Wat Phra Dhammakaya suicide: Govt sorry, family confused

26 กุมภาพันธ์ 2560

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has expressed their condolences over the death of an elderly man who hanged himself on Saturday night after demanding the lifting of the Section 44 order to control Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has expressed their condolences over the death of an elderly man who hanged himself on Saturday night after demanding the lifting of the Section 44 order to control Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

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Wat Phra Dhammakaya suicide: Govt sorry, family confused

Online reporters

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the government have expressed their condolences over the death of an elderly man who hanged himself on Saturday night after climbing a telephone signal tower to demand the lifting of the Section 44 order to control Wat Phra Dhammakaya.

"The prime minister and the government would like to extend condolences to the man's family," government spokesman Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Sunday.

He said authorities had tried their best to talk to the man and were preparing to save his life, but were not successful.

"This should serve as an admonition to society, particularly supporters of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, both monks and disciples, that they should not have allowed this to happen," he said.

Witnesses told the media that at about 4pm on Saturday the man walked from the Khlong Luang market with a piece of cardboard to the telephone signal tower. He took off his shoes and climbed up the tower.

After going up about 30 metres, he showed a message written on the cardboard demanding the revocation of the order under Section 44 by 9pm, otherwise he would then be dead.

A number of monks from temples affiliated to Wat Phra Dhammakaya tried to talk the man into climbing down. At the same time, rescuers from the Ruam Katanyu and Por Teck Tung foundations laid down air cushions on the ground, in case he decided to jump.

At about 9pm, the man tied a rope around his neck, and hanged himself by dropping down about five metres from where he stood. Rescuers rushed up the tower in a bid to save the man.

They finally managed to cut the rope, get hold of the man and bring him down to the ground about 30 minutes later, but he was already dead.

After being lowered to the ground from the signal tower, the man was identified from his ID card as Anawat Thanacharoennat, 64, of house No.42/724 on Soi Nitmit Mai 40 in Bangkok's Khlong Sam Wa district.

His wife and son are still in the dark over the motive for his suicide, according to media reports.

According to Matichon Online, his wife, Mrs Nawaporn, and son Rathanan showed up at Khlong Luang police station in Pathum Thani on Sunday morning after being contacted by police.

Mrs Nawaporn said Anawat left his house at noon on Saturday in a Toyota pick-up truck with a black backpack but she did not know where he was heading.

She said her husband, a dried fruit vendor, usually drove his pick-up to the Thai Market in Rangsit area to buy dried fruit to be put in packs and sold.

She said her husband was several hundreds of thousand of baht in debt. He had been under stress and was regularly taking a tranquilliser from Nawamin Hospital.

According to Mrs Nawaporn, about 10 years ago Anawat went to Wat Phra Dhammakaya to make merit. He was once ordained as a novice at Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple and had high respect for Luang Phor Sod, the late abbot of the temple.

Her husband often read newspapers and watched television to keep up-to-date with the news, but had never joined a political rally, she said.

She and her son had no idea what led to his suicide as he had never shown signs of erratic behaviour before.

After Anawat's death, Wat Phra Dhammakaya said in a statement that he was not a disciple of the temple.