Ex-Thai PM to Face Murder Charges for Crackdown | The Irrawaddy Magazine
THANYARAT DOKSONE / AP WRITER| December 7, 2012
BANGKOK—Investigators say they plan to file murder charges against Thailand’s former prime minister and his deputy in the first prosecutions of officials for their roles in a deadly 2010 crackdown on anti-government protests.
The protests and crackdown left more than 90 people dead and about 1,800 injured in Thailand’s worst political violence in decades. Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat Party, now in the opposition after being ousted in elections last year, and “Redshirt” supporters of the ruling Pheu Thai Party have blamed each other for the bloodshed since.
Department of Special Investigation chief Tharit Phengdit said Thursday that investigators found Abhisit possibly culpable in the death of a taxi driver because he allowed troops to use war weapons and live ammunition against protesters.
Abhisit and former Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who was in charge of the ad hoc security agency set up to contain the protests, will be summoned Wednesday to be formally charged. The courts must accept the case before it can go to trial.
Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut called the decision “an abuse of government’s power to threaten its opponents.” He noted that it was done while parliament is in recess so the two men’s immunity from arrest is lifted.
Tharit denied that the decision is politically motivated and said the case is significant “for society because the deaths were inflicted by an act of government officers.”
The deaths occurred during the red shirts’ nine-week anti-government protest in the heart of the capital that had sought to force Abhisit to call early elections. Central Bangkok was garrisoned by soldiers until they moved in to crush the protest on May 19, 2010.
The protest was staged primarily by supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and disrespect to the monarchy. His supporters and opponents have vied for power since then, and Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra now leads the government.
A Criminal Court inquest recently found that taxi driver Phan Kamkong was killed by guns used by military personnel during the crackdown.
Chavanond alleged that the inquest was a one-sided trial in which the accused could not defend themselves and that no one was pinpointed as the shooter.
He insisted the security body set up to contain the protests issued no order to use force against or kill civilians, only to keep order in dealing with “black shirts,” armed men who served as guards for the demonstrators.
“To use the court’s inquest to conclude that the two men had the intention of murder was groundless and against the law,” Chavanond said.
He said both Abhisit and Suthep “are ready to prove their innocence,” and that “those who brought up false charges will have to take responsibility.”
DSI chief Tharit said factors leading to the planned charges include the continuing use of force over time and the killing of civilians without resorting to other methods of controlling protesters.
Showing posts with label Thai Democrat Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thai Democrat Party. Show all posts
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Korn compares Thai government to Hitler: has he lost his mind? | Asia Provocateur
Korn compares Thai government to Hitler: has he lost his mind? | Asia Provocateur
About 18months ago I interviewed Thailand's then Finance Minister, Democrat Party Deputy Leader Korn Chatikavanij - my interviews with him can be found here and here.
On the two occasions that I met Korn I found him to be erudite, articulate and willing to engage on a number of subjects and policy details.
A dual-British/Thai national, the UK-born Korn attended Winchester College and later studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. Urbane, well-educated and with a cosmopolitan air, it's hard not to be impressed by Korn, not least because at roughly 6ft 4inches tall, he has quite an imposing physical presence as well. While I disagreed with him on a number of subjects I found him personally charming and certainly likeable.
So, his comments on his Facebook page today (see screen grab in Thai just below) come as a complete shock.
In a rambling monologue Korn complains about the government's handling of this weekend's Pitak Siam protests. Utilising that tried and tested logical fallacy - the false equivalence - he states that the government used the police to assault the protesters and that the Red Shirts abandoned their own principles by supporting such actions.
Of course the simple facts that Pitak Siam's publicly stated aims were to destroy democracy and create conditions for a military coup are oddly missing from Korn's narrative. Also the fact that the Pitak Siam protesters drove a large truck directly into police lines and attacked them with sticks and other weapons. Then there's the tiny inconvenient detail that the present ruling government party, Pheu Thai, has an overwhelming parliamentary majority, something his party has not achieved in its 66years of existence. Absent too is that when the government he served in were faced with Red Shirt protesters in 2010 they sent Army snipers onto the streets and shot nurses and school children.
