News from Thailand (incl. Bangkok Shutdown) – February 25, 2014

Bangkok Post has a 4,5 column photo on the front page today of Tanakorn Yos-ubol, the father who lost two children in the grenade attack for Big C Supercentre on Sunday.

"I hope this loss is the last tragedy of political violence," he says. “I wish I could say 'I have forgiven you' to those who perpetrated this violence. But I don't know who they are.' The family collected the children's bodies from Ramathibodi Hospital yesterday for funeral rites at Wat Phromwongsaram in Din Daeng.

The kids had gone to Big C with their aunt and her son and had eaten at KFC. As they got into a tuk-tuk, a grenade exploded. The two children did not survive the attack, the son was seriously injured. He is unconscious and in ICU. One of the children died Sunday evening from severe brain damage and internal bleeding, the other yesterday morning from brain damage and a ruptured liver.

– Another father on page 2. Nipon Promma touches the head of his 5-year-old daughter who was killed in a grenade attack and shelling at an anti-government protest rally in Trat on Saturday. The girl was playing at a noodle stand that came under fire.

'What did my daughter do wrong? Why was she killed? I condemn the perpetrators and wish them to suffer the same fate as my child," he says. Seven members of the family were injured. They were not part of the protest rally, but sold noodles at the market. The Rights and Liberties Protection Department has granted the father a provisional compensation of 100.000 baht.

Another girl who was hit in the same attack is still in a coma. She is on a ventilator in Rayong hospital. Her brain is swollen and no longer functioning, and her blood pressure has dropped. Police have not yet identified any suspects in the attack.

– Army Commander Prayuth Chan-ocha on Monday in a 10-minute TV speech urged all parties to resolve the political crisis through talks. Talks are necessary to prevent further violence; violence that will cause serious damage to the country.

The general reiterated that the army has no intention of intervening. The military option is not a solution to the crisis. As a result, violence would increase and the constitution would be broken down. If we use the wrong means, or deploy the military, how can we be sure that the situation will end peacefully?'

– Prime Minister Yingluck was harassed by PDRC protesters during a visit to the OTOP complex in Phu Khae (Saraburi) on Monday. From a distance, they fired questions at the prime minister through loudspeakers, such as why she is 'on vacation' while people are being killed in the capital. Yingluck was also treated to a flute concert.

The mayor of Phu Khae was unable to move the protesters. Later the police came with a hundred men. After an hour and a half, the prime minister left again. Other appointments after that were cancelled.

OTOP means One Tambon One Product. It is a program set up by Thaksin after the Japanese example to make villages specialize in one product. Today Yingluck attends a meeting of the Defense Council in Bangkok.

– The Electoral Council objects to the trips made by Yingluck; they would be election propaganda in disguise, misusing government funds. The Electoral Council has so far inquired three times with officials about details of Yingluck's visits to the country, but they have remained tight-lipped. The Electoral Council is now going to summon them.

– Six tourists were injured in a collision between two speedboats on Sunday afternoon. They crashed into each other about 1 kilometer from the coast of Krabi. One boat had 28 passengers, the other 10. Two injured are in critical condition.

– The army has agreed to a compensation of 6,5 million baht to the relatives of a conscript soldier who was seriously mistreated during his training in June 2011 and died as a result. In addition, the commander failed to transfer him to the hospital in time. The recruit was beaten by his trainers for disobeying orders and fleeing the army base in Narathiwat.

– The Student Loan Fund should be more behind students who do not pay off their student debt, says Kasem Watthanachai, member of the Privy Council. The SLF can make good use of that money because the budget for 2014 has been cut. Kasem made his plea yesterday at a seminar with administrators from educational institutions.

The SLF has 16,8 billion baht this year, although 23,5 billion baht was requested. Kasem assumes the discount was a punishment because the fund is too lax. 72 billion is outstanding in loans; at 38 billion baht are payment arrears (53 percent).

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Common abbreviations

UDD: United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (red shirts)
Capo: Center for the Administration of Peace and Order (body responsible for applying the ISA)
CMPO: Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (responsible body for the State of Emergency that has been in effect since January 22)
ISA: Internal Security Act (emergency law that gives the police certain powers; applies throughout Bangkok; less strict than the Emergency Decree)
DSI: Department of Special Investigation (the Thai FBI)
PDRC: People's Democratic Reform Committee (headed by Suthep Thaugsuban, ex-opposition Democrat MP)
NSPRT: Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand (radical protest group)
Pefot: People's Force to Overthrow Thaksinism (ditto)
PAERN: People's Army and Energy Reform Network (action group against energy monopoly)

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Bangkok Shutdown and Related News

– The Thai Health Network will hold activities tomorrow with the aim of putting pressure on the government to resign and thus take responsibility for the recent wave of violence. What those 'activities' consist of, Narong Sahametapat, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, did not want to say during a press briefing yesterday.

The THN consists of 46 clubs, associations and organizations in the field of public health. It is gathering signatures for a call for Yingluck to resign. THN members dressed in black at the briefing yesterday and observed silence to remember the victims of the attacks in Bangkok and Trat.

The Council of University Presidents of Thailand has also called on the government to resign in response to the weekend violence.

– According to an army source, army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked Prime Minister Yingluck to urge the UDD not to drum up red shirts to march on the capital. On Sunday, red shirt leaders met in Nakhon Ratchasima to discuss plans to support the government. The newspaper did not report any concrete proposals on Monday.

