Starting Points: Thailand

Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts

Dec 13, 2010

Bertil Lintner - Thai Turmoil Was No Class War

Aug 11, 2010

Thailand to indict top Red Shirts for terrorism

AFP
Aug 11, 2010

Red Shirt chairman Veera Musikapong is one of three key protest leaders to be indicted

BANGKOK — Thai prosecutors said Wednesday they would indict 19 leaders and supporters of the anti-government "Red Shirt" movement on terrorism charges in connection with recent political unrest.
They include three key protest leaders -- Red Shirt chairman Veera Musikapong, opposition lawmaker Jatuporn Prompan and Kokaew Pikulthong, who stood as an opposition candidate in a recent Bangkok by-election.
The suspects have already been arrested and charged and many have been held in detention for almost three months.
"Evidence from investigators shows that there are sufficient grounds to indict the suspects on terrorism charges," the Office of Attorney General said in a statement.
The Red Shirts' lawyer, Karom Poltaklang, said he was confident the suspects would be proven innocent.
Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will indict fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who faces an arrest warrant for terrorism but lives in self-imposed exile overseas.
Two months of protests by the Red Shirts, aimed at forcing immediate elections, triggered a series of clashes between demonstrators and troops that left at least 90 people dead -- mostly civilians -- and nearly 1,900 injured.
Most top Red Shirts surrendered to police after the army launched a deadly assault on the movement's fortified encampment in the heart of Bangkok on May 19.
Some others are in hiding, including Arisman Pongruangrong, who led the storming of an Asian summit in the Thai resort of Pattaya in 2009.
After the May crackdown, Reds leaders asked their thousands of supporters to disperse, but enraged protesters went on a rampage of arson, setting fire to dozens of buildings, including a shopping mall and the stock exchange.
Thailand's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Thaksin and his family against the seizure of 1.4 billion dollars of their assets in February for abuse of power.

Internet is Latest Battleground in Thailand's Heated Political Landscape

VOA

Ron Corben | Bangkok11 August 2010

The Internet is the latest battleground in Thailand's stormy political climate as the government attempts to shut down Web sites critical of it and the monarchy. The government is using tough laws to silence online criticism, but net users are finding ways to be heard.

During months of political protests earlier this year, the Thai government shut down thousands of Web sites it said fanned the protests or criticized the royal family.

May protests

The protests, which left 90 people dead and more than 1,400 injured, ended on May 19 when the army dispersed the crowds.

But the battle over the Internet continues.

Internet crackdown

Using the Computer Crimes Act and an emergency decree, the government shuts sites it thinks support the red-shirt protest movement. Media rights groups say more than 50,000 Web sites have been closed.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn is a director with Prachatai.com, an on-line news site the government shut down in April. A big concern for the government apparently was the site's discussion boards.

She says Prachatai shut the discussion board in July. Chiranuch faces charges under the Computer Crimes Act and if convicted could go to jail.

"Even I believe in the freedom of expression or free speech but I understand some limitation and we also set up a kind of system to moderate some content that can be considered violate the rights of the people or violate the law," Chiranuch said.

Government position

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanaygorn defends the Internet censorship policy.

"The situation under the emergency decree is very different," said Panitan. "On one hand we still keep the freedom of the media. But on the other hand we do look into certain messages that create tension, confrontation and push people to confront among one another and that activity is monitored."

A decade ago, it was easier for the government to control the media. TV and radio have long been state-controlled.

And newspapers faced attacks during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration earlier in this decade.

Tough to control

Chris Baker, an author and political analyst on Thailand, says new technologies are harder to control.

"In the past the government was able to control all broadcast media very closely and generally could influence the press," Baker said. "But that situation has totally changed with cable and satellite TV spinning out of control, community radio and the whole Internet as well."

Prachatai.com is an example of that. Pinpaka Ngamson, an editor for the site, says the government could only shut it temporarily.

"Now it's not difficult for us to work anymore, we know how to cope with this kind of order from the government," said Pinpaka. "We just change our server and use another URL [Uniform Resource Locator] and go on with our work."

