Thai Police Are Organized Criminals

[taxexile]

Thai police are best organized criminals

Published: March 27, 2008

By AWZAR THI

Column: Rule of Lords

HONG KONG, China.

According to the United Nations, the Royal Thai Police are organized criminals.

That, at least, is the inference to be drawn from looking at its Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which was adopted in 2001 and which defines an organized crime group as involving at least three people acting in concert over a period of time "with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences… in order to obtain… a financial or other material benefit."

It would be hard to overstate the extent to which Thailand's police fit this definition. A browse through a few newspapers of recent weeks alone reveals as much.

In February there was the case of the border patrol unit that abducted and tortured people to extract money and force them to confess to narcotics charges. So far over 100 complaints have been lodged against it, the majority from persons serving jail terms, and also one policeman. Although the low-ranking officers involved have surrendered, investigators have reportedly said that there is no evidence to link their wrongdoing to their superiors.

Then was the car scam, which came unstuck when a victim of theft went to police headquarters to file a complaint and found his vehicle sitting in the parking lot: not impounded, being used by personnel.

The police had colluded with rental companies to steal perhaps over 1,000 new automobiles by fraud. So far, only a few of the cars have been recovered. Many will have been sold into Cambodia and Burma. The operation apparently stretched over a wide area and involved police from various units, including Special Branch and cyber crime. Senior officers have already sought to exonerate some, saying that they will face only internal, not criminal, inquiries. The hire company directors have been arrested.

Similarly, 21 police forensics staff accused of taking money for the cost of formalin that was never administered have been let off the hook and three civilian employees blamed in their stead. Joking about this case, cartoonist Chai Rachawat wrote in the Thai Rath newspaper that it is anyhow better for police to steal from the dead than from the living: his picture depicts some skeletons standing in coffins and yelling as a policeman makes off with the loot.

Aside from these incidents, police have been implicated in a number of recent killings: some execution-style, another in which a leading forensic scientist has said that their account of what happened does not match the evidence. Torture and other abuses meanwhile go on as normal.

Thailand's police did not become an organized crime gang by accident. The modern force was from the beginning intended both as a criminal and political agency, monopolizing the drug trade and murdering or detaining opponents, including other police. It quickly became unstoppable as, historian Thak Chaloemtiara notes, while people whispered about its crimes "investigation was impossible, for the crimes were committed by the police themselves."

Its heyday as an unsurpassed crime venture may have been in the 1950s, but until now the police force remains beyond the law and answerable unto itself. The institutional features of its criminality, including the routine use of force and self-financing of individual officers and stations, speak to how incidents of the sort described above are organized, not haphazard.

These conditions present persons interested in improving the work of the police with profound and peculiar difficulties. For some three decades there has been talk of reform, and a few attempts, including one by the interim prime minister of the recent military government. But all have failed, in the same way that attempts to turn any other organized crime group into a legitimate enterprise against the will of its members could not possibly do otherwise.

But had any attempts at reforming the Royal Thai Police succeeded, would it really have made any difference? Wouldn't a reformed organized crime group remain what it is at its roots? How different are reformed organized criminals from their unreformed counterparts?

These questions could be cause for despair. After all, if things are that bad, then why bother? There are indeed many who think in this way, and do not believe that the police in Thailand can ever be significantly changed. Unsurprisingly, when this sort of thinking becomes widespread, it guarantees that things go on as usual. Without hope that anything can be done about the police, nothing can.

On the other hand, pretending that things aren't as bad as they really are also ensures that things go on as usual. It allows people to fool themselves into thinking that a few quick fixes, like decentralizing and better training, may result in improvements. Superficially, they might. But anybody who looks honestly and seriously at the work of the police in Thailand for long enough will be obliged to acknowledge that it will take much more than this.

That's why the U.N. definition is helpful. Let's be honest and describe Thailand's police as they are: organized criminals in uniform. If this much can be admitted, then it might be possible to get down to the business of what to do about them.

-- (Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be read at Rule of Lords.)

upiasiaonline.com

[tijnebijn]

Would be a nice report to bring to the police to investigate it .......

Aren't police officers in all countries corrupt one way or the other ?

[Crushdepth]

Aren't police officers in all countries corrupt one way or the other ?

Not to the extent they are here, no.

[tattoodrob]

report seems to hit the nail on the head.........such a big organisation will be near impossible to change,i cant see how it could in reality be done,especially as its not just the police but the government etc.

if police are corrupt in most western countries then it is a small minority and kept secret and there are places to complain when it happens............its not the norm!

[Pepe']

I don't know. Boy this sounds like an extremely negative view of Thailand.

I don't know if I can tolerate it...

