Police forced me to quit: Pornthip

[Guest]

Hi Elef,

 

I agree. Politics will not get rid of this lady. She's just too important. And everyone who can see anything, knows this.

 

As said, Taksin's wife will be working with her in the following days. It will be ok.

 

HT

[BelgianBoy]

Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra, the prime minister's wife will seek to resolve the issue between the two sides this afternoon.

 

:D

[elef]

Hi BB,

 

maybe working better than her husband. After all she's a khunying and if she's acting as a representative of the husband (and at least indirectly of HM the King) all problems even if they're police generals will disappear.

 

elef

[Khun_Kong]

elef said:

PM Thaksin thinks dispute over bodies can be resolved

Published on Jan 15 , 2005

 

 

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said today that he believes

 

blah blah blah

 

Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra, the prime minister's wife will seek to resolve the issue between the two sides this afternoon.

 

The Nation

 

Yeah, right.

 

I think Pornthip has already stepped on those polished toes.

 

Don't forget this bit from the other thread on this topic, quoted from BKK Post, I believe:

 

"After Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's wife, Potjaman, visited the temple early last week to offer her help in identifying the dead, and was politely turned down, Dr. Porntip said: "Our prime minister is aware of economics but he does not understand justice. No one understands that I want to do this type of work to help people. I am very tired, but I feel happy and satisfied when I can identify someone for their families."

[Guest]

the dirty politics continue...

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2005/01/16/headlines/index.php?news=headlines_16090824.html

 

VICTIM IDENTIFICATION: Compromise reached over forensic task

Published on January 16, 2005

 

Pornthip says she?ll resign once role complete, takes swipe at Thaksin

 

The tug of war among officials over the identification of tsunami disaster victims eased yesterday, with Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunand?s forensics team being allowed to complete the collection of DNA specimens.

 

Her team - which will then hand over the corpses to the international police team - had earlier clashed with the national police force?s forensics unit over who should be carrying out the identification work.

 

However, a despondent Pornthip said that she would resign from the post of deputy director-general of the Central Institute of Forensics Science after her identification mission is accomplished, saying that her goal to elevate the status of forensic science in Thailand had failed.

 

She also said the premier himself was slanted towards the police in the turf war over responsibility.

 

The two disaster victims identification centres in Phang Nga will eventually be closed down and all bodies moved to Ban Mai Khow Cemetery in Phuket, where teams of international police experts will examine the bodies, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said yesterday.

 

Pornthip?s team at Yan Yow Temple will continue until its identification mission is completed and then transfer all corpses to Phuket, where up to 26 refrigerated containers await them, he said.

 

All 1,474 bodies at Bang Muang Temple will next week be transferred to the new Thailand Tsunami Victims Identification Centre at Ban Mai Khow for further identification procedures and eventual collection, Bhokin added.

 

The bodies in Krabi will be left where they are as the number is relatively small, he said.

 

Bhokin also said that the one-stop centre close to Phuket International Airport would

 

suit the ?management challenges? and make it more convenient

 

for the relatives of foreign vic-

 

tims to identify and pick up the bodies.

 

Pornthip said that she would continue at Yan Yow Temple until her mission was complete and would then seek another public-interest job instead.

 

?I will continue my work. Nothing will be changed here. But what I will do after the bodies are moved is another story,? she said after the meeting.

 

?Nothing has improved during the seven years that I have been sacrificing my personal life in the fight to make a difference.?

 

?They [the police] are taking all the credit,? she told the Thai News Agency?s news-talk programme ?Khwa Khao Ma Khui? yesterday evening.

 

?And the prime minister himself is slanted towards the police,? she added.

 

The doctor also called on her supporters not to stereotype all police, because the matter was only an old conflict between her and police adviser General Nopadol Somboonsub and some high-ranking police officials.

 

?We get on very well with police officers working shoulder to shoulder in the site, but it was a matter of some police officials? personal vendetta against me,? she said.

 

Phermsak Lilakul

 

The Nation

 

PHANG NGA

[elef]

Bangkok Posts version is slightly different:

 

 

Truce called in body ID turf war

 

Porntip to stay, but bodies will be moved

 

By Piyaporn Wongruang & Achadtaya Cheunniran

 

Atruce has been declared in the turf war between Porntip Rojanasunan and the police.

 

A one-stop victim identification centre will be formed in Phuket, as proposed by police, while the khunying will finish off her work in Phangnga before handing it over to the centre.

 

The decision was made at a meeting with Pol Gen Nopadol Somboobsab, the police legal adviser; Khunying Porntip, the forensic scientist who oversees the largest body identification operation based in Phangnga; Interior Minister Pokin Pollakul; Khunying Potjaman Shinawatra, the prime minister's wife; and Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana.

 

Mr Pokin said the centre would enable all the work to be done in one place, from identifying victims to the process of sending bodies back to their families.

 

Dr Porntip would continue her work at Wat Yanyao before handing it over to the centre in Phuket.

 

The meeting was called to end a high-profile tiff between Khunying Porntip and Pol Gen Nopadol over identifying tsunami victims. They accused each other of lacking professionalism.

 

Dr Porntip, also deputy director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, has been in charge of identifying the victims at Wat Yanyao in Phangnga's Takua Pa district where about 2,000 corpses are kept, both Thai and foreign nationals, the largest forensic site so far.

 

Police, led by Pol Gen Nopadol, are working with Interpol, an international police organisation, to set up the Phuket centre where ante-mortem data on victims would be matched with post-mortem data.

 

The conflict flared as police accused Dr Porntip of concealing data, a charge she denied.

 

The meeting agreed that Khunying Porntip, who earlier threatened to quit, would go back to examining corpses at the temple.

