Were you all at the massage palour : police asked

Police chief blasts officers for not securing PAD rally

The NatioPol Lt Gen Worapong Chiewpreecha was quoted as telling senior police officers yesterday that they were irresponsible, lacked discipline and did not have the protective spirit.

He was referring to the rally the People's Alliance for Democracy organised to condemn convicted exPM Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodia's PM Hun Sen. Five protesters were injured when a grenade was thrown into a crowd near the stage.

"I had ordered the police to provide security at the rally. There should have been about 1,500 police in uniform and 450 others undercover officers. I ordered police cars to be stationed at risky places around the rally. Yet nobody followed my orders. If you all did what I had told you, we would have been able to arrest the suspects," he said.

In fact, he blasted them for not being at the scene of the attack at all. "Were you all at the massage parlour?" the commissioner asked.

Worapong said he personally had to come to the rescue of a mentally challenged person whom the protesters had mistaken as the attacker.

"No police officers were there to rescue the man. There were about 30 officers near the site but they all just stood still and refused to help the man. They only came when I ordered them," he said, adding that he hoped the police force would learn a lesson from the incident.