Slain officers not palace staff

The Fourth Army has denied press reports that the two men killed in a gun attack in Narathiwat on Oct 13 were officials from the Royal Household Bureau.

The denial was made in a statement issued yesterday by Lt-Col Arkhom Pongprom, deputy public relations chief of the Fourth Army forward headquarters.

The statement referred to an incident on Oct 13 in which Pol Capt Jaruek Suwannasuan, 62, a retired police officer, and Sathaporn Klamphop, a Highways Department employee, were killed when a group of gunmen opened fire on their vehicle when they stopped to pick up longkong fruit at the house of Ahama Paluwae at Ban Ba-ngosato in Rangae district.

Press reports said the two men had driven the vehicle from Taksin Ratchanives palace, where Her Majesty the Queen was staying, to pick up the fruit, suggesting they were from the palace.

``The Fourth Army and a joint command providing security for the palace have checked the report and found that the two were not officials from the Royal Household Bureau, and that they had nothing to do with the purchase of fruit from farmers under Her Majesty's initiative,'' the statement said. The Queen, on learning farmers were suffering from low longkong prices, had ordered the bureau to buy the fruit from them at 30 baht per kilogramme.