Women's rights networks have blasted the army for its rush to conclude that women having sex with soldiers in controversial photos released on the internet were acts of consent.
Usa Lertsrisantad, project director of the Foundation for Women, said the army's hasty conclusion that the women consented to such sexual activities showed it was more interested in cutting short the scandal than finding out what really happened.
"Who knows, those women might be drugged or threatened. Such a rushed conclusion can violate women's rights because it gives them a bad image and forces them to succumb to social pressure," she said.
She also doubted whether the army would really mete out stringent punishment for any soldiers found guilty.
Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Monday that an initial probe had found that the incident might have been a case of "mutual consent".
Sipensri Puengkoksung, a programme director of the Woman and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, said the hasty conclusion violated the women's rights.
Jadet Chaowilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, yesterday called on relatives of the women to file complaints against the soldiers involved. He dismissed as irrelevant claims that the incidents were acts of consent.
Assistant army chief Gen Thanongsak Apirakyothin, head of the army's investigation panel, said two sets of pictures totalling 31 photos were released. One set showed six soldiers having sex with a woman in an office while the other set showed a group of three soldiers having sex with a woman in a private room.
The probe has yet to find out which military unit the six soldiers in the first set belong to. For the second set, one of the soldiers involved was an army conscript, still in active service, while the two others have since been discharged.
An army source said the army conscript admitted that he and his fellow conscripts had consensual sex with a woman in a room for army staff on Khao Khor mountain in Phetchabun province in October last year.
The room is inside a military resort operated by the 26th Calvary Battalion.
The woman's husband brought her to have sex with him and his fellow conscripts and videotaped the act, the source quoted the conscript as saying.
Gen Thanongsak said it would be difficult to hold anyone accountable since this was a personal matter.
"These incidents do make soldiers feel bad. It's a lesson for military supervisors to be more stringent with their soldiers because a scandal like this can rock the whole army," he said.
An army source said the couple might have lured the soldiers into performing for what would end up as porn pictures.
"The army suspects the couple might be members of a gang wanting to make porn movies for sale or to show on the internet.
"They might have wanted to make a film featuring soldiers and a woman. The conscripts involved in the sex acts might have raised no objection when approached, but what they did was wrong," said the source.