Salang testifies on massacre

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

                                        November 5, 1998 
                     NARCOTICS

 Salang testifies on
 massacre

 Insists police opened fire in self-defence

 Suphan Buri

 A former deputy police chief yesterday told the provincial court that
 his men acted in self-defence when they shot to death six suspected
 drug traffickers here two years ago.

 Pol Gen Salang Bunnag, who retired from the police force last
 September, yesterday testified in a pre-trial hearing to determine
 whether the fatal shooting amounted to extrajudicial killings or
 murders. About 40 relatives of the dead suspects were also present.

 Recalling the incident, Pol Gen Salang said he learned on Nov 26,
 1996, that six armed men were holding three people hostage in a
 house in Bang Pla Ma district. The gang had also shot and wounded a
 local policeman, he said.

 Pol Gen Salang said he flew to the province the next morning to
 supervise a police operation to free the hostages. About 200
 policemen were deployed to lay siege to the house.

 Pol Gen Salang said he finally talked the six men into releasing the
 hostages. Later on, the police took the six back to the house to look
 for weapons.

 Suddenly, he said, bursts of gunfire were heard from the house, adding
 that he was outside the house at that time.

 Pol Gen Salang told the court he believed his men had acted in
 self-defence. News reports after the massacre however said the six
 suspects were unarmed and hand-cuffed when they were taken back
 to the house.

 The case had been closed but was revived when the Democrat-led
 government came into power.

 Pol Gen Salang claimed the move to revive the case was politically
 motivated. The officer was eventually suspended from active duty.

 Pol Lt-Gen Seri Temiyavej, then commissioner of the Central
 Investigation Bureau, was assigned to look into the case. The
 investigation found 16 policemen and a police major-general guilty of
 murder.

                                                       
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 Last Modified: Thu, Nov 5, 1998
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