24 May 2002
by Daranee Duangmanee
The censure debate in Thailand's parliament on May 22, 2002 was preceded by the dramatic and unprecedented scene of a Buddhist monk armed with an assault rifle storming into the Parliament compound. Firing his AK-47 into the sky, Phra Maha Sayan Jirasupho, 37, took security guard Kamphol Chomsinsap hostage. As the monk dragged the guard into the Parliament's security centre next to the entrance at 8.25am more than 30 reporters stampeded out. Sayan later released Kamphol and demanded that the reporters do a news story about him. Presenting a large file of documents, the monk said was seeking justice from Parliament over an incident in which he said police officers from Chanthaburi's Khao Soi Dao Police Station attempted to force a confession from him by physically attacking him and stripping him naked.
Phra Maha Sayan Jirasutho, a 37-year-old monk from Wat Banna Sanad in Chanthaburi, produced the weapon from under his robes while awaiting a reply to his request.
Phra Maha Sayan, whose layman's name is Sayan Saowiang, was taken to Dusit police station, where he was disrobed before questioning. The suspect said he had travelled to Bangkok by tour bus from Chanthaburi with the rifle concealed in his robes. He explained the stunt had been planned to draw attention to a land dispute in which he had become embroiled.
According to the monk, police arrested him on charges of trespassing on forest reserve when he was on a pilgrimage. While locked up at the police station, the monk said a group of officers led by Captain Suwit Sudsenphom physically assaulted him and dragged him around violently until his saffron robe tore off leaving him naked. Sayan said he was humiliated by being left without clothes for at least five hours in view of the many people who visited the police station.
After a friend bailed him out, Sayan sought to lodge a complaint against the officers concerned with Khao Soi Dao Police Station, Chathanburi Police Command, the Crimes Suppression Bureau and the National Police Office to no avail. The monk also reportedly filed a complaint with the Administrative Court. He also once attempted to meet Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to address his grievances without success.
"I am very stressed," he said.
At one point during his session with the reporters, the monk brandished his AK-47 assault rifle wildly after one reporter refused to sit down despite repeated requests. The reporters fled but quickly returned after the monk appeared to calm down.
Policeman-turned-politician Lt-General Wannarat Kotcharat, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner and incumbent Democrat party-list MP, later initiated negotiations with the monk. He offered to surrender if Democrat party-list MP Siriwat Kachornprasart came to meet him. The monk said he had once met Siriwat and the politician had been kind to him.
"I do not come here to kill anybody. I'm ready to surrender and fight my case in court," he said, although he warned those present "Don't step too close to me!"
However, while reporters attempted to contact Siriwat at 9am, police cleared a throng of reporters and parliament officials surrounding the centre. A police officer posing as a photographer then charged Sayan and other officers rushed in to subdue him. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Maj-General Jongrak Juthanont told officials to ask senior monks in the area to defrock Sayan.
He was then charged with illegally possessing an assult weapon and ammunition, unauthorised carrying of firearms in a public place and firing a gun in public without a justified reason. Sayan, who claimed to be a former solider, denied intentionally firing the rifle saying that it went off accidentally. He claimed he found the AK-47 assault rifle at a burial ground next to his temple. Hiding the weapon in his saffron robe, Sayan had travelled to Parliament by bus.
Interior Minister Purachai Piumsombun said Sayan's complaint would be addressed. But it sounded like one of the usual empty promises that senior politicians make in Thailand.