But it was the final part of Korn's rambling comment that raises questions about his mental state.
Using an arcane Adolf Hitler quote (is it only me who finds it odd Korn could quote Hitler so readily?) Korn states that
To make this bizarre claim is straight out of the nuttiest Thai extremist handbook. The Second World War killed almost 70million people, unleashing unspeakable horrors and crimes on the world. Hitler committed the worst of these crimes, including the terrible slaughter of 6million Jewish men, women and children and 12million Soviet civilians.
It is an utter obscenity for Korn to make a comparison between firing a dozen or so tear gas grenades at violent protesters and Hitler's genocidal slaughter of millions. He should not only be widely ridiculed for making this comparison but condemned as well.
I am quite right to question his sanity in such circumstances and can only hope he sees the error of his ways and offers an immediate retraction and apology.
Asia Provocateur, 25 November 2012
About 18months ago I interviewed Thailand's then Finance Minister, Democrat Party Deputy Leader Korn Chatikavanij - my interviews with him can be found here and here.
On the two occasions that I met Korn I found him to be erudite, articulate and willing to engage on a number of subjects and policy details.
A dual-British/Thai national, the UK-born Korn attended Winchester College and later studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford. Urbane, well-educated and with a cosmopolitan air, it's hard not to be impressed by Korn, not least because at roughly 6ft 4inches tall, he has quite an imposing physical presence as well. While I disagreed with him on a number of subjects I found him personally charming and certainly likeable.
So, his comments on his Facebook page today (see screen grab in Thai just below) come as a complete shock.
In a rambling monologue Korn complains about the government's handling of this weekend's Pitak Siam protests. Utilising that tried and tested logical fallacy - the false equivalence - he states that the government used the police to assault the protesters and that the Red Shirts abandoned their own principles by supporting such actions.
Of course the simple facts that Pitak Siam's publicly stated aims were to destroy democracy and create conditions for a military coup are oddly missing from Korn's narrative. Also the fact that the Pitak Siam protesters drove a large truck directly into police lines and attacked them with sticks and other weapons. Then there's the tiny inconvenient detail that the present ruling government party, Pheu Thai, has an overwhelming parliamentary majority, something his party has not achieved in its 66years of existence. Absent too is that when the government he served in were faced with Red Shirt protesters in 2010 they sent Army snipers onto the streets and shot nurses and school children.
But it was the final part of Korn's rambling comment that raises questions about his mental state.
Using an arcane Adolf Hitler quote (is it only me who finds it odd Korn could quote Hitler so readily?) Korn states that
"The Red Shirt government thinks and behaves like this [like Hitler] - therefore they will end up the same as/not different from Hitler."
To make this bizarre claim is straight out of the nuttiest Thai extremist handbook. The Second World War killed almost 70million people, unleashing unspeakable horrors and crimes on the world. Hitler committed the worst of these crimes, including the terrible slaughter of 6million Jewish men, women and children and 12million Soviet civilians.
It is an utter obscenity for Korn to make a comparison between firing a dozen or so tear gas grenades at violent protesters and Hitler's genocidal slaughter of millions. He should not only be widely ridiculed for making this comparison but condemned as well.
I am quite right to question his sanity in such circumstances and can only hope he sees the error of his ways and offers an immediate retraction and apology.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Update: Thailand Backs Away from NASA Study | Asia Sentinel
Update: Thailand Backs Away from NASA Study | Asia Sentinel
Richard S. Ehrlich, 26 June 2012
Project to study Southeast Asian weather patterns looks dead
Thailand's cabinet Tuesday effectively killed NASA's request for use of U-Tapao naval airbase south of Bangkok for atmospheric studies, referring the plan to a joint parliamentary committee.
NASA, however, earlier said the request for the use of U-Tapao would be withdrawn if the request to use the former Vietnam-era US Air Force base didn't go through by today.