[mrtoad]

I wonder how much money was spent to research the bloody obvious? Must have been the easiest piece of research conducted for a long time.

[A_Traveller]

At the Rule of Lords site there is a front page link to the Kalasin situation, which has received scant attention. The text below is a draft letter proposed in 2007 re Kalasin District Police in part kicked off by AHRC receiving a letter dated 11 May 2007 from the then provincial police commander of Kalasin, Pol. Maj. Gen. Phisanha Arweekorn Wornthepnitinant, informing that the police had investigated the allegations about police involvement in Kietisak’s death and did not find any evidence to support the claims and had closed the matter. However, they did not give any details about how the investigation was conducted and how they came to such a conclusion.

Regards

Dear ________,

THAILAND: Investigate killings allegedly connected to Kalasin District Police

Name of victims:

1. Mr. Prasert Krungsriwattana, shot dead on 31 December 2003

2. Mr. Jatuphon Nainayacheurg, shot dead on7 January 2004 in front of Anukulnaree school

3. Mr. Thongchan Paraphee, hanged; body was found on 10 January 2004 in a farm hut at Baan Ta Ha, Loop sub-district

4. Mr. Suphan Ploywilert, shot dead on 16 January 2004 in Soi Kompholpatana, Muang District

5. Mr. Charnchai Korharn, shot dead on 16 January 2004

6. Mr. Paeng Saengsawant, shot dead on 21 January 2004 on 74 Moo 7, Baan Jote, Rupor sub-district, Muang District

7. Mr. Pitoon Raikiet, shot dead on 21 January 2004, shot dead on 95 Moo 12, Baan Kud-or, Muang District

8. Ms. Namphon Dolrasamee, shot dead on 11 February 2004 in Muang District

9. Mr. Songkran Dejtharapath, shot dead on 7 April 2004

10. Mr. Dath Macha Pathan, shot dead on 5 May 2004

11. Mr. Somsin Worawattanawong, shot dead on 14 August 2005 in a bus stop in front of a national politician’s house

12. Mr. Praiwan Phukhat, shot dead on 23 August 2005 near Rimpao Dam

13. Mr. Sakorn Saravithi, shot dead on 23 August 2005 near Rimpao Dam

14. Mr. Winai, shot dead on 1 October 2005 near Rimpao Dam

15. Mr. Preecha Khampratuang shot dead on 31 October 2005

16. Mr. Chaiwut Laocharoen, shot dead in front of Rimpao hotel

17. Mr. Pui, hanged in a bus stop on Mor Dindaeng Road

18. Mr. Udom Nawai, shot dead

Alleged perpetrators: Personnel of the Kalasin District Police Station

I am writing to express my concern about the above killings that happened in Kalasin province in 2004 and 2005. The families of victims and other persons familiar with the cases have alleged that the personnel of the Kalasin District Police Station may have been the perpetrators; however, there have been no effective investigations to reveal the truth, despite the amount of time that has lapsed between the incidents and today.

Most of the victims were young people who had been accused of dealing in drugs and committing other relatively small crimes. Some of them had been detained by the Kalasin District Police before their death or disappearance. Autopsies have shown that some of the victims were tortured or seriously injured before death. The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the Ministry of Justice has also reportedly identified a pattern among the killings, such as in the manner of killing and covering up the crime.

I have learned that after the military coup against the former government of Thailand in September 2006, around eight victims' families lodged complaints to the Ministry of Justice but have so far not obtained any response to their requests for justice. The Department of Special Investigation is reported to be conducting inquiries but so far no police officers are known to have had any action taken against them and some of the accused have been promoted. The acting police commissioner, Pol. Gen. Seripisuth Themiyavet, has ordered the Kalasin District Police to conducted serious investigations into the killings, but I know of no progress nor should it be expected, as the officers alleged to have committed these gross crimes and their peers cannot also be expected to investigate them properly. Indeed I am aware that internal investigations have already exonerated all of the accused.

I therefore wish to inquire into the current status of investigations into the deaths of all of the above persons, as well as those of Kietisak Thitboonkrong, Pravit Sattawuth, Oynapa Sukprasong and Wanthana Thakpama, as well as the disappearance of 15-year-old Krischadol Pancha, all in the same province.

I know that police officers in Thailand have long enjoyed absolute impunity for want of any independent body to receive complaints, investigate and commence prosecutions against police. Therefore, I urge the Thailand government to set up an independent investigation body to handle complaints against the police as suggested by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2005, so that claims of adherence to international human rights standards may be made a reality. This more than anything else will effect meaningful and lasting change to the policing system in Thailand.

I look forward to you intervention on these cases.

