Four Die in Thai School Bus Machine Gun Attack by Phairath Khampha 19 June 2002 Gunmen opened fire on a school bus near Thailand's border with Burma killing at least four children and wounding another 13. Officials said the attack took place in Ratchaburi province on a road 100 kilometres west of the capital, Bangkok. Three men opened fire with M-16 rifles on the bus, which was carrying more than 20 children from the Ban Kha Witthaya secondary school, just after 0700 on June 4, 2002. However, Thongmon Khemthong, the driver of the pickup truck used as a school bus, metamorphosed from an overnight hero to a possible cause of the attack by three masked gunmen on his passengers - 24 children attending Ban Kha Witthaya School. The driver of the bus managed to swerve away from the gunmen, who stepped out in front of it and sprayed it with bullets. "I heard a series of loud shots and many of my friends were hit," a 13-year-old girl told a radio station. "My school uniform was splattered with their blood." Border closed The gunmen were said to be wearing masks and jungle fatigues as worn by ethnic Karen guerrillas who operate in the area. There was no obvious motive for the killing. The border had been closed for at least one week due to a series of clashes between Thai and Burmese troops; clashes more fierce than the ones concurrently taking place between Pakistani and Indian troops in the Kashmir. Ratchaburi province was the scene of a two-day hospital stand-off in January 2000 between government forces and separatistss, in which all 10 separatists were summarily executed extra-judicially by Thai special forces [see story: Hundreds Held in Thai Hospital Siege-10 Kareni Fighters Summarily Executed After Thai Commandos Storm Hospital]. Three months earlier, a group of Karen guerillas were allowed to go free after taking hostages at the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. The Karens have been fighting for independence from Burma since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948. Driver may be cause of attack Thongmon Khemthong, the driver of the pickup truck used as a school bus, metamorphosed from an overnight hero to a possible cause of the attack by three masked gunmen on his passengers - 24 children attending Ban Kha Witthaya School. Ban Kha sub-district villagers had glorified Thongmon as a saviour when he had claimed that there would have been more casualties had he not sped away from the ambush. Ratchaburi Governor Komet Daengthongdi, however, created a sensation with his remark that Thongmon's business and personal conflicts might have driven the unknown men to rake the makeshift school bus with M-16 attack rifles. Although police did not completely rule out the possibility that the shooting was linked to the recent border skirmishes in Burma, police took Komet's comment seriously and have made it the focus of their investigation. Police questioned Thongmon on June 7 and told him to stop giving any more interviews to the press. Thongmon - a native of Nakhon Pathom's Kampaengsaen district - moved to Ban Kha sub-district over 10 years ago as a man of means. He used 1 million baht (US$1 = 42 baht) inherited from his mother to start a general merchandise store, a karaoke lounge and a school transportation service. Conflicts arising from these business, which many believe were operated as a front for illegal drug trafficking, were suspected of being the motive behind the shooting. A source said ethnic Karens used to patronise Thongmon's karaoke bar and had fights. Thongmon also allegedly raped a Karen woman who worked for him and the Karens could have come back to seek revenge. Running the general merchandise store led him to become acquainted with the Karens, who would order supplies such as medication to stop bleeding from wounds obtained in their battles with Burmese troops. They were reportedly cheated by Thongmon and this might have been a motive for their staging the attack. Thongmon's school-bus business, which had been in service for only 21 days, might have upset other bus operators who might have resented the new competition. The killing of competitors is not an unusual means to eliminate competitionin Thailand's business circles. Ban Kha police said Thongmon was once arrested on a drug charge and turned out to be a mole for the police. Police suspected that when the three gunmen tried to stop Thongmon, he might have panicked, thinking that drug traders or police were after him, so he tried to run them over. "The gunmen may have only intended to rob his pickup and not to shoot anyone to death judging from the direction of the bullets," he said. "Had Thongmon stopped the car, the gunmen may not have hit the students with their fire. They might have only taken the pickup away or held the students hostage for ransom," the police source said. His father-in-law, however, denied that his son-in-law was the cause of the shooting, saying that although Thongmon was once arrested on a drug charge he had only two amphetamine tablets on him, which he needed for the hard work on the farm. Moreover, it had happened 15 years before, he added. It was also not his son-in-law's idea to start the school-bus business. Parents had asked him to do it since they had to wait for a school bus in front of his house, said the father-in-law. Prime Minister's Office Minister Thamarak Isarangura said that if police could find any evidence of Thongkon's involvement in the shooting, they would start investigating any group that might want to undermine national stability by staging the episode. Bus attack probe links driver to debt claims Inquiries into the brutal attack on a Ratchaburi school bus on June 11 focused on the questioning of an ethnic Karen colonel. Investigators were led to believe the attack was due to a squabble over debt, a top Army intelligence officer said. General Pallop Pinmanee said he had met Colonel Luk Kapaw, who informed him that the attack was the work of his subordinates, who tried to collect debts from Thongmorn Khemthong, the driver of the bus. "Col Luk Kapaw told me that he knew the attackers and would trace and arrest them. He needs time for the work," Pallop said. Another Army investigator, Maj-General Kattiya Sawasdipol, alleged that Thongmorn had done drug business with the colonel, who had some 400 ethnic Karen under control and residing in a plantation in Ratchaburi's Baan Kha sub-district. Kittiya said the investigation showed that the business had gone wrong and the Karen wanted to collect debts from Thongmorn on June 4. "The Karen militia then blocked the road but Thongmorn refused to stop. The spraying of bullets at the bus and the students started when the driver was trying to drive through them," he said. Pallop said while waiting for the Karen colonel, police would re-interrogate Thongmorn because they had found his account of the attack differed from that of the students who had survived the ordeal. "We suspect that Thongmorn is hiding something. His account was different. For example, he told police that the attackers wore masks and he could not remember them. But some students said that the attackers wore only head-dress and they remembered the faces well," he said. Pallop added that at present, investigators believed the attack was not aimed at undermining Thai-Burmese relations. Meanwhile, Thongmorn lodged a defamation complaint with police against Pallop. He said he did not know Col Luk Kapaw and had never had any business with ethnic Karen tribespeople. "It is true that I was arrested for possessing marijuana, but only a small amount," he said. He claimed he had given a different account of the gunmen because he was very nervous on the day. "When the attackers blocked the road and started shooting, I bent down to escape the bullets. That's why I could not remember well what the attackers looked like," he said. Padomhan Shar, secretary-general of the Karen National Union, said his members were not involved in the attack and that, after investigation, he found that Thongmorn had never done any business with the Karen under his control.