"If we receive approval by June 26, we will be able to proceed with the SEAC4RS (Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study) campaign," said Hal Maring, NASA's project coordinator. "After that date, we will not have time for the extensive logistical preparations required for a flight campaign of this magnitude," Maring earlier told media in Bangkok.
The opposition Democrat Party led by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had demanded that the project and another to base humanitarian relief at U-Tapao be discussed in parliament, saying the matter is a national security issue that could affect relations with countries in the region, particularly China, which may regard it as a pretext for US spying.
NASA, however, described the SEAC4RS as beneficial for tracking pollution and weather, including monsoons which determine agricultural production and regional economies but also bring floods which kill hundreds of people in Southeast Asia each year. In particular, Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and parts of Thailand are wreathed in choking smoke from vast seasonal burning of forests in Indonesia.
"NASA has proposed to base the SEAC4RS aircraft in Thailand so that the planes can sample the two big meteorological drivers of the region's atmospheric circulation: the summertime monsoon circulation to the west, and marine convection to the east and south, that can loft emissions into the stratosphere," NASA said on its website.
"There are emissions from big seasonal fires and megacities that are moved around the region by a complex meteorological system," said project leader Brian Toon, chair of the University of Colorado's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
"When these chemicals get into the stratosphere, they can affect the whole earth," Toon said.
"Southeast Asia is a complex region influenced by various large emission sources -- fossil fuels, biomass burning, ships, and biogenic emissions among others," wrote Jenny A. Fisher describing how she would work "in the field" during the SEAC4RS project.
"NASA's most complex and ambitious airborne science campaign of the year," as it is called, is sponsored by the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, NASA said. To sample the atmosphere, high-altitude ER-2 aircraft would be supported by G-V and DC-8 flights.
Simultaneously, "an array of sensors, spread across the region at locations on the ground and in the South China Sea, will observe the atmosphere from the bottom up," NASA said.
"With support from the National Science Foundation and the Naval Research Laboratory, the campaign will draw together coordinated observations from NASA satellites, several research aircraft, and an array of sites on the ground and at sea,” the statement continued. “Pending approval of NASA's plans by the government of Thailand, where the flights would originate, SEAC4RS will take to the field in August.”
"The foreign ministry, the armed forces and the council of state are looking at the issue," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on June 22 after receiving NASA's deadline.
To quell widespread speculation that NASA's project could include a secret, sinister role, Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat said on Friday (June 22), "Trust me, I am not the kind of person who sells the country. It is not anything about military activity."
Some Thai opposition politicians and others suggested NASA's project may displease China, Bangkok's allied northern neighbor, though Beijing has not publicly criticized NASA's plan.
"It is unfortunate that a chance for Thailand and Thai scientists to collaborate with the organization that put men on the moon, and launched the Hubble and Chandra X-ray telescopes into space, has been politicized to the point to where it now looks as if the opportunity might be lost," the Bangkok Post's editorial said on Sunday (June 24).
"Criticism by some in the opposition Democrat Party as well as some academics over the Americans having possible 'hidden agendas', the surrender of Thai sovereignty and the project's potential to upset regional neighbors, namely China," have threatened to block NASA's project, it said.
NASA wants to use Thailand's Naval base at U-Tapao, on the Gulf of Thailand, 90 miles southeast from Bangkok. U-Tapao was among six major air bases used by the U.S. during the 1960s and early 1970s to unleash massive aerial bombardments on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, killing thousands of people, many of them civilians. The three countries remain crippled by the results of the bombing raids which ended when America lost its wars and local communists won triple victories in 1975.
The following year, Thailand told US forces to leave its bases, though the two nations remain close allies and conduct extensive military training exercises in Thailand each year. The U.S. Air Force used U-Tapao during Iraq and Afghanistan wars, especially for transit and refueling.
Today, some foreign commercial and charter flights also use U-Tapao's airport, though Bangkok has two large international airports.
