Daniel Pedersen

The Courier Mail

January 26, 2002

By Daniel Pedersen

Thailand

A murder spells trouble for a privileged Thai family, writes Daniel Pedersen in Bangkok.

THE murder trial of former Thai army officer Duangchalerm Yoobamrung began last week without him.

In fact, since October 29 last year, when police allege Duangchalerm executed an undercover police officer in a bar, apparently because the officer stepped on his toes, a massive hunt has failed to net him.

It only took a couple of hours after the police officer’s death for investigators to issue an arrest warrant for the 29-year-old army sub-lieutenant.

But he was in hiding, leaving only a note stating his innocence.

Some sources say he is at home with his father, a senior New Aspiration Party politician. Others claim he has been sighted on the Thai-Burma border with a senior army commander.

But the most likely scenario, it seems, is that he has fled to neighbouring Cambodia.

For the most part Cambodia is a lawless state, and Duangchalerm is thought to be on the small island of Koh Kong, opposite Thailand’s Trat province in the far south. Captain Nopporn Wuthironarit, commander of the Trat marine corps, believes Cambodia would be a logical choice for the fugitive because he could get a passport in Phnom Penh to travel anywhere in the world.

The allegation is that late on the night of October 29 in Club Twenty, part of the swanky Chao Phraya Hotel on Ratchcadapisek Rd, Bangkok, Duangchalerm pulled a pistol from his pocket and shot Sergeant Suvichai Rodwimud in the head at point blank range.

Police say they have witnesses willing to testify against Duangchalerm, and those witnesses have been placed under maximum protection.

The reputations of the men of the Yoobamrung family precede them.

Their father, Chalerm, is a senior member of the ruling coalition and a police captain himself.

In fact, until about a week after the incident, he was New Aspiration’s deputy leader, second-in-command only to Deputy Prime Minister General Chavalit Yongchaidyudh.

Chalerm has three sons, upon whom he dotes, and his boys have the uncanny ability to become involved in a brawl at almost any licensed premise they enter.

His other sons, Wanchalerm and Artharn, both police sub-lieutenants, are accused of trying to help Duangchalerm flee the scene of the alleged crime.

Police officers present at the scene, who had been drinking with Suvichai, claim Wanchalerm pulled a gun on them as his younger brother made good his escape.

Duangchalerm himself has been accused of being responsible for 12 violent incidents in the past two years in which the police have been involved.

He has never been found guilty of anything.

In the dynamic world of Thai politics, Chalerm is considered something of a master when it comes to diversionary tactics.

When police established the calibre of bullet that killed Suvichai, they found Chalerm and his wife Lamnao owned two guns of the same calibre.

These are among their 40 other firearms and 100 personal vehicles.

A subsequent raid on the family compound by scores of police failed to find Duangchalerm or the family’s two 6.35mm pistols.

On December 3, Chalerm claimed to have merely misplaced them and said he would undoubtedly find them if he continued his search.

He is yet to produce the pistols.

Chalerm also made conflicting statements almost daily after the murder.

A new lead in the case came on January 12 when a diesel and fertiliser bomb exploded in a casino in the Cambodian border town of Poipet, killing a guard.

It was reported that among those who fled the casino after the blast were members of Duangchalerm’s family.

Law enforcement officials were quick to suggest the clan may have been there to farewell Duangchalerm before he disappeared to a third country.

ENDS