Former general says 'influential people' help Thai human trafficking
Bangkok: In a country where ruling generals deal harshly with critics, Thailand's media have bravely condemned threats to sue a top policeman, who said in Melbourne "influential people" were implicated in human trafficking and wanted to kill him.
The Bangkok Post called for the claims by former major-general Paween Pongsirin to be investigated seriously and for him to be allowed to return safely to Thailand.
Former major general Paween Pongsirin says human trafficking in Thailand is a big network that involves the military, politicians and police.Credit:Bangkok Post
The newspaper said instead of threatening to sue Mr Paween for defamation, Thai authorities should be making it a priority to crack down on human trafficking networks to "restore confidence in the much-maligned law-enforcement institution and repair the damage the illegal trade has done to the nation's standing".
How Thai authorities handled Mr Paween's allegations would be a key test for the junta that toppled a democratically elected government in 2014 to "exercise its power and nail the influential figures who are part of the trafficking and smuggling rings", the newspaper said in an editorial.
Many women are trafficked into sex work in south-east Asia.
The Bangkok Nation described threats to sue Mr Paween for defamation by Thailand's national police chief Jakthip Chaijinda as a "knee-jerk" reaction, saying accusations by a senior police officer that fellow officers wanted him dead for exposing their corruption was a "very serious matter".
Similar comments were made in Thai language media.
The junta often seizes critics, including journalists, and takes them to military bases, where they are held for so-called "attitude readjustment".
Critics are warned that if they continue opposing the generals their private assets will be seized.
The comments by Mr Paween, who plans to seek political asylum in Australia, have shattered the junta's assertions that it has thwarted trafficking across its borders.
Mr Paween headed a high-profile task force created earlier in 2015, after the discovery of mass graves in the mountains of southern Thailand.
For years Thai authorities had denied any involvement of corrupt officials in the trafficking of thousands of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis, who took to boats across the Bay of Bengal to try to reach Malaysia.
Images of mass graves in the mountains of southern Thailand and starving and distressed families on boats shocked the world.
Mr Paween's taskforce exposed networks of traffickers and led to the arrest of more than 90 of people, including politicians, government officials, police and a high-ranking army officer.
But Mr Paween was forced to wind down his investigations in September and he was transferred abruptly to Thailand's southern provinces, where Muslim rebels have been waging a decade-long insurgency.
He said he would be killed by traffickers and senior police involved in the trade there, and quit the force rather than take up his new post.
"Human trafficking is a big network that involves lots of military, politicians and police," Mr Paween said after arriving in Melbourne.
"While I was supervising those cases I was warned all along," he said.
Lindsay Murdoch is a three-time winner of the Walkley Award, Australia's top award for journalistic excellence. Lindsay is a former correspondent based in Singapore, Jakarta and Darwin. In 1999 he covered the tumultuous events in East Timor, and in 2003 he covered the Iraq war while embedded with US Marines.
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