Pallop Pinmanee

Parliament of Thailand (08/25/06)

Gen Panlop Pinmanee is a man of controversy who has often been at the centre of public attention.

Until yesterday, he was deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), a post he assumed in 2001.

His dismissal from the post was in connection with an alleged bomb plot aimed at caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, involving a man who was said to be Gen Panlop's ex-driver.

Previously, Gen Panlop - who was deputy chief of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command (SBPPC) - was immediately transferred out of the deep South for instructing his subordinates to use force against a group of militants hiding in the Krue Se Mosque on April 28, 2004, resulting in the deaths of 32 militants.

Gen Panlop conceded that the use of force went against an order given by his superior, Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, and that he was solely responsible for the incident.

He and two army officers who led the assault at the mosque face criminal lawsuits filed by the militants' relatives.

On May 4, 2004, he resigned as deputy chief of the SBPPC in the wake of reports criticising his handling of the Krue Se incident, maintaining only the deputy director position at Isoc.

Gen Panlop, who has maintained his hardline position, insisted the use of force is necessary in handling the southern insurgency.

He threw strong support behind the operation at Tak Bai later in the same year, which saw 78 Muslims killed.

Occasionally, he has stepped out to criticise the government's strategy for the South, saying both the state and military were ''too weak''.

Gen Panlop was born on May 25, 1936 into a farmer's family in Nakhon Pathom's Sam Phran district and graduated from Class 7 of the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy in 1960 - the same class as the ''Young Turks'', including Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, Maj-Gen Manoonkrit Rupkhachorn, and the late Prachak Sawangchit.

As a young army officer, he was assigned to the front lines to defend Thailand's borders with Cambodia in Prachin Buri's Ta Phraya district in 1961, when Thailand and Cambodia were locked in a dispute over the Preah Vihear temple site.

He went on to study on the ranger course and a counter-intelligence course in the US before being appointed in 1968 as chief of the Special Thai Ranger Army - which carried out clandestine, anti-North Vietnam operations in Laos - for one year. He then headed the army's assassination team.

NT explosives (above left), detonating cables (above), along with M-8 military fuses and a detonating circuit, found in the suspect's car are shown at a press conference. — SOMCHAI LAOPAISARNTAKSIN

He joined hands with the Class 7 Young Turks, including Maj-Gen Chamlong and Maj-Gen Manoonkrit, in a coup against the Seni Pramoj government during the Oct 6 bloodshed in 1976, and in toppling the right-wing government under prime minister Tanin Kraivixien in 1977.

After a 1981 abortive coup against then prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda, he went into exile in Laos to escape the death sentence and was put in jail there for two months.

Gen Panlop once admitted that he was behind a series of assassination attempts against then army strongman Gen Arthit Kamlang-ek.

However, the general repeatedly denied that he had a hand in an alleged murder attempt against Gen Prem.

He also said he had a role in the 1992 Black May event in which his former classmate Maj-Gen Chamlong was locked in conflict with then prime minister Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon, who eventually washed his hands of politics.

His most recent work, as deputy Isoc director, involved the repatriation of around 4,500 Hmong refugees from Ban Huay Nam Khao village in Phetchabun's Khao Kho district to Laos.