Demolition Men

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The 200 men in overalls didn't come to Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road at 4 a.m. on Jan. 26 for the go-go dancing. "They told us to get out and not take anything with us," says Noi, who ran a massage parlor and bar in the Sukhumvit Square night strip. Then two bulldozers roared in and razed more than 100 shops. "We had no idea who was doing this," says Noi, who had borrowed about $24,000 to open her business. Under pressure from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to get to the bottom of the "barbaric" attack or "never see the light of day again," police last Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Royal Thai Armed Forces officer Lieut. Colonel Himalai Phewphan. They say he was hired by a property developer to demolish the site using soldiers under his command. A warrant was also issued for Major Thanyathep Thamthep, and 16 other officers have been suspended.

Sukhumvit Square has been at the center of an ongoing leasing dispute between BRT Holding Co., which developed the site, Sukhumvit Silver Star, which bought the site last December, and Nickel, which has leased it with the intention of building a hotel. Himalai, who has denied the charges against him, says Nickel contracted the security company he runs to guard the site after the demolition, which he blames on the police.

Himalai and Thanyathep are under orders to turn themselves in by Feb. 4. The investigation will continue and it could get messier because it pits the police against the military, with Thaksin's warnings hanging over them both. And civic groups and editorial writers are calling for a deeper probe into the after-hours activities of military personnel who work with or own security companies. That's little comfort to the 1,000 or so people whose workplaces were destroyed. "No matter what happens, the developers have got their way," says Noi, sifting through the jumble of wreckage in search of lost valuables. "With us out of the way they can go ahead and build their hotels."