Backpedaling on men in black

No sooner had the policeman who will be Thailand’s top cop shouted that he had captured men in black who killed soldiers in April 2010, than he’s backpedaling.

Just a day or so ago, Police General Somyos Pumpanmuang proudly declared that exiled red shirt Kritsuda Khunasen was involved in money and weapons transfers to the alleged men and women in black arrested by the police. Now Somyos says that “police have not established a clear link between the 26-year-old activist and the armed militants.”

Yesterday, Somyos “insisted that police’s ongoing effort to extradite Ms. Kritsuda is needed to question her about the Blackshirts.” Today he says the police don’t know where she is and, at present, can prove nothing about the claimed links.

A couple of days ago, Somyos was declaring that he arrested “men in black” were connected to “Redshirt militant group [that] were responsible for the murder of an army colonel during the political unrest in 2010.” This refers to Colonel Romklao Thuwatham. Even the soldier’s widow thanked the cops. Today, the police have stated: “This case is not related to the killing of Col. Romklao Thuvatham…”.

Khaosod reports the obvious:

The retraction of the link between the Blackshirt suspects and the murder of Col. Romklao is only the latest inconsistency to puzzle observers and raise questions about the accuracy of the police investigation.

If backpedaling was an Olympic sport, Somyos would have the gold medal.