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| By Manager Online | 12 April 2010 17:58 |
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April 12, 2010
TOKYO (AFP) - Police in Japan plan to launch a probe into the shooting death of a Japanese journalist during bloody weekend clashes between soldiers and protesters in Thailand, a report said Monday.
Police will work with Thai counterparts to investigate how Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old TV cameraman with Thomson Reuters, was shot in the chest during the Bangkok unrest, Kyodo News said, citing unnamed police sources.
They also plan to conduct a separate autopsy on Muramoto in Japan, after the Thai authorities examined his body Monday, the report said.
Muramoto, who arrived in Bangkok on Thursday to cover the month-old protests, was shot late on Saturday while covering clashes in the historic part of the city and was later declared dead at a local hospital.
Japan's top government spokesman Hirofumi Hirano on Monday said only that police were studying whether Muramoto's death should be considered a crime committed against a Japanese national abroad.
"Police are currently gathering information with the foreign ministry to make the decision," said Hirano, the chief cabinet secretary.
The family of the cameraman arrived Sunday in Bangkok, where his wife said she was "bewildered" at the tragic turn of events.
"He was the best husband and father. I am very sorry that he couldn't come home with that smile," she said in a statement.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in a condolence message said it was "deeply saddened by the news of the tragic death of a fellow journalist" and called on Thailand to investigate who shot Muramoto.
Both soldiers and protesters have accused each other of using live rounds in the weekend clashes that left 21 people dead and more than 800 injured.
The Thai government denied troops had opened fire on protesters with live rounds. The army said some soldiers fired live ammunition into the air to try to disperse demonstrators while others used blanks and rubber bullets.
Japan has urged its citizens in Thailand to stay away from protest areas and avoid wearing red, the colour of the anti-government demonstrators.
"If the protests spread into wider areas, you are advised to refrain from going outside unless it is absolutely necessary," the notice said.
In 2007 a Japanese freelance video journalist was shot dead in neighbouring Myanmar while he covered the regime's bloody crackdown on demonstrations.
Japan dispatched investigators to Yangon and cancelled nearly five million dollars in aid to protest the junta's crackdown and the journalist's death.
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