Witness Statement of Police Lt-Col Wipot Apornrat Regarding Deaths at Wat Patum, May 2010

This is the witness statement of Police Lieutenant-Colonel Wipot Apornrat regarding the army crackdown on May 19, 2010. It is dated December 7, 2011. The central allegation is that disproportionate force was used against the protest in 2010. Personal details of Lt. Col. Wipot have been redacted by ourselves.

Lt-Col Wipot Apornrat was banned from political activities for five years [in late 2008] as he was an executive member of the People's Power Party (PPP).

He stated he was a UDD supporter and had also joined the protest.

He stated that when the government cracked down on the [previous] 2009 UDD protest, the protesters had blocked Din Daeng intersection and found many war weapons inside army trucks. However, every time they found such weapons3 they would return them to the police. This showed that the UDD protested peacefully - because even though they had seized weapons from the army, they had no intention of using them against the army.

In 2010, the UDD protesters returned and demanded that the government dissolve the parliament and hold a general election - this protest was also peaceful.

When asked whether he thought that the army’s crackdown was consistent with international standards or not Lt-Col Wipot Apornrat stated that it was not because there was no negotiation and even if those negotiations failed, the govt must then issue the warning, then use batons, water canon and/or rubber bullets to disperse the protesters - there must strictly be no use of “live” rounds. But during the crackdown on May 19th live round bullets were used. This is backed up by CRES’s own document which indicates that during the April/May 2010 crackdown, the army used 120,000 live round bullets and 2,600 sniper bullets which resulted in 93 deaths and 2,000 injuries.