A group of people have visited families of victims of insurgency violence in the South and demanded from them 20 per cent of the compensation to be paid by the government, Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa said on Wednesday.
Gen Yutthasak said he learned of this during his visit to talk to people in the three southernmost border provinces last week.
Gen Yutthasak Sasiprapa
Some of the relatives of those killed in the Kru Se and Tak Bai tragedies in 2004 told him that after the government announced that victims of southern violence would be compensated a group of people came knocking on the doors of their houses in the night. They demanded that once the compensation was paid they must give them 20 per cent of it.
The extortionists claimed that they had the authority to decide who was entitled to compensation and who was not, Gen Yutthasak said.
Gen Yutthasak said he reported this to the cabinet yesterday and asked Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat to trace these extortionists.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had also instructed Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit and the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre to follow up on this matter and to make sure that the relatives of those killed were not fleeced by these people.
The cabinet on Tuesday approved in principle a budget of 2 billion baht as "healing" compensation for victims of southern violence.
The SBPAC was authorised to set criteria for compensation.
According to Pol Gen Pracha, 500 million baht of the budget will be allocated for compensating members of the public affected by the violence, 200 million baht for state offcials, one billion baht for those affected by the state security operations, and 300 million baht for those wrongfully detained or prosecuted in insurgency-related cases.