National Police chief Kowit Watana is in the hot seat and might lose his job in coming days.

Both the Council for National Security (CNS) and the Surayud government have given him several opportunities to redeem himself after the September 19 coup, because he is seen as a crony of the previous Thaksin regime.

His handling of the investigation into the Bangkok bombings on New Year's Eve has once again raised eyebrows among the military leaders as to what the police chief is up to.

The suspects, nabbed by the police over the weekend, happen to belong to the same team that allegedly tried to assassinate Thaksin Shinawatra at the height of last year's political turmoil. But the car-bomb "assassination plot" against the ousted premier was mostly discounted as a joke, because it involved a bunch of junior military officials, who did not seem to know what they were actually doing. The case has now been passed on to public prosecutors and has almost been forgotten by the general public.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont indicated last Friday that the government would give Kowit another chance to redeem himself by monitoring the police's progress in the hunt for the Bangkok bombers. The following day, Saturday, saw the police stake out 18 places - mostly military compounds in Bangkok, greater Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom and Lop Buri - before calling out military officers for questioning.

The suspects include Phiphop Juenglueang-on, who is in charge of bus vans running between Bang Bon and Mor Chit. He is a confidant of Colonel Suraphol Supradit, one of the suspects in the car-bomb "assassination plot".

Other suspects include Sergeant Sommai Tharaphol and Sergeant Jessadaporn Fongjamorn from the Special Warfare Force at Lop Buri, Lt-Colonel Suchart Khatsungneon, now attached to the Internal Security Command Centre, and Karun Suvicha, a navy officer.

The of arrests did not impress Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin. He warned Kowit that if the suspects turn out to be "scapegoats" the police chief will bear the consequences.

General Sonthi has been reluctant to take on Kowit directly after the coup as the two have been friendly. And the military leaders don't want to create a rift with the police, as has happened in the past. Still, Kowit appears to be tilting police support towards remnants of the previous regime.

General Anupong Phaochinda, an assistant army chief, admitted that the suspects arrested for the Bangkok bombs "looked strange". However, the military has sent officers to look into the police investigation. Under the Thai justice system, when police conduct criminal inquiries into any military officers, the military sends its officers to monitor the questioning.

Asked why the police had attempted to link the car-bomb "plot" to the Bangkok bombs, General Anupong said: "That's something the police have to clarify. But it sounds rather strange to me."

Indeed, it has sounded very strange from the beginning. After the Bangkok bombs, police spokesman Pol Lt-General Achirawit Supanpesat pointed an accusing finger at militants from the South for the shocking blasts that killed three people and injured almost 50 people. But General Surayud asserted shortly after that the bombs were the work of people who had lost political power.

How could the police spokesperson contradict the prime minister in such an important case? Achirawit has kept his mouth shut ever since.

From Beijing, Thaksin faxed a statement denying any link to the Bangkok bombs. He gave his own theory that insurgents from the South were responsible.

In fact, the Surayud government had intelligence reports warning that bombs might be set off in Bangkok from about Christmas. It had warned Kowit to take pre-emptive measures as the report suggested bombs might occur at CentralWorld and Seacon Square. Bombs did explode at those two shopping centres, plus six more sites in the capital, while Bangkokians gathered to celebrate the New Year.

Kowit did little or was slow to act in the face of the bomb threats. Moreover, inquiries into the blasts appear to be moving at a snail's pace. Few fingerprints or other forensic evidence of major value appears to have been found. The strongest evidence was a closed-circuit TV recording of a man wearing a cap placing a bomb at Saphan Khwai. Yet the police did not appear to take this lead seriously enough to pursue that lead aggressively.

Military sources now say that the lacklustre probe into the Bangkok bombs might be the last straw for Kowit. The police chief will have to assume responsibility if it turns out, once again, that the suspects are simply scapegoats who will walk free when the case goes to court. 

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation

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The Suspects

Nearly 100 police officers and soldiers searched 18 locations in Bangkok and its outlying suburbs early on Saturday and detained eight military and police officers and seven civilians for inquiry. None of them have been charged and no further details were released.

They include:

1. Lt-Colonel Suchart Kudseungnern - an officer attached to the Special Warfare Command in Lop Buri. He denies all knowledge of the New Year bomb attacks.

2. Col Suraphol Supradit - a suspect accused in an apparent plot to assassinate ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last August.

3. Lieutenant Thawatchai Klin-chana - a suspect accused in an apparent plot to assassinate ousted Prime Minister Thaksin. Thawatchai was arrested on the morning of August 24 while driving a Daewoo sedan loaded with explosives under the Bang Plat flyover, where the vehicle was intercepted.

4. Lt-Colonel Manas Sukprasert - an officer attached to Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) who was among military personnel linked to the alleged car-bomb plot to kill Thaksin. Manas was an aide-de-camp of Former ISOC's Deputy Director Gen Pallop Pinmanee, who was sacked by ousted PM Thaksin after the assassination attempt on Thaksin. Manas denies any involvement in the New Year bombings.

5. Pipop Juengluang-on, 50, the organiser of a van passenger service in Bang Bon district. He is close to Col Suraphol.

6. Sergeant Chakrit Jantara, or Sergeant Yak (Giant), who is a suspect in the assassination plot against former PM Thaksin. He identified some suspects of the New Year bombings to the police from CCTV records.

Others arrests include Songdej Seangprateep, Navy Inspector Warrant Officer Karun Suvitcha, Sergeant Sommai Tarabhumi and Jessadaporn Fongjamon of the Army's special warfare unit based in Lop Buri.