6 May 1999

Drug therapy will resume, says late abbot's brother

Aid-seekers to face tighter screening

Supote Wancharoen  The Bangkok Post

Wat Tham Krabok will continue to treat and rehabilitate drug addicts, the brother of Phra Chamroon Panchan, the late abbot, said yesterday.

The death of Phra Chamroon, who died on Tuesday, aged 73, did not mean the mission to help addicts would end, said Phra Charoen Panchan, 70.

The passing of the abbot, who won the Magsaysay award in 1973 for public service, had caused great sadness among local villagers and the Hmong community who had settled at the wat in Saraburi, he said.

Phra Charoen said he would take over his brother's role in the mission. "Actually, I founded the temple and persuaded him into the monkhood to help run the temple as a centre to treat and rehabilitate addicts," he said. "He ran the temple in the way I had intended."

While treatment had been suspended since last year amid allegations the wat was also a source of illicit drugs, it would be resumed, said Phra Charoen, who returned to the wat a decade ago after 15 years as a wandering ascetic.

"Thai and foreign addicts still come here but we have to refuse them now. We keep their addresses and promise to call them back when the centre re-opens."

The wat would also continue to help the poor but would be more discriminating, said Phra Charoen. "My brother helped many people without screening out those who did not deserve help," he said. "Things can't go on like that. People make donations but we do not campaign actively for money."

Wat Tham Krabok also accommodates 30,000 Hmong. Pracha Kosa, 54, leader of the Hmong community, said there was deep sorrow at the passing of the abbot.

"We would like to stay on at the temple because we have been here a long time, and going back to the North will only lead us back to drugs," he said.

The late abbot ensured the welfare of the Hmong and the education of their children. Since only 30 percent of the Hmong at the wat have identity cards, the majority have problems with their children's schooling.

Veerachart Nusitchankarn, a donor from Bangkok, said he would continue to help for the sake of the wat and not an individual monk. Mr Veerachart, 43, said if there was a drug problem it would have to be minor because the military and the police were keeping a watch on the wat.

"What is obvious to me is that the temple has helped bring mains water and electricity to villagers," he added.

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