He spoke after deputy national police chief General Srivara Ransi-brahamakul said the monk had until the end of this month to surrender to authorities. The deadline relates to a fresh arrest warrant involving the World Peace Valley Khao Yai monastic retreat’s alleged encroachment on state-owned land in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
Wat Dhammakaya yesterday introduced strict screening of all vehicles entering its compound. Prawit said intelligence agencies had confirmed the abbot was still at the temple.
Prawit said the agencies had not found any intent to cause trouble when the abbot was arrested and he urged the media not to alarm the public by playing up the possibility of a violent confrontation.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday they had decided to indict Dhamma-chayo and four others on charges of conspiracy to launder money and receiving stolen assets linked the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative embezzlement case. They urged the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to arrest the monk before the statute of limita?tions for the alleged 2009 crime expired in 2024.
Srivara said police would help the DSI arrest the abbot.
Pathum Thani police yesterday prepared for the arrest, with an updated map of the temple’s key exits put up in a meeting room, an informed source reported.

Chon Buri-based Pol Lance Corporal Withoon Phetchpankan, 24, has been arrested for allegedly plotting with his elder brother and others to rob a Krungthai Bank money truck while it was refilling an ATM at a gas station in Suphan Buri’s Song Phi Nong district last Monday.
Somneuk Somsuay, 35 – a fugitive in a separate attempted murder case who allegedly served as a lookout – is also in custody. He allegedly sold popcorn near the ATM to observe the money truck’s routine. When he was detained he implicated Chaidech and his brother, a police officer.
The gunman who robbed the truck and got away with Bt5.13 million was later identified as Withoon’s elder brother Chaidech Phetchpankan, 35.
He allegedly swooped in on a motorcycle and forced the truck security guard to give up the cash bag at gunpoint before speeding away.
Chaidech allegedly left a mobile phone at the scene of the robbery in an effort to distract police attention.
However, investigators found the phone and SIM card were registered to a Thai woman whose house registration had been copied on October 24 by Withoon at the Ban Bung Police Station.
Under questioning, Withoon confessed to making the copy for Chaidech and gave details of the robbery maintaining he was helping his financially troubled brother.
Investigators found that after the phone was bought in Suphan Buri on November 6, Withoon got the gun used in the robbery by Chaidech from a man identified as Toon. He admitted he also let his brother use his bullet-proof vest during the robbery.
Withoon told officers he last heard that Chaidech hid the stolen cash in a forest near his wife’s house in Tambon Don Manao of Song Phi Nong. A police search team found a motorcycle, the suspect’s jeans, helmet and shoes in the wooded area.

THOUSANDS of people demonstrated at Myanmar embassies across the world yesterday demanding that Aung San Suu Kyi’s government stops the “ethnic cleansing” of Muslim Rohingya in western Rakhine State.
Human rights groups protested in front of Myanmar embassies in 16 countries around the world yesterday, including Bangkok and Islamic countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, calling for the government in Nay Pyi Taw to stop suppressing the Rohingya.
Around 5,000 Bangladeshi Muslims demonstrated in the capital Dhaka after Friday prayers, according to AFP.
Malaysia’s Muslim-majority Cabinet also issued a statement condemning the violence, an unusually strong criticism against a fellow member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
“Malaysia calls on all parties involved in the recent violence to refrain from taking any actions which would aggravate the situation further, and Malaysia also calls on the government of Myanmar to address the alleged ethnic cleansing in the northern Rakhine State,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Malaysia said the Myanmar ambassador would be summoned over the crisis and that Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman would meet with de facto leader Suu Kyi and other top Myanmar officials “at the earliest possible date”.
Thousands of the Muslim Rohingya have fled the conflict and crackdown in Myanmar to seek shelter in Bangladesh over the past few days.
Hundreds of human rights defenders in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia simultaneously staged the protests at 2pm (Bangkok time) as a gesture of “political pressure” in a bid to urge Myanmar and the Asean community to seriously tackle the issue.
“We think no concrete result would occur after this movement. However, we want to raise the public awareness and call for the Asean and global communities to develop mechanisms to mutually resolve this matter,” said Zakee Phithakkunpul, a member of Council for Humanitarian Networking (CHN) of Sheikhul Islam Office, the Bangkok-based non-government organisation that organised the assembly.
The campaign called “World Day of Rage – Stop Killing Rohingya” was joined by 150 people in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok yesterday.
Indonesian Muslims also held a rally outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta against the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.
In Bangkok, Zakee called on the Suu Kyi government to take action against ongoing abusive military movements against Rohingyas.
“The Muslim-minority state should respect people, without race and religion discrimination, which is the essence of democracy to which Myanmar aims to move forward,” he stressed.
He said that CHN would file the same petition to the United Nations local office and other international organisations.
The rally was ignited by the escalated tension in Rakhine following a coordinated attack on three border posts on October 9 which killed nine police, according to Siwawong Sooktawee, a coordinator of Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons.
“The state military has flocked to areas along Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh and seems to rampage, causing innocent residents to be in a dilemma,” he said.
The violence has reportedly displaced thousands this week with at least 86 people killed. Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, which has tried to send the Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar.
Siwawong said: “If the government does not control the refugees and carelessly lets them flee, the problem will be forwarded to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, that they will flee to by boats. This issue needs to be solved by mechanism of the Asean.”
Maung Kyaw Nu, head of Thailand’s Rohingya Association, who also joined the rally, said he hoped the international community would look into this problem and protect the minority Rohingya.
“We cannot rely on our government to protect us. We need the world’s help to protect us,” he said.
Maung had to be pushed off the stage by the event’s organisers during the rally because of his “unpeaceful” manner when he shouted “Stop the genocide immediately!” before the crowd.
“I can’t control my emotions because I miss my home and my relatives there [in Myanmar],” he said later.

