At an Army meeting, the 1st Division Commander insisted that military troops were not responsible for the 6 deaths in Pathumwanaram Temple. The Army will send ISOC staff to give correct information to villagers.
On 7 June, meetings were held among the Army top brass for more than 600 high-level officers and commanders to discuss the army’s performance for the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) in the recent crackdown operations against the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship or the red shirts.
Deputy Army Spokesperson Col Sirichan Nga-thong said that in the afternoon meeting with commanders and higher officers, Army Chief Gen Anupong Paojinda gave details of the military operations, and provided facts as opposed to what had been distorted by certain parties. The Army will gather the facts and information for ISOC staff to disseminate to villagers. The ISOC staff have previously met and worked with villagers in the economic crisis rescue programme in accordance with the Sufficiency Economy, and will not be local soldiers. So the information will come from the authorities in the centre, who understand the problems and know what has happened. The staff will answer villagers’ questions, give them the correct information, and explain to them why the military had to step in.
Col Sirichan also defended the Army’s procurement of arms and equipment, including the surveillance airship for the southern border provinces, the GT200 bomb detectors, armoured vehicles from Ukraine, etc., which had been debated in Parliament. She said that the Army’s procurement had already been scrutinized by authorities, so it was transparent.
As for the incident at Pathumwanaram Temple on 19 May, the Special Warfare Command and the 1st Division (the King’s Guard) which were deployed in the area insisted that they did not shoot into the temple, and their troops were not deployed there when the killings happened.
Gen Kampanat Ruddit, Commander of the 1st Division (the King’s Guard) insisted in the meeting ‘military troops did not do it.’
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