Today, the newspaper quotes Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan as saying that the UDD will make its "biggest move" next month if the National Anti-Corruption Commission decides to take legal action against Yingluck for her role in the rice mortgage system. The NACC would against Yingluck a impeachment procedure can begin.

– The opening article of Bangkok Post speculates that an armed confrontation between 'men in black' should be feared. "It won't be a civil war," the newspaper's security sources say, "but men in black from the red shirts will come to unleash a guerrilla war with the popcorn warriors of the PDRC."

I will not mention the rest of the article, which consists of assumptions, accusations, inferences and open doors, such as the statement that Prime Minister Yingluck has ordered the police to track down the perpetrators of the attacks in Bangkok and Trat. Seems like a pretty unnecessary order to me, unless the Thai police would rather collect bribes than go on a crook hunt.

– Action leader Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday accused Prime Minister Yingluck that her condemnation of the grenade attacks on demonstrators in Bangkok and Trat was 'insincere'. What Suthep bases this accusation on is a mystery to me because she has condemned the violence and expressed her condolences to the bereaved. Should she have burst into tears?

Suthep also said Yingluck was referring to the military when she said a "third party" was responsible for the attacks. [He said a lot more, but dear readers, do you want to read all this nonsense? I pass.]

– Another grenade attack, this time aimed at the headquarters of the opposition party Democrats in Phaya Thai (Bangkok), but instead the grenade hit the house next door. Two cars were damaged. No injuries have occurred. The attack, which took place at 13:XNUMX a.m. Monday, is the second at headquarters. On January XNUMX, the building came under fire. The coffee shop located at the front was damaged in the process. Even then there were no injuries.

– With the passing of the police, the relatives of two civilians who died on Tuesday in the fighting between police and demonstrators at the Phan Fah bridge have filed a murder charge with the Criminal Court. The police were passed over because they don't trust them to handle the case properly.

Indicted are Prime Minister Yingluck, CMPO Director Chalerm Yubamrung, Chief Commissioner Adul Saengsingkaew and two others. The indictment alleges that some officers carried firearms and carried explosives. The accused should have realized that officers would shoot live ammunition. The court is considering whether the complaint can be dealt with, now that the police have not brought the case.

– A second police officer fell victim to the fighting last Tuesday at the Phan Fah bridge in Bangkok. He died of his injuries in hospital on Monday. This brings the death toll to six: four civilians and two police officers. 69 people were injured in the fighting. Since the end of November, the protests have claimed 20 lives and 718 injured, according to data from the municipal Erawan Center.

– Luang Pu Buddha Issara got his way. After a siege of Voice TV, an internet and satellite TV company owned by Thaksin's three children, the company has apologized for a presenter's claim that the protesting farmers are not real farmers.

Issara, protesters and farmers gathered at the Voice TV office on Vibhavadi-Rangsit road on Monday morning. They stayed neatly outside the gate, promising to stay there until they could have their say. After the company aired an apology and retracted the accusation, the besiegers left.

Another group yesterday besieged the office of M Link Asian Corporation Plc, which is said to be owned by a niece of Thaksin. The vice president tried to placate them by offering to sell three cell phones at a discounted price of 10.000 baht. The protesters rejected the offer. They come back today to buy a thousand handsets at that price and if they don't get it, they report it to the police.

– Today protesters are going to various companies of the Shinawatra family. According to action leader Suthep Thaugsuban, the family owns 45 companies with a total capital of 52 billion baht. The largest company is real estate developer SC Asset Plc. The Rama IX hospital is also owned by the Shinawatras, but it is left undisturbed, as are educational institutions. Suthep threatens to bankrupt the other.

– The Criminal Court has refused to issue arrest warrants against 13 PDRC leaders. The DSI had asked for the arrest warrants because they violated the emergency ordinance. But the criminal judge, referring to last week's civil court verdict, ruled that the ordinance cannot be used against PDRC protesters because they are demonstrating peacefully and unarmed.

On Thursday, the Criminal Court will consider the PDRC's request to withdraw the arrest warrants against Suthep and eighteen other leaders.

The CMPO has not yet appealed against the decision of the civil court. It left the emergency ordinance intact, but canceled the measures taken, such as the ban on gatherings.

Opinions

– Since November, nineteen people have been killed and 717 injured, 32 of whom are still in hospital. The police have not even managed to arrest a single suspect for the attacks. Strangely enough, the police quickly managed to arrest the suspects of an attack on red shirt leader Kwanchai Praipana in Udon Thani.

Veera Prateepchaikul makes this wry observation in a column on the Bangkok Post website. But not only that, he also reveals how a red shirt leader from Chon Buri told a meeting of the UDD in Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday that he had 'good news'. 'The PDRC members of Suthep in Khao Saming (Trat) have received a well-deserved welcome from local residents. Five people were killed and more than thirty injured.'

His words were met with cheers and raised fists by many in the audience. But before he could continue, UDD chairman Tida Tawornseth cut him off. "The red shirt movement does not welcome violence." Former PT MP Worachai Hema then escorted the man off stage. Veera has only one word for it: Disgusting.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

Editorial notice

The Bangkok Breaking News section has been canceled and will only be resumed if there is reason to do so.

Bangkok Shutdown and the elections in images and sound:

www.thailandblog.nl/nieuws/videos-bangkok-shutdown-en-de-keuzeen/