Published on January 11, 2006

Police chided for failing to arrest monk’s killer

A monk has returned from the United States in a bid to goad police into arresting the killer of Phra Supoj Suwajano.

Phra Supoj was gunned down on land at the centre of an ownership dispute in Chiang Mai’s Fang district last June.

The monk who returned to Thailand, Phra Singthon Naraphaso, now claims he owns the 500-rai site on which the Mettadhamma Buddhist Centre is located in Fang.

Phra Singthon yesterday explained the complex history behind his ownership of the land and demanded that police speed up their investigation into Phra Supoj’s murder.

Despite close monitoring by environmental and civic groups, the investigation appears to have ground to a halt after the media lost interest.

Phra Singthon, a former head of the Philosophy Department at Chiang Mai University, also delivered a warning to those trying to drive the monks off the land. “We are willing to die for our religion,” he said, referring to the group of monks who remained at the centre continuing Phra Supoj’s teachings on conservation and Dhamma.

The slain monk was an ardent conservationist and a staunch opponent of illegal logging.

He was killed shortly after exposing a forest encroachment network allegedly linked to a national politician. Activists suspect his murder was related to a conflict over the monks’ land.

Phra Singthon said he initially bought 79 rai of land from villagers to build the centre, so his students could study Buddhism in a natural setting. This later expanded to 500 rai, as more and more villagers mortgaged their Nor Sor 3 Kor land titles with him.

In 1989, however, he was diagnosed with cancer and took out a mortgage on the land to pay for his treatment, he said. Later, he tried to sell the land for Bt25 million to an investor named Paithoon, but the sale was never finalised as Paithoon went bankrupt, said Phra Singthon.

He cliamed to have later paid off the mortgage and regained ownership of the land. After he had repaid the mortgage, a group of local investors claimed that the Nor Sor 3 Kor land titles Singthon held were fake, Phra Singthon said.

They also claimed to own the land, and said they intended to sell it for Bt30 million, he said.

This group was behind the effort to drive the monks off the land, Phra Singthon said.

Shots had been fired at the monastery even before Supoj was murdered, he added. Supoj, however, refused to leave.

Phra Singthon and Paithoon will today lodge information with the provincial land office in a bid to prove their ownership claim and inform the public about the offences allegedly committed by investors claiming to own the land.

The commander of Police Region 5, however, said provincial police were continuing to investigate Phra Supoj’s murder. Lt-General Panupong Singhara na Ayutthaya said Chiang Mai police were still gathering evidence for the Special Investigation Division, which is in charge of the murder investigation.

The Nation

Chiang Mai

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