 

After that, the corpses stored at the temple and the accompanying data would be sent to the centre in Phuket.

 

Mr Pokin said that in principle, only the one-stop centre would exist, and from the management point of view Phangnga was not a suitable place as the facilities were not as good as those in Phuket.

 

The police would store the corpses in Phuket's tambon Mai Khao where at least 26 containers were prepared.

 

About 1,400 corpses stored in containers nearby at Wat Bang Muang in Phangnga would be transferred to Phuket first as identification data was collected.

 

Pol Gen Nopadol, who is in charge of the Phuket operation centre, said information on victims would be matched with that sent by relatives to the centre.

 

DNA re-testing would be done upon request in cases where experts believed data was incomplete.

 

Pol Gen Nopadol said the bodies would be transferred soon. ``All the bodies should be kept here. Yanyao temple will be free of corpses. No more body pile-ups, and villagers can return to a normal life,'' he said.

 

Khunying Porntip said transferring bodies of Thai victims to Phuket would place a burden on relatives who had to travel to Phuket to collect them. Details given in English could also confuse villagers.

 

``I will continue working at Yanyao temple until the rest of the bodies are identified,'' she said.

 

She would quit her post at the CIFS if she could set up an independent forensic institute, and go into teaching forensic medicine instead.

 

She did not know when she would finish her task at the temple. She does not know the exact number of of corpses to be examined. ``There're still many corpses that cannot be identified,'' she said.

 

 

Bangkok Post

[Guest]

just saw on the TV news that the locals in takua pa are staging demonstrations, refusing to allow the corpses to be moved to phuket, threatening road blocks.

it's gonna be interesting if the government will solve the issue peacefully and with the necessary sensititivity, or if it deals with the usual hard handed manner.

[Nervous_Dog]

I think it happening during election time is also for her bad timing, normally, her clout as a "Untouchable" lets her get away with being independant.

 

However, Thaksin needs the police to back him up during the election proceess, hence, he is going to sie with the arseholes, rather than going with her, which I think he would normally do.

 

What I LOVE about this lady is she doesn;t grand stand, and she basically said FUCK YOU to thaksin, by saying "Thaksin is siding with the police"

 

Very very brave women, being a favourite of the king and the public is NOT a bullet proof vest.

 

DOG

[New Petchburi Pete]

Truely a humbling report fly. Thanks for sharing. I think I can appreciate your frustration.

[kamui]

REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE: The unsavoury politics of corpse verification

 

The Nation

Published on January 17, 2005

 

(...)

 

On the surface, it is simply a ?turf war? between the two institutions, relations between which have long been simmering. The public is quite familiar with the rivalry as well as the constant bickering over the two institutions? ?trustworthiness? and ?creditability? in the way that they have handled various high-profile crime investigations in the past several years, especially the one into the death of Hangthong Thammawattana.

 

But since the giant waves struck, relations between the two have deteriorated rapidly in the presence of thousands of dead bodies. Last week, those simmering tensions finally came to a boil as the row became personalised and politicised.

 

It is an open secret that Khunying Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand is the police?s No-1 nemesis. For years she has played a key role in finding fault with the reports the police have filed in numerous criminal cases. Her scientific and forensic tests have often contradicted police conclusions. Worse, the police have found themselves confronting numerous scandals involving such practises as tampering with and the fabrication of evidence.

 

The schism deepened when the CIFS moved under the Ministry of Justice following the bureaucratic reform.

 

Since the police no longer have a monopoly on criminal investigation, especially high-profile crimes, the role of the forensic institute has been highlighted ? as has the career and reputation of Pornthip. She is among the doctors and forensic experts who have advocated the separation of forensic investigation from the daily work of police to ensure impartial outcomes.

 

In the past four years, she has become Thaksin?s favourite senior official. When the Tak Bai carnage occurred, she was there at the scene, summoned by Thaksin, to verify the causes of death of the dead militants. She confirmed the government?s position.

 

(...)

 

In more way than one, by coming out now, police have had their revenge. Now all the 3,700 in Phang Nga, 400 in Krabi and 39 in Phuket, as of yesterday, will be re-examined by the police. The foreign experts including volunteers are happy to work with the Thai officials from either groups. They are non-partisan.

 

(...)

 

It would interesting to know why the police have decided to make such a big noise at this time. Could this hue and cry have been possible without some form of agreement from Thaksin and his inner circle? Are they just pawns in the power game orchestrated by somebody high up?

 

After all, Thaksin was a former police officer and made his fortune at the police headquarters. Throughout this four-year reign, police have figured prominently in his political blinksmanship.

 

So far, the rescue effort has done much to burnish the image of the Thaksin government and anyone else who has been involved. And so far only Pornthip can match the prime minister in terms of benefits received.

 

(...)

 

Now the official fate of thousands of missing foreigners hangs in the balance. Nobody has any clear idea when the collection of DNA samples will be completed. Thaksin has been characteristically gung-ho when it come to the time frame for identifying the corpses, reiterating that one month is sufficient to complete the task.

 

(...)

 

Sad but true, the Thai government is eager to adopt a ?business-as-usual? attitude by focussing on revitalising the economy of the affected areas. It clearly wants to wrap up the search-and-rescue operations, despite people?s sensitivities and the government?s repeated pledge to continue cooperation.

 

The government should assure the families of missing persons that the search will continue as long as it requires, though on a reduced scale, until all cases have been examined and recorded.

 

Without a proper ?closure? of this tragedy that has been felt by all the global communities, Thailand?s well-known generosity or ?nam-jai? will be tarnished forever.

 

Kavi Chongkittavorn

 

complete Text here