It came as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) suggested Panya’s family could file a complaint with the agency so it could probe the incident and hopefully be allowed by the military to access facts so as to ensure justice for all sides and to create transparency.

Army spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree yesterday said Panya was ordered to do five laps and it was expected that a young man like him could cope with it.

However, Panya suffered a heat stroke during the third lap, passed out and was taken to hospital, Winthai said, adding Panya was not physically assaulted and nothing was done to him against Army regulations.

He said the 9th Infantry Division would set up a committee to probe this incident.

Winthai said the incident had resulted in Army chief Theerachai Nakvanich’s instructing all Army units to implement additional preventive measures to prevent something like this happening again, especially having medics examine soldiers more frequently and thoroughly because lately heat stroke had become a problem in the military during physical training.

Complaints about training

NHRC member Angkhana Neelaphaijit said there had been complaints about certain military training activities such as a case in the South where a private died after being assaulted.

She said that occurred despite the Defence Ministry having regulations that were supposed to prevent supervisors from punishing subordinates with excessive violence.

She said many cases had suggested that the regulations were not implemented in real practice so the NHRC will check if the military had improved as per the NHRC proposal previously submitted to the government.

Angkhana said soldiers’ physical conditions varied and some could not handle intensive physical training. She urged relevant agencies to be more careful.

She said the agencies must allow justice to be served and also provide a channel for low-ranking soldiers to file complaints against overly violent actions. Mechanisms must also be put in place to guarantee whistle blowers in these cases were not punished.

Meanwhile, Panya’s bathing rites yesterday morning was attended by the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion of the 19th Infantry Regiment, Lt- Colonel Jeeranat Thepawan, and some 100 fellow soldiers.

Panya’s father, Boonpan Ngern-rian, a 60-year-old military veteran, said he and his wife had prayed their son would be all right. He was their only son.

Father seeks deterrent punishment

“My wife has cried every day since it happened,” he said.

He dismissed a rumour that the captain who ordered Panya to run had given the family money to settle the matter.

He said Jeeranat and Sursri Camp soldiers had been helping with the funeral arrangements and the expenses.

Boonpan urged the Army chief to punish the captain to serve as a deterrent that would hopefully prevent a similar incident happening again.