Sincerely,

----------------------

Addressees suggested, by position were/are

1. Minister of Justice

2. Prime Minister

3. Minister of Interior

4. Governor of Kalasin

5. Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police

6. Commissioner Provincial Police Region 4

7. Commander Kalasin Provincial Police

8. Attorney General

9. Chairperson National Human Rights Commission of Thailand

10. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions {Switzerland}

The Rule of Lords link is Strange Fruit in Kalasin which has further links for those who might wish to review this subject more. Clearly the institutional mindset of the police in Thialand is a matter of grave concern, and not just from the perspective of material goods.

Regards

Edited March 27, 2008 by A_Traveller

[Pepe']

I just had another thought. This might be the dream job for a farang. Just pay you "tea money" no need for a real work permit. Maybe just a fake if any.

Get your "spay on" brown uniforn, gun and let the pillaging begin.

And I know for a fact that there is no one sexier than a Thai cop to Thai girls.

Tight brown buns, balls optional...

[Pepe']

I wonder how much money was spent to research the bloody obvious? Must have been the easiest piece of research conducted for a long time.

---------------

I think in interesting research project would be to see how far a 20 bhat coin could be bounced off their tight brown booties in their "srpay on' trousers .

Is that gay? I mean really couldI be turning gay?

"Not that there's anything wrong with that" - George from Sienfeld...

[howtoescape]

Aren't police officers in all countries corrupt one way or the other ?

Thailands the only country ive been to where ive seen police quite openly take money off people in the centre of paked tourist resorts, ive seen it in other countries but not as blatant.

[Pepe']

Would be a nice report to bring to the police to investigate it .......

Aren't police officers in all countries corrupt one way or the other ?

-----------------

No. Just in Thailand...

[mrtoad]

I wonder how much money was spent to research the bloody obvious? Must have been the easiest piece of research conducted for a long time.

---------------

I think in interesting research project would be to see how far a 20 bhat coin could be bounced off their tight brown booties in their "srpay on' trousers .

Is that gay? I mean really couldI be turning gay?

"Not that there's anything wrong with that" - George from Sienfeld...

You could be Pepe, you could be.

[tattoodrob]

I just had another thought. This might be the dream job for a farang. Just pay you "tea money" no need for a real work permit. Maybe just a fake if any.

Get your "spay on" brown uniforn, gun and let the pillaging begin.

And I know for a fact that there is no one sexier than a Thai cop to Thai girls.

Tight brown buns, balls optional...

have you lost the plot!!!!!

no chance of them letting a farang in there private club..........ofcourse its a dream job...free drinks everywhere,money collecting,everyone being nice to you,cheap/free ladies....etc...where do i sign up.

ofcourse you can be a volunteer if you want but without any of the benefits,not sure there even actually allowed to arrest anyone are they?? so that makes them a volunteer walkin tourist information officer/translator.gets you out the house in a nice shiny uniform that they probabaly had to pay for yourself

[Pepe']

I wonder how much money was spent to research the bloody obvious? Must have been the easiest piece of research conducted for a long time.

---------------

I think in interesting research project would be to see how far a 20 bhat coin could be bounced off their tight brown booties in their "srpay on' trousers .

Is that gay? I mean really couldI be turning gay?

"Not that there's anything wrong with that" - George from Sienfeld...

You could be Pepe, you could be.

---------------------

Should I be concerned? How can I know for sure?

[Pepe']

I just had another thought. This might be the dream job for a farang. Just pay you "tea money" no need for a real work permit. Maybe just a fake if any.

Get your "spay on" brown uniforn, gun and let the pillaging begin.

And I know for a fact that there is no one sexier than a Thai cop to Thai girls.

Tight brown buns, balls optional...

have you lost the plot!!!!!

no chance of them letting a farang in there private club..........ofcourse its a dream job...free drinks everywhere,money collecting,everyone being nice to you,cheap/free ladies....etc...where do i sign up.

ofcourse you can be a volunteer if you want but without any of the benefits,not sure there even actually allowed to arrest anyone are they?? so that makes them a volunteer walkin tourist information officer/translator.gets you out the house in a nice shiny uniform that they probabaly had to pay for yourself

---------------------

No I don't believe I've lost the plot.

I'm just losing it!

Spring fever I think and there is more Thai poo ying in San Diego, especially the casinos, than you can shake a, a, well, a stick at...

"Everybody have fun tonight, everybody Wang Chung tonight."

YEEEEHA!

[scotwumman]

Good! The more international media exposure the better.

No matter how impenetrable they consider themselves to be they will find that the

tourist will continue to vote with their feet and avoid financing their so called

paradise.

Media and word of mouth. It works.

