Bangkok Post, December 18, 2011
A photographer saw a man shot dead in front of him at Wat Pathum Wanaram and now police are hoping his photos can help reconstruct events
It's unsettling to think that the bullet with your name on it was collected by another soul.
But that's what Australian photographer, Stephen Tickner, a key witness in the investigation of the six deaths at Wat Pathum Wanaram, found out recently when he travelled to Bangkok to give evidence to the Metropolitan Police Bureau inquiry into the killings.
At 5.49pm on May 19, 2010, Tickner was standing not far from the entrance of the temple in the middle of Rama I Road, changing his camera lens, as he heard gunfire approaching from the direction of the Siam Paragon mall.
A young man in a white shirt was sprinting down the road towards him. As he reached Tickner, he suddenly fell violently to the ground. The photographer was unsure what had happened.
''It's not like a Hollywood movie with lots of blood,'' he said.
KEY WITNESS: Stephen Tickner was at Wat Pathum Wanaram when six were killed.
Had the young man tripped over or been shot? Tickner turned around and saw the man, Atthachai Chumchan, 28, had crawled to the median strip under an overhead railway line and was lying on his back, his white shirt now covered in blood.
With the help of a monk, Tickner dragged Atthachai into the temple compound, but his life could not be saved.
One of the medics treating Atthachai, along with two others who were also wearing distinguishable red cross armbands, was also killed by gunfire that evening.
Tickner, a freelancer, had always believed Atthachai was killed by soldiers advancing down the road. But when he gave his statement to police on Dec 8 and 9, he learned from the autopsy report that the bullet had entered Atthachai's right shoulder at a 35-degree angle, puncturing both his lungs. The shooter had been stationed on the median strip and police believe Tickner was his target.
''To be honest, when I looked at that autopsy, that threw me quite a bit,'' Tickner told the Bangkok Post Sunday. ''What I realised is that if he hadn't been where he was at the time, the bullet would have hit me.''
When asked if there was a theory that he was the target, Tickner said: ''There is now. Police say this is their thinking on this, that in fact they probably had me targeted and because he [Atthachai] was running so fast it was just luck _ bad luck for him, good luck for me _ which is a bit disturbing.''
Police have told Tickner he is a key witness in the case; his digital photographs, with date and time stamps, are crucial in helping them reconstruct a timeline of events.
The veteran photographer was at the temple, a designated safe haven, from late that afternoon until around 7am the next day.
Police told Tickner they placed more store in his statement than in other witnesses, as he is a foreigner with no political agenda and has prior experience of working in live fire zones, such as East Timor.
''They seem to put a fair bit of weight on it, but that's not for me to judge,'' said Tickner, from Newcastle in New South Wales.
The photographer said he did not capture any images of soldiers firing from the railway line, but he is certain there were no gunmen in the temple and no running gun battles outside.
In statements to the Department of Special Investigation inquiry into the shootings, officers and soldiers from the Special Forces Regiment at Lop Buri said seven soldiers were deployed on the BTS track on the Wat Pathum Wanaram side to provide cover for ground troops.
One unnamed soldier said they had exchanged gunfire with armed persons inside the temple and there was a 10-minute gun battle on the BTS track.
But Tickner said from his observations there was nothing to justify any sort of shooting.
''To my knowledge there were no weapons inside the temple,'' he said. ''I pointed out to [police] in follow-up statements that I'm press photographer, so if I'd seen a red shirt or a black shirt with so much as a slingshot in their hand I would have photographed them as a matter of course.
''But those photos don't exist. The photos inside the temple show kids on mats, mothers, fathers, all these kind of people. Certainly there were some guys there, but they were nothing like the black shirts I'd seen in previous days.''
Tickner gave a statement to the DSI in September 2010 and said he was contacted via email by metropolitan police in August this year after they had seen some of his photos on the red shirt protests on a website.
When asked if he was surprised at a second request to make a statement, Tickner said it made more sense with a change of government as police had been given a ''green light'' to conduct a full investigation.
He said as a photo journalist he had reservations about being a witness for police, but part of his decision was based on the fatal shootings of Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi and Japanese cameraman Hiroyuki Muramoto during the 2010 unrest.
''It becomes a question of, do you try to stop that type of targeting of journalists by not giving evidence, or do you try to stop it by making people in positions of authority accountable for their actions,'' he said.
Tickner says he will stay in Thailand for now and is willing to testify if the prosecution cases proceed.
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