Media plea

Thai media commentators have called on the government to rethink on-line censorship. They say it reinforces international opinion that Thailand's media is increasingly less free.

Supinya Klanarong, a media activist, says the Computer Crimes Act is applied too broadly beyond insults against the royal family. Supinya says more media restrictions have emerged since the anti-government protests ended in May.

"It means a general opposition Web site related to the red-shirt movement or the critics of the government are also being blocked as concern for national security, too," Supinya said. "So it's not only about the issue related to les majeste but is also about political Web site in general, especially the dissident point of and the opposition."

Some of the concerns appear to have been heard.

Improvements

Government leaders say they hope to improve draft legislation on the Internet laws.

Panitan, the government spokesman, says the there is a need to balance security and Internet freedom.

"On the one hand we regulate these activities in such a way that it's not going to harm our national interests," Panitan added. "Specific activities may not be allowed to be in those Web sites. But on the other hand we want to keep other communications open."

But media groups such as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance say the government has been intimidating Web users who engage in "sensitive political discussion". The group warns that shutting down Web sites may backfire and lead to the radicalization of those who post political comments on-line.

Jul 6, 2010

Bridging Thailand’s Deep Divide - International Crisis Group

Image of Jim Della-Giacoma

Bangkok/Brussels | 5 Jul 2010

The Thai government should immediately lift the state of emergency to create conditions for national reconciliation that would allow the building of a new political consensus and the holding of peaceful elections if the country is to return to stability.

Bridging Thailand’s Deep Divide , the latest report from the International Crisis Group, says the protracted tussle between the royalist establishment and those allied with ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has left the country deeply polarised. In April and May it sparked the most violent political confrontations in decades, killing at least 90 people, injuring nearly 2,000 and inflicting deep wounds on the national psyche. Shortly before authorising a violent crackdown on anti-government protestors by the army, the establishment-backed government of Abhisit Vejjajiva unilaterally offered to opposition groups a “roadmap” to national reconciliation. It now persists with this plan despite having created an atmosphere of repression where basic rights of the pro-Thaksin “Red Shirt” movement are denied by emergency laws.

“There is little prospect that genuine reconciliation will succeed when the offer comes from the same government directly responsible for the recent deadly crackdown on the Red Shirts and their ongoing repression”, says Jim Della-Giacoma, Crisis Group’s South East Asia Project Director. “The first gesture that might demonstrate a renewed commitment to building bridges would be to unconditionally and immediately lift the state of emergency”.

Empowered by the emergency decree imposed in 24 provinces – one third of the country – authorities have prohibited Red Shirts’ demonstrations, shut down their media, detained their leaders and banned financial transactions of their alleged financiers. Reconciliation when the government’s partners in resolving this conflict are on the run and denied their political rights is impossible. While the Red Shirts have no opportunity for open and peaceful expression because of draconian laws, their legitimate frustrations are being forced underground and possibly towards illegal and violent actions.

Establishing facts of the recent violence and holding perpetrators of the crimes on all sides accountable is another critical step on the road to reuniting the country. The Independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by former attorney general Kanit na Nakhon should not only seek truth but also initiate prosecutions of those it finds to have committed violent acts. The government’s use of terrorism charges to go after Red Shirt leaders as well as Thaksin is inappropriate for what was mostly a peaceful political movement that did not target civilians. It is also short-sighted as these are the very people that will need to be brought into a national reconciliation process to address the difficult issues facing the country.

In the long run, Thailand needs to think deeply about much broader political reforms of its system of government, laws and constitution, including the role of the monarch and military. Wealth needs to be shared, justice delivered equitably, and power decentralised.

“An election that should be held as soon as possible will be the beginning and not the end of this process”, says Robert Templer, Crisis Group’s Asia Program Director. “Only a new government, with the legitimacy of a fresh mandate, if it is accepted by all sides, can move forward with such a complex reform agenda”.

