December 16, 2014
Cambodia is waiting on the green light from Thailand to inspect a
haul of items seized last month from a disgraced senior Thai police
official—a trove that includes a number of Khmer antiquities that Thai
authorities say may have been smuggled into the country illegally.
Thai police confiscated the artifacts last month in a sweeping raid
of properties owned by Lieutenant General Pongpat Chayaphan, a former
commissioner of the Thai police’s central investigation bureau.
Police discovered underground vaults storing assets worth more than
$60 million, according to Thai media, including about 50 historical
artifacts worth an estimated $1.5 million. An additional 10,000
artifacts found there have not yet been identified or authenticated,
according to a report in The Nation newspaper.
Lt. Gen. Pongpat was arrested in November along with seven other
police officers on charges including insulting the monarchy, money
laundering, bribery, smuggling and extortion.
Among the items seized from the senior police officer’s estate were
13 “deities and Buddha images built in Khmer style,” according to The
Nation.
The newspaper reported that the director-general of the Thai Fine
Arts Department said some of the artifacts found might have been
wrongfully taken from their owners.
Prak Sunnara, director-general of the Ministry of Culture and Fine
Arts’ heritage department, said the Cambodian government is waiting on
permission from Thailand to inspect the artifacts and verify their
provenance.
“We are not clear about [the artifacts], but we are working on it,”
he said. “It is not only us who want to send specialists to inspect [the
artifacts], but also Burma and Laos.”
Mr. Sunnara said his department is preparing documents for what he
said would be a difficult process of proving that the artifacts were
illegally taken from Cambodia.
Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Cambodia sent a
request to Thailand nearly two weeks ago to send experts to examine the
seized antiquities.
“We have to wait until they respond first, so that we can inspect and take photos of those artifacts,” he said.
Thai Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapagorn has acknowledged
Cambodia’s request and said that Thailand would find a way for the
Cambodian officials to analyze the artifacts, according to the report in
The Nation.
Thai police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said Monday that a special
unit has been assembled to go through the cache of items seized from Lt.
Gen. Pongpat.
“A special team of 300 officers has been set up to work on the
criminal investigation and analyze the detail [of] the property found,”
Mr. Prawut said, adding that details about the items would be disclosed
shortly.
“The commission is still investigating. In about two or three weeks they will know the worth of the property.”
The arrest of Lt. Gen. Pongpat comes after the Thai military staged a
coup in May against the elected government of former Thai Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the coup and became Thailand’s prime
minister in August, has announced a campaign against graft in the police
force, one of the country’s most corrupt institutions.
However, there is widespread speculation in the international media
that the arrest of Lt. Gen. Pongpat and a number of other high-profile
police officers is an attempt by the military junta to purge the
country’s police force of officials loyal to Ms. Yingluck and the
populist political movement founded by her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.
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