Media experts call for self-regulation
HEAD DRAFTER NOTES
LONG-SOUGHT media reform may be out of reach at present but media experts agreed yesterday that self-regulation is the way to achieve such reform – to guarantee free and responsible media norms.
The experts spoke at a forum titled “Is media reform a solution for Thai society?” organised by Thammasat University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, where the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) chairman Meechai Ruchuphan was invited to elaborate on media reform and state intentions.
A political figure with long-time exposure to the media, Meechai said what the called “media spirit” looked to have faded over time despite the increase in communication schools. This, he thought, was largely caused by business and political influence.
The head drafter, while believing that the charter should steer clear from reform efforts so authorities don’t “over-step” into the media arena, however hailed three articles in the new charter to ensure media independence.
Article 35, he said, guaranteed media outlets freedom from forced closure, while Article 98 banned holders of political office from having shares in media outlets. And Article 184 prohibits ministers and MPs from interfering in the media, he said.
But Thammasat deputy rector Prinya Thaewanarumitkul had a different view, saying that compared to previous constitutions, the new charter would upset media freedom. For example, the 2007 charter’s clause ensuring media independence from government and private dominance were not mentioned at all in Meechai’s draft.
While agreeing with self-regulation, Prinya also questioned if such efforts had ever been successful, given the media sometimes lapses when it pushes social and local issues. Civic engagement should be emphasised to drive media reform in line with social responsibility, he said.
Chavarong Limpattamapanee, president of the National Press Council of Thailand (NPCT), said that while fast-growing technology significantly enforced the media dynamic, its also drives the media flow beyond proper boundaries. A live broadcast of depressing and graphic scenes on social media was one such instance, he said.
This factor was constantly cited by powers-that-be to try to bring state regulation over the media, said Chavarong, who prefers self-regulation via a professional organisation.
He said the media bill that the National Reform Steering Assembly was currently working on, seemed to be based on a concept of regulation, unlike the 2007 charter, that was based on protecting and supporting media outlets.
CDC member and former NPCT president Pattara Khampitak also said the idea of state regulation over the media could be greatly outdated considering the fast-changing global developments, including advanced technology that has facilitated the emergence of citizen reporters on social media platforms.
Pattara voiced distaste for the use of law enforcement in media regulation, noting the current power of strict controls such as the interim charter’s sweeping Article 44, which could create uncertainty in the future once that measure was lifted.
A veteran editor, Pattara also noted that it was crucial for media workers to have the right to interview political figures to create two-way communication and maintain a balance of information between media outlets and the state.

Pichit Chokpakchitporn, Mae Hong Son native, was nabbed with drugs worth an estimated Bt40 million at a checkpoint on the Wiang Haeng to Pai Road after a tip-off that the Hmong network would transport drugs from a neighbouring country in a car into Thailand. Police and soldiers from the 17th Infantry Regiment staked out the area until they spotted the vehicle fitting the description they were given.
Sommai said Pichit belonged to the Hmong network that used to distribute drugs through Laota’s group. The recent arrest of Laota caused the network to shift to sending drugs into the Central region directly for storing before trying to smuggle them to a third country, instead of storage in border areas. It was also forced to take orders from other “retailers” instead of keeping contact with only a few known agents. He said the Hmong gang reportedly earned up to Bt40 million a day from drug trafficking.
Sommai said Pichit reportedly confessed that he was hired by a Hmong drug dealer to transport the narcotics to Bangkok. He was initially charged with having narcotics in his possession.
Another source said the arrest of Pichit stemmed from a bust in Fang district in Chiang Mai on November 16. Saran Wongsuwadaen, 21, was arrested, along with 200,000 ‘yaba’ pills, as he had allegedly conspired with some Hmong people to smuggle pills via Pai for distribution in Chiang Mai.