Jun 9, 2010

Many Thai workers, now out of poverty, are in dissent

Image by __maurice via Flickr

By Andrew Higgins
Wednesday, June 9, 2010; A10

NONBON, THAILAND -- San Silawat has three dogs, two cows and a parrot. He grows rice and spring onions on a small plot of land. But he's hardly a pauper: He's added a second floor to his house and built a blue-tiled patio. His son plays computer games in the front room. His daughter recently bought a Nissan pickup truck. His granddaughter studies nursing in Bangkok.

For all his relatively good fortune, however, San is certain about one thing: "Life is definitely getting worse," said the 62-year-old farmer, grumbling about the price of gasoline, school fees and a political and economic system he sees as rigged in favor of the rich.

Last month, San and six friends from this village in northeastern Thailand piled into a pickup and drove 14 hours to join "red shirt" protests in Bangkok. During nine weeks of demonstrations, scores of other rural folk from Nonbon and nearby settlements made the same 390-mile trip.

Beneficiaries of an economic boom that, in just three decades, has cut the proportion of Thais living below the poverty line from 42 percent to about 8 percent, San and his family represent both the promise and the peril of Asia's dizzying transformation.

From China in the north to Indonesia in the south, hundreds of millions of people are now living far better than a generation ago. But the gap that separates them from the rich has often grown wider. As their fortunes and expectations have risen, so too has their frustration. And, as recent turmoil in Thailand has shown, this can mean big trouble.

San and his neighbors rallied to the red shirts not because they are hungry, uninformed and desperate but because they are no longer any of those things. Though still very poor compared with Bangkok residents who cheered the red shirts' defeat when government troops moved in on May 19, they are a better-off, better-informed and far more demanding voice in national affairs than their elders. San buys and reads a newspaper every day.

"Farmers in the past didn't ask for anything. They just did their farming," said his daughter, Tasaneeporn Boran, standing next to her brand-new black Nissan, which she bought in February.

"We now know what is going on," she said. "We know what we want and don't want." What she doesn't want most of all is a "government that only looks after the rich, instead of ordinary people."

Continental divide

It is a demand that raises alarming questions not just for Thailand's Eton- and Oxford-educated prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, but for governments across Asia struggling to manage rising expectations amid growing, but unevenly spread, prosperity. Thailand's protests began in March not during a recession, but as the economy recorded first-quarter growth of 12 percent, its strongest performance in 15 years.

China, meanwhile, saw its economy surge by 11.9 percent -- and has since been hit by a wave of labor unrest, including a strike over wages at a Honda factory in Guangdong, one of the country's wealthiest regions. China's Communist Party has staked its future on a bet that economic growth will reinforce, not undermine, stability. But Thailand's experience shows how easily such calculations can come unstuck.

Instead of political calm, growth in Thailand has brought increased tension. When the country set off the 1997 Asian financial crisis and fell into a deep slump, political stability in Thailand actually increased and then plunged as the economy took off again, according to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, compiled by experts from the Brookings Institution and the World Bank.

Over the last four decades, Thailand's economy has grown an average of about 7 percent a year, and average real per-capita income has roughly tripled since the mid-1980s. But, according to a recent report on Thailand last year by the United Nations Development Program, the Southeast Asian nation is beset by "persistent inequality" that defies a widely accepted theory that the gap between rich and poor widens during an initial phase of development but then narrows.

Thailand's income inequality is roughly the same as that of much poorer nations such as Uganda and Cambodia and slightly worse than that of China and the United States, both highly unequal in terms of income distribution, according to data in the United Nations 2009 Human Development Report.

Despite the income gap, the people of Nonbon have unquestionably benefited from their country's rapid development. Tasaneeporn recalled growing up in the 1970s with no electricity, no running water and no paved roads. Only one family had a TV.

The main economic driver in the region at the time was the U.S. Air Force, which used a big airfield in the nearby city of Ubon Ratchathani to launch bombing runs over Vietnam and Cambodia. Now, a recently widened four-lane highway -- dotted with convenience stores and shopping centers -- connects Ubon Ratchathani, the regional capital, to farmland around Nonbon.

