Police Start New Turf War With Khunying Porntip

[george]

Police start new turf war with Porntip

Setting up centre to identify the missing

BANGKOK: -- The Royal Thai Police Office is waging another turf war against forensic expert Porntip Rojanasunan, announcing it is establishing a missing persons identification centre.

The government had already asked the Justice Ministry to set up a system to track down missing people and identify bodies. The ministry put Khunying Porntip, deputy director of the Central Institute for Forensic Science (CIFS), in charge of the project.

Khunying Porntip said she has been making preparations since 1998, including sending personnel overseas for training in forensic anthropology, adding nine CIFS staff are being trained in the United States.

She said she was surprised upon learning, at a meeting with PM's Office Minister Suranand Vejjajiva on June 6, that Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Chidchai Wannasathit had told the national police force to set up a centre to identify missing people.

``I did not have a clue. The justice minister invited the police to our meeting twice but they did not show up,'' she said.

``Now, suddenly they say they are now the owner of that project.''

She was earlier involved in a dispute with police over the identification of people killed in the tsunami on Dec 26 last year.

At that time, police legal adviser Pol Gen Nopadol Somboonsub demanded she provide details of about 4,000 tsunami victims in Phangnga province to the Disaster Victim Identification Centre, set up in collaboration with the police force in Phuket.

He said that would help speed up identification of the bodies.

Khunying Porntip said nowhere in the world was such a centre under the control of a single agency.

``The government wants justice-related agencies to play a role in the centre but police have insisted all along that it must come under their jurisdiction,'' she said.

A data sharing system was essential but police had denied access to data, claiming that would affect their investigations, she said.

Khunying Porntip said Thailand lacked forensic experts and an efficient identification system.

``If we have a skull we may have to wait two months before we can start identifying that person,'' she said.

CIFS now receives about 2,000 bodies a year, 10% of which are unidentified.

Khunying Porntip said identification of missing persons was a key strategy to prove to the international community that Thailand respected human rights.

In other countries, the centres are overseen by the Justice Ministry, she said.

``The government should be careful not to allow a single agency to have absolute power,'' she said.

Mr Suranand said he did not see anything wrong if the police took charge of establishing the centre, even though the Justice Ministry had made many preparations.

He said both agencies could still work together and help each other in identifying bodies.

``The most important thing is that the process of identification must be transparent and open to public scrutiny,'' he said.

Cabinet, however, would decide which would be the core agency in running the centre if the police and the Justice Ministry could not settle their differences, Mr Suranand said.

--TNA 2005-06-09

[sriracha john]

Would the conflict with the police have anything to do with this other case in which she's clearly putting the finger on police for murdering a suspect??

Five-bullet suicide unlikely: PornthipPublished on June 09, 2005

Pathologist Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunand disclosed evidence yesterday showing it was unlikely that a murder suspect surrounded by police had committed suicide by firing five bullets into himself.

The deputy director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science went to inspect the scene where Sunthorn Wongdao was found dead on May 21 in Nonthaburi’s Bang Yai district at the order of Justice Minister Suwat Liptapanlop.

She and Manit Suthaporn, deputy Justice permanent secretary, went to see the rented house where Sunthorn hid from police after he was accused of shooting his father-in-law and his wife in Bangkok’s Bang Khunthien district.

Police from Bang Khunthien district police station surrounded the house and were reportedly negotiating Sunthorn’s surrender. In the report filed by police it is claimed that Sunthorn committed suicide. Four bullet wounds were found in his left chest and one in his right temple.

Pornthip showed pictures of Sunthorn’s body lying face-up. She said that the blood flow pattern showed that the body had been moved from a face-down position before Scientific Crime Detection officials arrived at the scene. She said if he had fallen on his back, the blood should have flowed down towards his back, but that the blood was on the front of his body.

She added that the bullets found in his body were fired from .38 pistols and that the scene also showed that he did not fire at police.

Pol Colonel Narong Simsawat, chief investigator in charge of the case from Bang Yai district police station, said police have not wrapped up their investigation into how the suspect died and that he was waiting for the autopsy results from the Scientific Crime Detection Division. He admitted that the suicide theory conflicted with the evidence and sounded bizarre.

Manit said the likelihood of the suicide theory proving accurate was almost nil. “It is unlikely that anyone could kill himself by firing five shots at critical spots. He would have died after just one shot,’’ he said.