Parliament's session ended on June 19 and is to reconvene in August, which means it would be too late to approve NASA's project. If NASA's project goes ahead without parliament's approval, the Democrats may try to claim it violates section 190 of Thailand's constitution, and use that issue to destabilize the government.
Some analysts suspect that is the Democrats' real motive, because the party has not declared its outright opposition to NASA's project but are pointing to the constitution to give the impression that the government may be violating the law.
The 2007 constitution's convoluted section 190 says in part that a "treaty" which affects the "security of the country...must be approved by the National Assembly."
In addition, "the Council of Ministers must provide information" to the public about the treaty and consult parliament, it says. "The Council of Ministers must submit the negotiation framework to the National Assembly for approval.”
Perhaps more chilling to the government is the section's clause which says that the legal interpretation about the constitution's position over such an issue "falls within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court."
Yingluck earlier in June backed off trying to amend the constitution in parliament when the Constitutional Court declared that it had the power to inspect the amendment before it could be voted on in parliament -- and if the government violated the court it could be an illegal act.
During the government's constitutional amendment attempt, some Democrat party politicians disrupted parliament, and the chaos in the chamber stopped the government's effort to debate the issue.
If the Democrat Party convinces the government that the NASA project needs parliament's approval, then the project will be halted.
If Yingluck goes ahead with the project without parliament's approval, then the Democrats may launch a case with the Constitutional Court and hope it rules that her government violated the constitution, though it is unclear if such a case would hold up.
Earlier in June, the Democrats insisted the government was trying to amend the constitution to create a loophole so the prime minister's older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, could return to Thailand from self-exile abroad, and not serve a two-year prison sentence.
Thaksin was convicted of corruption after the military toppled him as prime minister in a 2006 coup, and later 1.2 billion dollars of his assets were seized in a separate corruption case.
(Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist. His websites are http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets)
Richard S. Ehrlich, 26 June 2012
Project to study Southeast Asian weather patterns looks dead
Thailand's cabinet Tuesday effectively killed NASA's request for use of U-Tapao naval airbase south of Bangkok for atmospheric studies, referring the plan to a joint parliamentary committee.
NASA, however, earlier said the request for the use of U-Tapao would be withdrawn if the request to use the former Vietnam-era US Air Force base didn't go through by today.
"If we receive approval by June 26, we will be able to proceed with the SEAC4RS (Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study) campaign," said Hal Maring, NASA's project coordinator. "After that date, we will not have time for the extensive logistical preparations required for a flight campaign of this magnitude," Maring earlier told media in Bangkok.
The opposition Democrat Party led by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had demanded that the project and another to base humanitarian relief at U-Tapao be discussed in parliament, saying the matter is a national security issue that could affect relations with countries in the region, particularly China, which may regard it as a pretext for US spying.
NASA, however, described the SEAC4RS as beneficial for tracking pollution and weather, including monsoons which determine agricultural production and regional economies but also bring floods which kill hundreds of people in Southeast Asia each year. In particular, Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and parts of Thailand are wreathed in choking smoke from vast seasonal burning of forests in Indonesia.
"NASA has proposed to base the SEAC4RS aircraft in Thailand so that the planes can sample the two big meteorological drivers of the region's atmospheric circulation: the summertime monsoon circulation to the west, and marine convection to the east and south, that can loft emissions into the stratosphere," NASA said on its website.
"There are emissions from big seasonal fires and megacities that are moved around the region by a complex meteorological system," said project leader Brian Toon, chair of the University of Colorado's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
"When these chemicals get into the stratosphere, they can affect the whole earth," Toon said.
"Southeast Asia is a complex region influenced by various large emission sources -- fossil fuels, biomass burning, ships, and biogenic emissions among others," wrote Jenny A. Fisher describing how she would work "in the field" during the SEAC4RS project.
"NASA's most complex and ambitious airborne science campaign of the year," as it is called, is sponsored by the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, NASA said. To sample the atmosphere, high-altitude ER-2 aircraft would be supported by G-V and DC-8 flights.
