Swedish Men Arrested in Pattaya on Fraud and Overstay Charges

[Darlek]

Arrested men are scapegoats: vendors

Published on Aug 7, 2004

The seven people arrested for suspected involvement in Monday’s lightning attack on a market in Bangkok’s Saphan Sung district were scapegoats, and non-commissioned police were also involved in the attack, vendors said yesterday.

Suraphan Chanthapaibul-kachorn, a vendor at the market, said that he and other vendors who witnessed the scenes of destruction were confident that the men who had carried out the attack were in their early 20s but police had arrested men aged between 30 and 40 years old.

“All seven men were scapegoats. I am confident that local police were involved, because we saw police driving the trucks that brought the young men to destroy the market,’’ Suraphan said.

He said Samart Sangkachot, managing director of Wisekit Co, which had been hired by the National Housing Authority to manage the leases for the market, had not masterminded the incident. That was done by the company’s shareholders, he said.

He said local police at Prawet District Police Station had never taken seriously complaints filed by vendors who had reported harassment or intimidation by local gangs. They only made arrests after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra set them firm deadlines, he said.

“Wisekit bought the whole police station. Whenever we went there to file a complaint they just stared at us blankly,’’ he said.

He said vendors had not moved to the new market because they did not believe that the NHA would charge them only Bt20 per day as promised and the new market had not yet been properly developed.

Meanwhile Colonel Krikkiat Pitaksakorn, superintendent of Prawet District Police Station, said that he was seeking arrest warrants for 20 more men suspected of being involved in the blitz. Most are motorcycle-taxi drivers and students.