Pallop Pinmanee

OBITUARY - Former Young Turk Prachak dies at 66.
11 September 2003
Bangkok Post
Single bullet to the head in the toilet

A former leading member of the army's Young Turks group, Col Prachak Sawangchit, shot himself dead at his Pahon Yothin residence yesterday.

Police said Col Prachak, 66, apparently shot himself in the right temple with a 9mm Glock handgun.

He was found by his wife lying in a pool of blood in the toilet yesterday morning and rushed to Vibhavadi hospital. The former Chart Thai MP for Bangkok was pronounced dead on arrival.

His wife Janya, 48, refused to believe her husband, once a tough regimental commander of the Prachinburi-based 2nd infantry regiment, had committed suicide. She thought it was an accident.

"He always condemned those who committed suicide," she said.

Over breakfast that morning they had discussed organising a party for his birthday. He had asked her to invite his son, an army man born to his other wife.

Pol Lt-Col Niphit Nitsamoer, of Bangkhen police station, said two letters written by the colonel, one addressed to Mrs Janya and the other to his son, explained why he shot himself. "He had a health problem," the officer said.

Investigators said Col Prachak had liver cancer and was stressed that he and his wife were swindled of 10 million baht in a jewellery purchase.

Dubbed the "Ta Phraya Hero," Col Prachak rose to public limelight as commander of the 2nd infantry regiment's 3rd battalion when he ordered a cross-border attack on Cambodian forces in 1974 from Prachin Buri's Ta Phraya district. The raid followed a border incursion by Khmer troops.

The maverick officer was immediately transferred by then prime minister Tanin Kraivixien to an inactive post, only to be put in charge of the 2nd regiment six years later.

The colonel and a group of fellow members of Chulachomklao Royal Army Academy's Class 7th, including Senate Speaker Maj-Gen Manoonkrit Roopkachorn, played a crucial role in Gen Kriangsak Chamanand's rise as the country's 15th prime minister in late 1977.

He was with the Young Turks, Class 7th members led by Maj-Gen Manoonkrit, who staged a failed coup, lasting from April 1-3, 1981, to remove Gen Prem Tinsulanond from the prime ministership. Close military friends yesterday expressed shock when learning of his death.

Gen Panlop Pinmanee said it had never occurred to him his friend would take his own life.

"He just asked me for some help two weeks ago. There was no indication whatsoever that he had any trouble or was in any difficulty," Gen Panlop said.

"I feel sorry for him."