Tasaneeporn's brother recently got work in the city at a new luxury hotel. The job gives him a small, steady income -- and puts him in daily contact with people who have far more money.

'Voice of the People'

The most vocal red shirt supporters in these parts are not the destitute -- people like Sritta Sorsrisuk, a 71-year-old farmer who has seen two of his six children die. "I don't care about politics," he said, sitting in a tumbledown shelter next to his tiny plot of land. But others "talk about it all the time: red this, red that."

More keen on the red shirts is Usasorn Anarat, a neighbor of San's who traveled to Bangkok twice to join the protests. Thanks to her husband, who works in Qatar, and modest profits from a rice farm, Usasorn has a monthly income of about $1,000, far above the local average.

Like San, Tasaneeporn and nearly everyone in the villages around here, she's a huge fan of Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former prime minister who was ousted by the military in 2006 and is now wanted for "terrorism" under a Thai warrant. Thaksin, Usasorn said, "loves the country, won elections, and they chased him away."

Thaksin, a billionaire, regularly visited the Thai countryside and launched a raft of programs to help rural residents, including cheap health care, easy credit and handouts of about $30,000 to each village head. He even stopped off in the village next to Nonbon.

"Nobody had done that before," said Tasaneeporn. Her father managed to shake Thaksin's hand. He now has a picture of Thaksin pinned on his living room wall, along with photographs of Thailand's king.

After Thaksin and King Bhumibol Adulyadej, now 82 and hospitalized, the most popular person around here is Phichet Thabbudda, a rabble-rousing radio announcer known as "DJ Toy."

He founded and ran the "Voice of the People," a shoestring local radio station that won a big following with fiery denunciations of the government and the well-to-do. He also organized convoys of vehicles bound for Bangkok

Echoing the rhetoric of red shirt leaders in Bangkok, DJ Toy spoke of Thailand as a nation divided between hard-working but impoverished "serfs" and an oppressive, greedy "aristocracy." This played well in Nonbon and in other villages across northern Thailand. But Jamnong Jitnivat, a longtime local campaigner for farmers' rights, said it distorts reality. The real issue, he said, is a government bureaucracy out of touch with an increasingly well-informed and better-off population that now "demands much more than before."

When troops moved in to dislodge protesters in Bangkok on May 19, DJ Toy's radio station thundered against the crackdown and called on listeners to show their anger. Protesters burned down city hall in Ubon Ratchathani. The following day, police and soldiers arrested DJ Toy at his home, raided his studio and hauled away his antenna.

San, the rice farmer, said he misses his broadcasts but still keeps up with events by reading the newspaper and watching TV. "We all know what is happening," he said. "We know who is good and who is bad."

Jun 2, 2010

Thai Parliament Reflects Nation’s Anger

Narong Sangnak/European Pressphoto Agency

Sathaporn Maneerat, an opposition legislator, showed his solidarity with the red shirts in Parliament on Tuesday in Bangkok.

By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — Thailand’s conflict moved from the streets of Bangkok to the chamber of Parliament this week, as angry and irreconcilable as ever, with members from both sides trading accusations late into the night.

Interspersed with video clips that brought the sound and horror of battle into the chamber, the debate revived unanswered questions about snipers, arsonists, killings at a Buddhist temple and mysterious assassins dressed in black.

Framed as a parliamentary no-confidence motion against the government, the session on Monday and Tuesday provided the first public forum to debate the violence during a two-month demonstration by an antigovernment movement known as the red shirts that ended when the military moved in on the protesters’ encampment on May 19. A total of 88 people were killed and more than 1,800 wounded during the protests and crackdown.

The no-confidence motion was defeated on Wednesday in a 246-to-186 vote, The Associated Press reported. But no possible outcome seemed likely to ease the intensifying polarization of the nation, in which the rural heartland seems increasingly disconnected from the more comfortable life of the capital.

During the sessions, opposition members accused the government of shooting unarmed demonstrators as well as medical workers, and of placing snipers on an elevated railway track to fire at protesters taking shelter in a temple.

The government blames the protesters for instigating the violence, going so far as to suggest that black-shirted gunmen among them killed their own people to frame the government.