After visiting the scene, he was even more confident that Sunthorn had not committed suicide. The Special Investigation Department will decide whether to take over the case.

Nanthapong Wongdao, Sunthorn’s brother, said that after he campaigned for justice in his brother’s case, he had been stalked by an unknown group and believes his life is in danger.

[meadish_sweetball]

Would the conflict with the police have anything to do with this other case in which she's clearly putting the finger on police for murdering a suspect??

Five-bullet suicide unlikely: PornthipPublished on June 09, 2005

Pathologist Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunand disclosed evidence yesterday showing it was unlikely that a murder suspect surrounded by police had committed suicide by firing five bullets into himself.

The deputy director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science went to inspect the scene where Sunthorn Wongdao was found dead on May 21 in Nonthaburi’s Bang Yai district at the order of Justice Minister Suwat Liptapanlop.

She and Manit Suthaporn, deputy Justice permanent secretary, went to see the rented house where Sunthorn hid from police after he was accused of shooting his father-in-law and his wife in Bangkok’s Bang Khunthien district.

Police from Bang Khunthien district police station surrounded the house and were reportedly negotiating Sunthorn’s surrender. In the report filed by police it is claimed that Sunthorn committed suicide. Four bullet wounds were found in his left chest and one in his right temple.

Pornthip showed pictures of Sunthorn’s body lying face-up. She said that the blood flow pattern showed that the body had been moved from a face-down position before Scientific Crime Detection officials arrived at the scene. She said if he had fallen on his back, the blood should have flowed down towards his back, but that the blood was on the front of his body.

She added that the bullets found in his body were fired from .38 pistols and that the scene also showed that he did not fire at police.

Pol Colonel Narong Simsawat, chief investigator in charge of the case from Bang Yai district police station, said police have not wrapped up their investigation into how the suspect died and that he was waiting for the autopsy results from the Scientific Crime Detection Division. He admitted that the suicide theory conflicted with the evidence and sounded bizarre.

Manit said the likelihood of the suicide theory proving accurate was almost nil. “It is unlikely that anyone could kill himself by firing five shots at critical spots. He would have died after just one shot,’’ he said.

After visiting the scene, he was even more confident that Sunthorn had not committed suicide. The Special Investigation Department will decide whether to take over the case.

Nanthapong Wongdao, Sunthorn’s brother, said that after he campaigned for justice in his brother’s case, he had been stalked by an unknown group and believes his life is in danger.

Well spotted.

[george]

Update:

PM: Centre to come under Justice

Will balance police investigation powers

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says a missing persons identification centre will come under the direct supervision of the Justice Ministry.

He was responding to reports that the Royal Thai Police Office was establishing a centre to identify missing people.

Mr Thaksin said the centre must come under the control of the Justice Ministry to balance police investigations. If the proposal went to cabinet, he would ask police to put the centre under the control of the ministry.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Chidchai Wannasathit had told the national police force to set up a centre to identify missing people. He had asked police legal adviser Noppadol Somboonsap to do it.

The government had earlier asked the Justice Ministry to set up a system to track down missing people and identify bodies. The ministry put Porntip Rojanasunan, forensic expert and deputy director of the Central Institute for Forensic Science (CIFS), in charge of the project.

The police's move to establish the centre surprised Khunying Porntip. She claimed the ministry had invited the police to attend meetings to discuss the centre, but no one from the police showed up.

Asked whether Pol Gen Chidchai had consulted him on the matter, Mr Thaksin said the minister may not be aware that the government wanted the centre to come under the supervision of the Justice Ministry.

As investigations into missing people were mostly handled by police, there should be another agency to supervise the missing persons identification centre to balance police investigations, said Mr Thaksin.

Khunying Porntip said she has been making preparations for the centre for 7-8 years. Officials have been sent to undergo training in forensic science in Hawaii.

She said there would be three working procedures: locating missing people, identifying corpses found by police and investigating the causes of the murders. Police would be responsible for locating missing persons while the Justice Ministry would identify any corpses found.

She insisted the ministry would not handle all working procedures, but it would be the core agency responsible for the job. All procedures must be transparent.

Bangkok Senator and member of the National Reconciliation Commission Sophon Suphapong said the centre should come under the Justice Ministry to ensure justice for relatives of missing people. If the centre was put under the control of police, people would have no faith in it.

Pol Gen Noppadol said police should handle the identification of missing people as they had the staff. However, he would have no objection if the prime minister wanted the centre to be under the Justice Ministry.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-11