Japanese embassy official meets Thailand’s national police chief over death of Japanese cameraman

BANGKOK, Dec 15 — A senior Japanese embassy official on Wednesday met National Police Chief Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree to ask the Thai authorities to speed up their investigation into the death of a Japanese cameraman killed during Red Shirt protest.

Cameraman Hiroyuki Muramoto of the Reuters news agency was shot dead while filming the confrontation between the government security forces and the anti-government ‘Red Shirt’ United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in April.

Nobuaki Ito, Minister of Political Affairs at the Japanese embassy in Bangkok, met Gen Wichean at the National Police Bureau headquarters today for more than an hour.

Gen Wichean said after the meeting that Mr Ito came to hand over the document received from Puea Thai Party list MP and UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan to him.

He said Mr Ito told him that initially the Japanese government believed that the document was real even though the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said the document did not tally with the findings of the Thai authorities.

The Japanese envoy has asked Thailand to speed up its investigation with discretion and fairness, the national police chief said.

Gen Wichean said he has told Mr Ito about the procedure and that high ranking police officers were appointed to supervise the case.

Mr Ito seemed satisfied with the process although no details indicated who actually killed the Japanese cameraman, said Gen Wichean.

Mr Jatuporn claimed to have received a leaked secret DSI report which indicated that troops were probably responsible for some deaths of people killed in Bangkok during the Red Shirt rallies.

Among these were Mr Hiroyuki who was shot on April 10 at Khok Wua intersection and three people found dead after May 19 at Wat Pathum Wanaram.

DSI Director General Tharit Pengdit, speaking in his capacity as chief of the investigation of the cases of terrorism and unrest, said earlier that the probe of the deaths during the discord are still underway and no conclusion has been reached, while also urging the Red Shirt leader not to raise the issue of the incomplete investigation to influence the public.

Eighty-nine persons, both security personnel and protesters, were killed and more than 1,900 were wounded in a number of clashes between troops and demonstrators of the UDD during their ten-week long rallies against the Democrat-led coalition government. (MCOT online news)