[mrtoad]

---------------------

Should I be concerned? How can I know for sure?

Do you own any Village People albums?

[Heng]

Aren't police officers in all countries corrupt one way or the other ?

Here it's the whole organization, peons included; in many other countries it's the way it is in other aspects of their respective societies... only the higher ranked and connected get their cut. IMO the Thais deserve the illusion of transparency and fairness that other countries have.

[Pepe']

---------------------

Should I be concerned? How can I know for sure?

Do you own any Village People albums?

-------------------

Funny you should ask. No I don't have any but I teach quite a bit these days and entertaining the students has always been an important part of my teaching style.

Especially when teaching classes like Human Pathology and Clinical nutrition.

A coule of times, when the timing was right and circumstance were ideal I burst into a rediton of "YMCA".

With the "arm letter spelling" and dancing with some leg kicks.

I told by admin I'm the most popular teacher at school...

[mrtoad]

---------------------

Should I be concerned? How can I know for sure?

Do you own any Village People albums?

-------------------

Funny you should ask. No I don't have any but I teach quite a bit these days and entertaining the students has always been an important part of my teaching style.

Especially when teaching classes like Human Pathology and Clinical nutrition.

A coule of times, when the timing was right and circumstance were ideal I burst into a rediton of "YMCA".

With the "arm letter spelling" and dancing with some leg kicks.

I told by admin I'm the most popular teacher at school...

[tattoodrob]

I just had another thought. This might be the dream job for a farang. Just pay you "tea money" no need for a real work permit. Maybe just a fake if any.

Get your "spay on" brown uniforn, gun and let the pillaging begin.

And I know for a fact that there is no one sexier than a Thai cop to Thai girls.

Tight brown buns, balls optional...

have you lost the plot!!!!!

no chance of them letting a farang in there private club..........ofcourse its a dream job...free drinks everywhere,money collecting,everyone being nice to you,cheap/free ladies....etc...where do i sign up.

ofcourse you can be a volunteer if you want but without any of the benefits,not sure there even actually allowed to arrest anyone are they?? so that makes them a volunteer walkin tourist information officer/translator.gets you out the house in a nice shiny uniform that they probabaly had to pay for yourself

---------------------

No I don't believe I've lost the plot.

I'm just losing it!

Spring fever I think and there is more Thai poo ying in San Diego, especially the casinos, than you can shake a, a, well, a stick at...

"Everybody have fun tonight, everybody Wang Chung tonight."

YEEEEHA!

wow ..thai girls in a casino..........never ..there husbands must be busy earning it for them.

by the way what is or who is a wang chung

[Pepe']

I just had another thought. This might be the dream job for a farang. Just pay you "tea money" no need for a real work permit. Maybe just a fake if any.

Get your "spay on" brown uniforn, gun and let the pillaging begin.

And I know for a fact that there is no one sexier than a Thai cop to Thai girls.

Tight brown buns, balls optional...

have you lost the plot!!!!!

no chance of them letting a farang in there private club..........ofcourse its a dream job...free drinks everywhere,money collecting,everyone being nice to you,cheap/free ladies....etc...where do i sign up.

ofcourse you can be a volunteer if you want but without any of the benefits,not sure there even actually allowed to arrest anyone are they?? so that makes them a volunteer walkin tourist information officer/translator.gets you out the house in a nice shiny uniform that they probabaly had to pay for yourself

---------------------

No I don't believe I've lost the plot.

I'm just losing it!

Spring fever I think and there is more Thai poo ying in San Diego, especially the casinos, than you can shake a, a, well, a stick at...

"Everybody have fun tonight, everybody Wang Chung tonight."

YEEEEHA!

wow ..thai girls in a casino..........never ..there husbands must be busy earning it for them.

by the way what is or who is a wang chung

----------------------

Here's a link that will explain it on youtube...

[PadThaiGuy]

Watch a few episodes of HBOs Soprano series and you will see exactly what is going on with the Thai Police.

...and what about these guys?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21533131@N06/...57604252151932/

They look like off duty cops scamming tourists.

Edited March 27, 2008 by PadThaiGuy

[spasticated]

<br />

I wonder how much money was spent to research the bloody obvious? Must have been the easiest piece of research conducted for a long time. <img src="style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

<br />---------------<br />I think in interesting research project would be to see how far a 20 bhat coin could be bounced off their tight brown booties in their "srpay on' trousers .<br /><br />Is that gay? I mean really couldI be turning gay?<br /><br />"Not that there's anything wrong with that" - George from Sienfeld... <img src="style_emoticons/default/cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="cool.gif" /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

i would suggest a visit to the guy wih the gay dogs. maybe that would help?