Simultaneously, "an array of sensors, spread across the region at locations on the ground and in the South China Sea, will observe the atmosphere from the bottom up," NASA said.
"With support from the National Science Foundation and the Naval Research Laboratory, the campaign will draw together coordinated observations from NASA satellites, several research aircraft, and an array of sites on the ground and at sea,” the statement continued. “Pending approval of NASA's plans by the government of Thailand, where the flights would originate, SEAC4RS will take to the field in August.”
"The foreign ministry, the armed forces and the council of state are looking at the issue," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on June 22 after receiving NASA's deadline.
To quell widespread speculation that NASA's project could include a secret, sinister role, Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat said on Friday (June 22), "Trust me, I am not the kind of person who sells the country. It is not anything about military activity."
Some Thai opposition politicians and others suggested NASA's project may displease China, Bangkok's allied northern neighbor, though Beijing has not publicly criticized NASA's plan.
"It is unfortunate that a chance for Thailand and Thai scientists to collaborate with the organization that put men on the moon, and launched the Hubble and Chandra X-ray telescopes into space, has been politicized to the point to where it now looks as if the opportunity might be lost," the Bangkok Post's editorial said on Sunday (June 24).
"Criticism by some in the opposition Democrat Party as well as some academics over the Americans having possible 'hidden agendas', the surrender of Thai sovereignty and the project's potential to upset regional neighbors, namely China," have threatened to block NASA's project, it said.
NASA wants to use Thailand's Naval base at U-Tapao, on the Gulf of Thailand, 90 miles southeast from Bangkok. U-Tapao was among six major air bases used by the U.S. during the 1960s and early 1970s to unleash massive aerial bombardments on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, killing thousands of people, many of them civilians. The three countries remain crippled by the results of the bombing raids which ended when America lost its wars and local communists won triple victories in 1975.
The following year, Thailand told US forces to leave its bases, though the two nations remain close allies and conduct extensive military training exercises in Thailand each year. The U.S. Air Force used U-Tapao during Iraq and Afghanistan wars, especially for transit and refueling.
Today, some foreign commercial and charter flights also use U-Tapao's airport, though Bangkok has two large international airports.
Parliament's session ended on June 19 and is to reconvene in August, which means it would be too late to approve NASA's project. If NASA's project goes ahead without parliament's approval, the Democrats may try to claim it violates section 190 of Thailand's constitution, and use that issue to destabilize the government.
Some analysts suspect that is the Democrats' real motive, because the party has not declared its outright opposition to NASA's project but are pointing to the constitution to give the impression that the government may be violating the law.
The 2007 constitution's convoluted section 190 says in part that a "treaty" which affects the "security of the country...must be approved by the National Assembly."
In addition, "the Council of Ministers must provide information" to the public about the treaty and consult parliament, it says. "The Council of Ministers must submit the negotiation framework to the National Assembly for approval.”
Perhaps more chilling to the government is the section's clause which says that the legal interpretation about the constitution's position over such an issue "falls within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court."
Yingluck earlier in June backed off trying to amend the constitution in parliament when the Constitutional Court declared that it had the power to inspect the amendment before it could be voted on in parliament -- and if the government violated the court it could be an illegal act.
During the government's constitutional amendment attempt, some Democrat party politicians disrupted parliament, and the chaos in the chamber stopped the government's effort to debate the issue.
If the Democrat Party convinces the government that the NASA project needs parliament's approval, then the project will be halted.
If Yingluck goes ahead with the project without parliament's approval, then the Democrats may launch a case with the Constitutional Court and hope it rules that her government violated the constitution, though it is unclear if such a case would hold up.
Earlier in June, the Democrats insisted the government was trying to amend the constitution to create a loophole so the prime minister's older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, could return to Thailand from self-exile abroad, and not serve a two-year prison sentence.
Thaksin was convicted of corruption after the military toppled him as prime minister in a 2006 coup, and later 1.2 billion dollars of his assets were seized in a separate corruption case.
(Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist. His websites are http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com and http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets)
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