Chavarat wants new blood as police chief

       Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul is urging Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to nominate a new candidate as police chief.
       Mr Chavarat yesterday insisted he would not support acting national police chief Pateep Tanprasert if Mr Abhisit again nominated him for the top job.
       The minister, one of the 11 members of the Royal Thai Police board, said although he had no intention of voting against Pol Gen Pateep, he would also neither support Pol Gen Pateep nor deputy police chief Chumpol Manmai to take the role of police chief.
       Mr Abhisit has nominated Pol Gen Pateep at two past board meetings only to have his choice rejected.
       "I have never backed Pol Gen Chumpol to be the new police chief,but I have disagreed with the choice of Pol Gen Pateep," Mr Chavarat said.
       He said he also disagreed with Mr Abhisit's appointment of Pol Gen Pateep as acting police chief to replace Pol Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwon before he retired last week.
       The nomination of the two candidates has caused deep division among their supporters, including between the prime minister and his former secretarygeneral, Niphon Promphan.
       Mr Niphon resigned from his post last week.
       Mr Chavarat, the nominal leader of the coalition Bhumjaithai Party, sug-gested that informal talks be held between Mr Abhisit and the police board.
       What was happening was simply "a matter of different opinions among the police board members, not a personal conflict between him and Mr Abhisit or a political issue between the Bhumjaithai and Democrat parties", Mr Chavarat said.
       "The issue behind the disruption of the police chief selection has also been cleared away since Mr Niphon resigned,"he said.
       Mr Abhisit, when asked about Mr Chavarat's statement that he would not support Pol Gen Pateep's nomination,questioned Mr Chavarat's knowledge of his choice.
       Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who has reportedly backed Pol Gen Chumpol as chief, said the police board would hold informal talks on certain matters which needed to be settled before moving on to set a date for the next meeting of the Royal Thai Police board.
       Mr Suthep said he did not want to comment on whether the seemingly different points of view between Mr Abhisit and Mr Chavarat would become a problem.
       "As the manager of the government,I will step in to handle it when there is a problem," he said."There is none now. Anyway, I'm not a superman but I will do what I can."