Reporter Andrew MacGregor Marshall has already definitively solved the “mystery” of who killed Thai dissident Wanchalaerm Satsaksit and the others based on the testimony of informed sources. For the story, go to his page and read the many recent posts and updates. The only thing I can add is that King Vajiralongkorn is not even trying to hide his involvement. As usual, he wants you to know . . . but be too afraid to object.
Or as Jom Petchpradab, a Thai reporter granted asylum in America, summarizes it in a June 4 Facebook post about Wanchalaerm’s enforced disappearance that same day, “มีการคุยกันในหมู่ผู้ลี้ภัยในต่างประเทศว่า เป็นความแค้นที่ยากจะระบายของ ผู้ทรงอำนาจสูงสุดในไทย จากการที่ถูกไล่รังคราญจากคนเยอรมัน และผู้ลี้ภัยไทยฝั่งยุโรป เลยต้องการสำแดง ‘เชือดไก่ตัวใหญ่’ อีกตัวเพื่อเป็นการสังเวยความแค้น” WHICH ROUGHLY TRANSLATES: “There was discussion among the group of refugees in various countries, that it was to relieve the anger of the person who has the most power in Thailand at people in Germany and Thai refugees in Europe, and he needed to show that he was going to “kill another a big chicken” [as in “kill a chicken to scare the monkeys”] as a sacrifice to [satiate] his anger.”
One of the ways that Vajiralongkorn signals that he is “killing another big chicken,” is that he kills people near dates important to himself.
Ever since the second assassination, that of Koh Tee also called Ma Noi, I have been acutely aware of this. I remember Faiyen band was having a live “mini-concert” on the King Vajiralongkorn’s first birthday as king (July 28, 2018). They were playing from inside their house (of course) and the atmosphere was fun and light-hearted with lots of jokes and laughter. I may be wrong either for reasons of memory or language ability, but my recollection of the show (which I watched live online) is they would say that “today was a very important day” and then name some other important birthday or event on that day, then play another song. It was a happy respite from other things going on at the time. At the time, I would listen to some of the Thai-language dissident broadcasts in the morning in order to improve my listening ability, and so it was that I was jolted awake the next day by the announcement from a shaken Ahjahn Chupong Teethuan, that Ma Noi had been abducted and no one knew yet if he was alive or dead. Pressure on Ma Noi and Sanam Luang had been increasing recently, and I had someone contacting me often to tell me that the king was trying to kill them both; was there anything the Thai Alliance for Human Rights could do? We tried to do something, writing warnings about the pressure. When Ma Noi was abducted (like Wanchalaerm, his last reported words were “I can’t breathe!”), I searched his name on our website and found that we had written about him many times in both Thai and English, including an explicit warning that he was being hunted by the king. Just one or two weeks later, we had an already planned Thai Alliance for Human Rights conference in LA with about 150 people in attendance. Of course the abduction of Ma Noi was on everyone’s mind, and it was so pathetic that people would ask me, “Do you think he’s alive?” When I guessed no, the very next comment would be, “I hope he wasn’t tortured first. That’s what they do.” That is, we were all HOPING he had been suffocated on the spot so that he wouldn’t have been tortured. But more to the point of this article, a comment I heard almost as often was, “People are saying the king killed Ma Noi as a birthday present to himself.” This gives you some insight into the frightening world that Thais live in, and why I have been harping on this point for so long.
Over time, a pattern emerged. It was a Thai friend who tipped me off as to the meaning of some of these dates:
Itipon Sukapan, aka DJ Zunho – Disappeared June 22, 2016, two days before June 24, and anniversary of the Siam Revolution of 1932, which ended absolute monarchy. [King Bhumibol was nominally in power at this time, but incapacitated.]
Wuthipong Kachathamakul, aka Koh Tee or Ma Noi – Disappeared July 29, 2017, one day after King Vajiralongkorn’s birthday.
Surachai Danwattananusorn, aka Surachai Seadan and team (3 people) – abducted December 11, 2018. Seems to be a reaction, as quickly as could be organized, to the Thai Federation Organization followers coming out in Thailand on the birthday of the late King Bhumipol (December 5) wearing black shirts. Presumably, Vairalongkorn would have preferred to kill Sanam Luang, the leader of the Thai Federation, indeed Sanam Luang’s nonpolitical wife and son were instantly arrested in Thailand and held for a week, but Sanam Luang himself was out of reach at the time, traveling to safe countries with his fake passport. Now we know for sure, based on the case of Wanchalaerm, killed in reaction to the PixelHelper protests in Germany, that Vajiralongkorn is perfectly willing to kill someone totally unrelated to the perceived slight, just to quench his anger over that slight.
Chucheep Chewasut, aka Sanam Luang and team (3 people) – Were subsequently captured in Vietnam, going silent on social media at the end of January, According to information from my organization , the Thai Alliance for Human Rights, they were deported from Vietnam back to Thailand on May 8, 2019, which was two days after King Vajiralongkorn’s coronation on May 4-6.
The #SaveFaiyen campaign began because of a threat that Faiyen band would be killed on May 22, 2019, the anniversary of the 2014 coup.
Yammy Faiyen recieved a threat insinuating that she would be killed on the new Queen’s birthday, June 3 (2019). At the time, I noted that no one cared about the new Queen, Suditha, other than Vajiralongkorn. Indeed there was much resentment over his hasty marriage to a long-time girlfriend immediately before the coronation.
The #SaveFaiyen campaign was very anxious to get Faiyen band out of Laos before the King’s birthday, July 28, 2019, which we perceived to be the next most dangerous date. In fact, the pressure on them in Laos did increase exponentially immediately before this date, leading to France finally giving the green light to enter. As you know, they were all in France at the very beginning of August.
[THE ABOVE LIST IS BASED ON AN ARTICLE I WROTE A YEAR AGO]
Wanchalaerm Satsaksit, was abducted and suffocated in Cambodia on May 4, 2020, in a similar manner to Ma Noi and with the same last words: “I can’t breathe.” The attack on Wanchalaerm happened one day after Queen Suditha’s birthday on May 4 (the same birthday referenced in the death threat to Yammy a year earlier). In fact, under a post about a giant picture of Queen Suditha put up for her birthday, I had darkly joked, that at least there were no human sacrifices planned for this year’s celebrations. I was wrong.
