Natthawit "Ae" Sutthiroj, 50, leader of the Rak Phuean Thae (Love True Friends) club, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in front of his home in Min Buri district on Monday night. He was cremated yesterday at Phromwongsaram Temple in Din Daeng district.

On the day he was murdered, he had led a group of residents in the Or-ngern Estate in Sai Mai district to Min Buri Court, where they had sued the estate's management company for allegedly physically assaulting residents who resisted its attempt to bulldoze the local market.

"After the hearing, an employee of that company threatened Ae and made a 'Bang! Bang! Bang!' sound as if to hint at something," resident Narong Kirksakul, 43, told The Nation. "But Ae didn't care and came to talk to us more at the Or-ngern co-op before he got a taxi home sometime after 9pm."

Everyone feared for the campaigner's safety and one resident called his cell phone to see if he was at home yet, Narong said. Narong added that he too had been abused by the company running the estate. They burned his shop, beat him up and filed a false police complaint against him, he said.

On his way home, Natthawit stopped at a food stall to buy something for his wife. According to police, the taxi driver testified that, in addition to the phone call before the food stop, he received another call from someone who asked where he was, to which he replied with the name of the soi. Then he and the caller engaged in a loud argument. Police believe this call was from a local who possibly belonged to a group that Natthawit's club had caused to lose its benefits.

The gunmen - two teenagers on a motorbike - had been spotted riding around the neighbourhood since that afternoon. Then they stopped and drank beer at a restaurant two blocks away from Natthawit's home. The taxi driver told police that when Natthawit stepped out of the taxi the teens approached and shot him dead.

Natthawit's widow, Pimporn Meesawat, 60, said her husband - a vocational-school graduate with some knowledge of legal matters - had spent seven years helping housing estate residents fight against unfair treatment, at up to 200 cases each year. Most cases he lent his help on involved residents being unfairly evicted without a court order, being overcharged by the companies that won the right to run the estates, or being beaten up. But police refused to take up the assault cases, she said.

Natthawit all along received death threats and even an offer of Bt100,000 in cash and a free apartment to buy him off, which he turned down, she said.

An Or-ngern resident identifying herself only as Prapai said she and her neighbours were living at the mercy of the "influential group" managing the estate. She said they could assault the residents and avoid legal penalties because local police would not take up their complaints. Many people found themselves paying up to Bt1.5 million for a unit worth less than a million, while some were halfway into paying for a Bt490,000 unit just to be told by the court they owed Bt700,000, she said.

The club's representative from Rom Klao Estate, Athijak Ngernsiam, said the group, which now counts seven members, would continue to help oppressed residents and hoped police would arrest the gunmen so the mastermind behind this killing is punished.

Metropolitan Police Division 3 said police were hunting for the suspects and offered a Bt50,000 reward to anyone who could lead them to the gunmen's arrests.

Thitanont Pibulnakarin, deputy governor of the National Housing Authority, said that, following the transfer of housing units to buyers - after which the NHA would help administer the estate for a while - the communities would be given the chance to run their own estate as a co-op. But until the communities became strong and could handle their own affairs, the NHA would award annual contracts to companies to manage the estates.

Thitanont said problems stemmed from certain people who avoided paying monthly fees for water and administration, which he said the NHA had set at a reasonable price. He urged residents to file complaints for alleged corruption or wayward practices to the NHA.

He admitted that some former NHA personnel who were experienced in how the authority worked and retired had set up companies to operate the estates. "That's okay but they must operate within the NHA framework," he added.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation