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Thai opposition challenge PM over deadly crackdown
1 of 3. A view of Parliament room during a parliamentary session for a debate by the opposition against the Thailand government in Bangkok May 31, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom
BANGKOK |
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's parliamentary opposition accused Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of human rights abuses Monday in a no-confidence motion centered on the use of violence during a crackdown on anti-government protests.
The two-day debate aims to focus attention on tough measures used to break up the "red shirt" protests which ended on May 19, and could force Abhisit to defend the firing of live ammunition by troops during a six-week period in which 88 people were killed and nearly 2,000 wounded.
The opposition have also accused Abhisit and five cabinet ministers of corruption and economic mismanagement.
The no-confidence motion is led by the Puea Thai Party backed by ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Puea Thai, popular in rural north and northeastern provinces, is widely expected to win the most seats in the next election.
But Abhisit is expected to survive the motion during a vote Wednesday with strong support from his six-party coalition.
"I'm here to ask for justice for the victims of the clashes. There has to be a proper investigation instead of the government blaming terrorists for everything," Jatuporn Prompan, a red-shirt leader and Puea Thai lawmaker, told reporters before the debate.
Puea Thai speakers, broadcast live on television, said excessive and illegal measures, such as night-time operations and the use of live ammunition, were used by troops in attempts to surround two protest sites and disperse demonstrators.
Abhisit defended the actions, saying Monday shadowy militants lurking among peaceful demonstrators triggered the bloodshed, which he said was aimed at trying to discredit and topple his government.
"The government and the security forces had no intention to hurt civilians but what happened followed an armed group's attack on troops and civilians which led to clashes," Abhisit said.
CIVILIAN DEATHS IN SPOTLIGHT
The mostly rural and urban poor protesters, broadly allied with Thaksin, their spiritual leader and assumed financier, have demanded a snap election, claiming Abhisit came to power illegitimately in December 2008 through parliamentary backroom dealing with the help of the military.
Puea Thai was formed after the pro-Thaksin ruling People's Power Party was dissolved for electoral fraud. It's previous incarnation, Thai Rak Thai, was disbanded after the 2006 coup that removed Thaksin, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for graft and new charges of terrorism.
The violence has taken a heavy toll on Thailand's economy. Figures released Monday showed Thai consumption fell in April from March, when the protest first began, meaning the central bank is unlikely to raise rates this week.
The debate will also focus public attention on the deaths of six civilians, including a volunteer nurse, at a Buddhist temple within the sprawling protest encampment in downtown Bangkok that was supposed to be a safe house and a no-weapons zone.
Opposition parliamentarian Anudith Nakornthap showed a photograph of marksmen in army uniform pointing rifles in the direction of the temple from an elevated train track, saying that troops shot at unarmed protesters within.
But Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said the photo may have been taken the day after troops had secured the area.
Abhisit Saturday said autopsies showed that four of the six people found dead at the temple were shot on level ground and not from a higher trajectory.
The preliminary investigations also showed the victims were shot in the back, chest and arms, in some cases as many as three times. The government has claimed that the unknown gunmen may have been firing from the back of the temple.
(Writing by Ambika Ahuja; Editing by Martin Petty and Miral Fahmy)
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The recent failed bloody Red shirts rebellion had been widely known at cities and villages as Thaksin’s last-ditch effort to regain his recently confiscated wealth and restore the Thaksin charisma. But I believe the way Thaksin/Red Shirts conducted the Red protests that rapidly degenerated into full-scale rebellion would backfire on the Thaksin’s Puea Thai Party in very big way. (Thaksin hardcores of course will remain pro-Thaksin, but these hardcores are only a very small percentage of the village votes).
http://absolutelybangkok.com/carpetbaggers-or-else/
Excerpt:
“And what? You did not yet read Father Joe’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Maier) related letter?
——–
Dear Everyone
Once again from Bangkok, “after the present troubles.”
All is quiet. The curfew is slowly going away. I believe Saturday will be the final night. Today, Thursday, as I write this, curfew is from midnight till four a.m. The first night, five folks tried to torch different parts of our Klong Toey slum. One by dropping burning material from the express way above the slum. All were doused in minutes. Two of the arsonists were 14-year old kids who had been given a handful of money to throw a petrol bottle bomb anywhere they could, to burn the slum, and if they succeeded, they would get more cash.
The total slum mobilized and kept watch against strangers, and even their own. First time in my forty years here I have seen total unity: no one – absolutely no one will burn – will torch – our slum. And that is the way it was and is. Our kids kept watch also, boys patrolling the street with a couple of slum street motorcycle gangs and the girls up the roof, keeping watch. We don’t have enemies, but our buildings are large, and look flammable, (which they ain’t) but you can do a lot of damage with a petrol bottle bomb!
The loss to this beloved land is beyond counting. For most, all started rather jovial – everyone getting a daily stipend of anywhere from a thousand baht for people on foot, and three to four thousand baht for motorcycles for joining the rallies. A thousand baht is four to five days wages for unskilled labor here in the slums and a bit more in the provinces. But then if you joined the protesters, they took your photo, registered you. That was when it began to unravel.
Then, it all blew up. Huge buildings, banks, shops, homes got torched. Hospitals evacuated. The police were passive, allowing everything to happen. Maybe that’s what they were told to do. I shall not comment on that. I think everyone was “like slapped senseless” by the reality.
What now?
Life goes on. We pick up the pieces. We are most uncertain of a calm tomorrow. We here in the slums, strongly feel this is just the beginning.
The poverty level here in Klong Toey has jumped higher. The port closed for a while. The bars closed, and many of the nighttime working moms of our kindergarten kids had no work – no customers. Street kids went hungry. Most of the slum had and still has no work – no wages. And the long term suffering is just now beginning. More and more people come to us daily for help, to begin their lives again.
Had the protesters won the day, we would now be under dictatorship with lots of folks disappearing. The Law of the Gun. I am reminded of the lyrics of “Keeper of the Song.” Those in power write the history, those who suffer write the songs. Meanwhile, now, children are beginning the new school year – but the corruption goes on, the carpetbaggers go on.
We, and that means almost everyone in Thailand, fear that any new radical government certainly would not be interested in the cost, time and effort necessary to bring about the radical economic changes urgently needed for better equality.
As for us and our children, our family at Mercy Center, thank you for your prayers and concern. Many of you asked how you could help us. I hope that I do not have to put out another letter, urgently asking, begging for your assistance. Right now, today, we are fine, unscathed physically, but emotionally pretty beat up. Some of our neighbors died, both protesters and those in uniform. Death is death.”
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