The sudden departure of Thailand’s chief human trafficking investigator, Police Major General Paween Pongsirin, for Australia, apparently in fear for his life, raises the question of who and what he was afraid of when he fled. The top ranks of Thai army and law enforcement have been wracked with behind-the-scenes scandal for weeks, including suicides, disappearances and flights abroad.
No one knows who is connected to the forces that drove Paween abroad, although many others who have disappeared, died or committed suicide appear to have been in circles revolving around Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, who is expected to inherit the throne of his ailing father, the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 88 on Dec. 5.
The chaos illustrates the enormous disarray at the top of Thailand’s police and military, and the harsh crackdown led by former Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha in May of 2014 has done nothing to clean it up.
Paween meets with rights NGO
Fortify Rights, a nonprofit human rights NGO based in Southeast Asia and registered in the US and Switzerland, issued a press release on Dec. 10 saying Paween, a key witness in a high profile mass criminal trial of 91 alleged rights traffickers in Thailand, feared for his life and is now at an undisclosed location.
Paween was tasked with the investigation after mass graves were discovered in southern Thailand and on the Malaysian border in May of 2015. Paween said his investigation, which led to arrest warrants for 153 people including local politicians, businessmen, four policemen, members of the Thai army and navy and Internal Security Operation Command, was stopped by what he said were “high-ranking government officials” who should be facing justice. (Courtesy of Asia Sentinel)
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