocated in Southern Thailand..... what’s the story there?


Sent from my shed using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

When was this? I missed it.

Scorecard.

I am having a hard time getting my head around your story because I was a recruit in that same era and I never saw/experienced any kind of hazing/bastardization in any of the units I was in.

Were you one of the 50 nut-cracking recruits?

16 hours ago, webfact said:

356,000 men across the country will be obligated report for conscription, but the Armed Forces will only recruit about 100,000 for service.

What's the going rate for avoiding a possible death sentence through conscription.  How much to get accepted for a 10K per month job with future PM prospects?

Sounds like: If we have no enemy and can't go to war, lets kill some of our own soldiers. It is safe and we can find out out what it feels like.

Let's not beat about the bush.A disgraceful remark like this from a serving general should result in a formal reprimand or even demotion/dismissal.

 

The usual caveat applies that the general may not have reported accurately, a possible exception to Thailand's great tradition of independent, fearless probing journalism.