The army's explanation this week about the absence of CCTV camera footage at a crime scene where 17-year-old Lahu activist Chaiyaphum Pasae was shot dead by a soldier last year has not only come too late but has also deepened the public mistrust of the military's claim that the extrajudicial killing was made in "self-defence".
The killing took place on March 17 last year at a checkpoint in Chiang Mai's Chiang Dao district where soldiers claimed they found 2,800 methamphetamine pills in a car that Chaiyaphum and his friend drove past.
The soldiers claimed Chaiyaphum tried to throw a hand grenade at them in his attempt to escape, and so one fired the shot that killed him in "self-defence".
