Khunying Porntip’s back to the Deep South to improve forensic work
Forensic science work in the three southernmost provinces was given a shot in the arm with the reinstatement of Dr Porntip Rojanasunant as the director of Forensic Science Institute by the National Council for Peace and Order.
Dr Porntip has replaced Dr Anek Yomchinda who was appointed an inspector-general attached to the Ministry of Justice.
The flamboyant forensic expert told Isra news agency that her top priority was to strengthen forensic work and the collection of DNA evidences which would help police in solving security-related cases in order to bring the perpetrators to trial.
She admitted that, in her previous capacity as an advisor to the Justice Ministry, she could not do much as the police had prohibited her and her team of forensic experts from sending DNA evidences collected at the crime scenes to the military. Also, she said that members of her team had been transferred out of the restive region.
As the director of Forensic Science Institute, Dr Porntip called on the police to cooperate with the institute so that the two of them could work together in harmony and for public interest.
Khunying Porntip, 59, was appointed director of the institute in 2008 where she served for five consecutive years before she was transferred to become an inspector-general in 2013 by the Yingluck Shinawatra government. Her transfer was criticized as politically motivated to reduce her role in criminal investigation of important cases which happened in the Deep South.
Besides Khunying Porntip, the NCPO also appointed Mr Panu Uthairat, an inspector-general of the Interior Ministry, the new secretary-general of Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre as of May 24.
Mr Panu’s appointment was greeted with opposition by some elements in the restive region who put up protesting banners against him in Su-ngai Kolok, Janae, Yee Ngor, Cho Airong, Sukhirin and Ra-ngae districts of Narathiwat and some districts of Yala.
Two men who put up the banners were arrested by security forces on June 20. Both admitted that they were told by a masked man to display the protest banners in public.
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Thanks : Photo by Kullapan Siripim-umporn from The Nation