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| Southeast Asia |
| Royal wreath for hero officer's funeral in Thailand |
| 2010-03-14 |
| Their Majesties the King and Queen graciously granted a wreath to yesterday's funeral of Bannang Sata district police chief Colonel Sompien Eksomya, who died from his injuries after being ambushed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who attended Sompien's funeral in the evening, affirmed that police had not ignored Sompien's request to be transferred elsewhere. Former deputy police chief Wasit Detkunchon said those responsible for leaving Sompien in the restive region too long must be punished. Sompien, who had worked in the deep South for 20 years and had been recognised for his good relations with the community, made headlines when he went to Government House to file a complaint that he wanted to be moved out of the region so that he could spend the rest of his police service peacefully. Offering condolences to Sompien's family, Abhisit said the Police Policy Board had met on March 5 to approve in principle compensation for Sompien, which meant that authorities did not close their eyes to complaints over unfairness. Wasit said Sompien's death on duty shed light on the national police's personnel-management flaws and injustice for officers stationed in high-risk areas for a long time when other officers should replace them. "Why was he left there for so long? When he asked for a transfer, shouldn't the request have been considered specially? This is terrible, it shouldn't happen and this injustice deserves to be punished," he said. Wasit, who chairs a committee investigating police transfer complaints, said the eight-rank promotion granted posthumously to Sompien was not a small reward. "But what would the family feel about such an exchange of their husband/father's life for the promotion? If it were I, I wouldn't trade it. What could've been done was to help him before he died. "Being in the 'war zone' too long, soldiers or police would inevitably become a target. National police personnel management made a mistake, and someone must pay for it. I want the government, premier and his deputy for police affairs to look into human-resources management," Wasit said. On February 23, Sompien and his wife also went to consult with journalists at police headquarters about how to file a complaint against injustice in police transfers. He claimed that the southern insurgents had put a price of 50 goats, equivalent to Bt200,000, on his head. That day, Sompien, accompanied by journalists, went to the office of acting national police chief General Pratheep Tanprasert on the eighth floor but was told that it was the Police Policy Board's responsibility, so they went to the board's office on the 18th floor. They were told that the board director was in a meeting, so a lieutenant-colonel took up the complaint instead. From that day until his death, the national police did not do anything besides telling the press that they would speed up assistance to him, said Wasit. And on the day he died, police came out and said they were planning to promote him as deputy provincial chief in Trang. |
| Posted by:ryuge |