Exposed!   

A white paper exposes gross human rights abuse in Thailand

•Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Three months after the Thai government led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejiajiva ordered the military to clamp down on anti-government protesters in Bangkok, a new white paper has revealed that the  government and the Thai Royal Army may be responsible for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.

The 80-page paper entitled, The Bangkok Massacre: A Call for Accountability, was prepared by international lawyer Robert Amsterdam, whose firm, Amsterdam and Peroff LLP has been retained by former Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra as international advisors to the legal defence team for protesters arrested in the crackdown. “The recent violence in Thailand is part of a larger campaign of political persecution designed to eliminate the movement calling for restoration of the basic right to self determination,” said Amsterdam.

In March this year, a group of anti-government protesters known as the Red Shirts trooped out into the streets of Bangkok to campaign vehemently against the overthrow of Shinawatra in a 2006 coup. According to the protesters, the army-backed government which came to power 18 months before, in a controversial parliamentary vote, was illegitimate and they wanted him to call elections.

The protests, which resulted in the death of thousands of Thai citizens, persisted till May when government, after appealing to the protesters to call off the protests to no avail, ordered the clampdown and declared a state of emergency in 22 provinces.

According to the white paper released, “the recent violence in Thailand is part of a larger campaign of political persecution designed to eliminate the movement calling for the restoration of the basic right to self determination through genuine elections.”

The paper also criticises the so-called efforts made by the current unelected regime of Vejiajiva to achieve reconciliation, saying the genuineness of those efforts are belied by its use of emergency powers to criminalise the political opposition. The paper asserts that those reconciliatory efforts are nothing more than a cover up to protect the unelected regime and preserve its unlawful grip on power. And it emphasises the need for accountability and genuine elections as prerequisites for real and lasting peace in Thailand.

The white paper argues that there is sufficient evidence of human rights violation by the Thai military and its civilian chain of command to warrant a complete investigation by truly independent and impartial bodies. And that the investigative committee established by Vejiajiva is neither independent nor impartial.

—Nehru Odeh

Tags:  A Call for Accountability, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejiajiva, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, The Bangkok Massacre