The girl who had her arm severed in Saraburi
Without the media there would be fewer opportunities to bear witness to the depths that human beings can sink to. A movie or a television show is just an idea, and although we can misrecognise the idea as real, it lacks certain elements of relevance. Perhaps this is why the words “Inspired by true events” can somehow make a film more moving. (Although after further investigation, there are countless movies (Wolf Creek, Hostel, Fargo, etc.) that abuse this model.)
One news story this week that has been on my mind is that of Police Lance Corporal Nirut Thammasap who is reported to have severed a girl’s arm in Saraburi on February 25. Suphansa Wichananant alleges that Nirut and his friends (two or three, I’ve read both figures) became miffed at her unwillingness to eat and dink with them. She accuses the men of intimidating and insulting her. When she made off on her motorbike, the men are said to have chased her down and Nirut then cut off her arm with a Sparta. Suphansa crashed her bike and broke her leg in three places.
The policeman responsible had the audacity to claim that her arm had been severed when she crashed in an accident. He says that Suphansa had approached his table and tried to extort the sum of 500,000 baht from him. This is obviously not true. Suphansa is a factory worker (or a karaoke hostess, depending on which story you read), Nirut a policeman. There is no way she could even conceive of such an idea (is there?). Furthermore, the figure of 500,000 is ridiculously high. The nail in the coffin of Nirut’s story is that a doctor has already gone on record stating that Suphansa’s arm was severed by a sharp object. Nirut faces charges of attempted murder and has been suspended from duty.
It’s hard to believe that someone could do something as evil as this, The world is full of atrocities, most much worse than this one, but it is the (alleged) unprovoked nature of the attack that reveals something frightening about humanity. What is perhaps more disturbing is that Suphansa had to travel to 100 kilometers to Bangkok to have her story heard. The police is Saraburi refused to take her story seriously because they said she was in shock. Her arm was cut off above the elbow and they refused to do a damn thing. Would it be wrong to now cut off Nirut’s arm as punishment? I’ll save for that discussion for another time.
Techno’ tags: Bangkok, Thailand news
March 26th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Typical Matthew
March 27th, 2007 at 3:21 am
I was in Thailand and saw the report about this on Thai TV. They showed a good deal of video coverage of the poor girl sitting there in distress and confusion.
It really touched me. I feel very sorry for her. She looked so nice and had had her life changed forever - quite possibly destroyed.
The coverage in - I think - The Nation, seemed to me as though it were pushing the policeman’s case. It seemed very wrong and as if motivated by fear or self-interest.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Did you see the policeman and his chums were released on bail immediately. Obviously, the court felt that such upstanding characters were very unlikely to threaten Suphansa Wichananant and her family.
Did you see the story on TV news a couple of days ago about the policeman who claimed that the owners of a mom and pop upcountry petrol station (sorry, can’t remember the province) had only given him 99 baht and 75 satang’s worth of petrol for his 100 baht? After a short argument, he shot the man and his wife dead and rode off. Amazingly, his colleagues have yet to find him. This wasn’t considered worthy of even a brief mention in the Nation.
March 28th, 2007 at 5:27 am
My farang professor once told me if I was in trouble the last person I would turn to was the Thai Police.
April 20th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Re: the young woman from Saraburi who was maimed by the drunken Thai policeman.
It would sure be nice to keep this story going long enough to see justice done - or see some MAJOR loss of face by the police of Thailand if they don’t give up the piece of s*** that did the crime. Are there any international human rights organizations following the story?