For nearly two months, mostly poor protesters occupied parts of Bangkok, particularly the commercial core of the city, demanding that the government step down and hold a new election. By the time Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva offered to hold an election in November, it appeared that compromise was no longer possible, and the violent eviction followed.

In Parliament, the opposition accused the government of unprovoked massacre, echoing the position of its figurehead, the fugitive former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who had hired an expert on war crimes to bring international charges against the government.

The government has in turn brought terrorism charges against Mr. Thaksin, accusing him of being behind the violence. He remains abroad, evading jail time for a corruption conviction.

Mr. Abhisit said the government had never ordered the killing of protesters, and the finance minister, Korn Chatikavanij, suggested in an interview that the killings had been staged by the protesters as provocations.

“There have been certain incidents in which the paramilitary arm of the red-shirt movement were quite willing to shoot their own to place the blame on the government,” Mr. Korn said.

In addition to the killings and the burning of more than 30 buildings on the final day of conflict, the police said Tuesday that during the crackdown there were 62 bomb attacks, 39 cases of arson, 18 cases of manslaughter and attempted killing, and 34 cases of robbery and looting.

Suthep Thaugsuban, the deputy prime minister in charge of security, denied that snipers had fired at a Buddhist temple, Wat Pathum Wanaram, a haven that became a trap for thousands of people taking refuge in the core of the protest area. But Mr. Abhisit conceded that many such questions remained to be investigated by an impartial panel he had promised.

Though the parliamentary session was unlikely to sway opinions, it gave opposition politicians a chance to put forward their views at a time of strict censorship. Citing the crisis, the government has shut down thousands of Web sites and pages, as well as opposition radio stations, prompting condemnation from within and outside Parliament.

Jun 1, 2010

Thai parliament debates government protest response

Hundreds of people were injured during the operation

Thailand's government is facing a no-confidence vote in parliament over the violence which ended lengthy political protests in the capital, Bangkok.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appears confident of surviving the censure, as his coalition allies have said they will not desert him.

The 19 May crackdown, which followed days of skirmishes, left more than 80 people dead and 1,800 injured.

On Monday, a senior UN official called for an independent inquiry to be held.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the government to "ensure that an independent investigation of recent events be conducted, and all those found responsible for human-rights violations are held to account".

The government will face a vote on its conduct on Wednesday following two days of intense debate which has focused on the conduct of troops during the operation.

Opposition politicians have taken it in turns to denounce the government for its decision to send in the army to break up the two-month long political protest which paralysed parts of Bangkok.

They say that the majority of the victims were unarmed demonstrators, proof that the soldiers were guilty of using disproportionate force.

But Deputy Premier Suthep Thaugsuban said video footage of the violence in the capital showed the government was not to blame for the deaths of protesters.

"In the past two days your aim has been to make people believe that the prime minister and I ordered the military to kill people," he said.

"Your allegations are extremely unfair to those soldiers."

'Can't hide the sky'

The controversial deaths of six people in a temple during the forced ending to the anti-government "red-shirt" rally has dominated the debate.

Thai and foreign journalists, among other observers on the scene, say soldiers fired into the grounds of Wat Pathum Wanaram from the elevated commuter train nearby. The government has issued various denials.

PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in parliament in Bangkok, Thailand (1 June 2010)

Mr Vejjajiva is expected to survive the no-confidence vote

Six people - including one local Red Cross nurse - were found dead inside the grounds of the temple, where red-shirt protesters had taken refuge from the fire-fights going on during the day.

"What happened at Wat Pathum cannot be ignored," said Jatuporn Prompan- a red-shirt leader and MP in the opposition Puea Thai party - who headlined the debate.

"You can't hide the sky with your palm. The truth must come out."

The government says it only turned to the military as a last resort after all attempts to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis failed.

It also points to the presence of gunmen among the protesters as justification for the use of live ammunition.

Mr Abhisit said he had no concerns about rebutting the charges levelled at him during the debate but claimed that distorted views of the opposition lawmakers might hinder national reconciliation.

"There are attempts to pass the blame on violence and this will make it more difficult for reconciliation to materialise," he said.

Polarised society

The government has promised an independent investigation into all incidents of violence but has rejected the idea of international assistance.

Bangkok clashes mapped Protests: Eyewitness account

Mr Abhisit said he would not interfere with any investigation and that "whatever the outcome," he and Mr Suthep were "ready to accept it", the AFP news agency reports.

But the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says that opposition politicians, many of whom actively supported the protests, are suspicious that any government-appointed panel will not be impartial.

The governing coalition has a majority in parliament and is thought likely to win the no-confidence vote.

But under the current state of emergency, state media is being strictly controlled and opposition media has been largely shut down. So this debate is, in effect, the first public airing of the bitter arguments polarising Thai society, our correspondent says.

Several opposition figures have made a point of highlighting the government's censorship of the media and its recent closure of a large number of blogs, websites and broadcasts under the continuing state of emergency rule.

They have also complained about a poor signal and frequent interruption of the live broadcast of the censure debate.

The Erawan Emergency Centre in Bangkok says 87 have now died as a result of the violence since 14 May - the majority were civilians. A total of 1,406 civilians and security personel were also injured.

The red-shirts had been protesting in Bangkok since 14 March, occupying the shopping district and forcing hotels and shops to close.

On 19 May, the government moved in to seal off the area and a renegade general who backed the protests was shot dead.

The red-shirts are a loose coalition of left-wing activists, democracy campaigners and mainly rural supporters of Mr Thaksin.

They are demanding fresh polls because they say the government - which came to power through a parliamentary deal rather than an election - is illegitimate.

May 28, 2010

Thailand tries to go after financial backers of 'red shirts'

Image via Wikipedia

By Andrew Higgins
Friday, May 28, 2010; A01

BANGKOK -- Victorious over rice farmers in flip-flops and riffraff with slingshots, molotov cocktails and a few guns, the commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army has moved swiftly to contain another menace: a golf-loving steel tycoon and maker of Nestle instant coffee.

Multimillionaire businessman Prayudh Mahagitsiri is now No. 21 on the latest installment of an expanding financial blacklist issued by the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, a body handling Thailand's gravest political crisis since the founding of the modern Thai state in 1932.

Prayudh, along with 151 other businessmen, politicians, lawyers and other alleged financiers of "red shirt" protests, has seen his bank accounts frozen and been ordered to report details of all financial transactions since September to authorities. The aim, said an emergency decree signed by Gen. Anupong Paochinda, is to root out threats to "national security and the safety of citizens" and "get rid of this problem effectively and immediately."

Last week, the Thai military forcibly ended a nine-week protest that had paralyzed central Bangkok, resulting in a frenzy of arson and looting. In all, more than 85 people died in the mayhem and earlier violence.

One of Asia's most vibrant economies is now getting cleaned up and back in business, but the government's campaign to rip out the roots of the protests once and for all has turned on some of Thailand's wealthiest businesspeople.

This economic assault has highlighted a curious and highly volatile feature of a raucous struggle often seen as a battle between Thailand's haves and have-nots. Although many rank-and-file red shirts are relatively poor and many of their most strident critics -- "yellow shirts" -- are fairly well-to-do, Thailand's far-from-resolved confrontation is also a clash within Thailand's elite.

"This is an ideological conflict mixed up with a business conflict. Business competition has always been muddled with political competition. But this is much more vindictive," said Chris Baker, a longtime resident of Thailand and co-author of a recent book about Thailand's billionaire former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

On Tuesday, Thailand issued an arrest warrant on terrorism charges against Thaksin, a U.S.-educated former policeman who made a fortune off mobile telephones, TV, golf courses and other ventures. He won two elections, styled himself "CEO Prime Minister" and presided over a period of roaring economic growth -- and also mass executions of alleged criminals -- while serving as leader from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup. He's now in self-imposed exile abroad.

"They are tightening the noose," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. Arrests, censorship and the financial inquest have put Thailand on "a slippery slope," he said, adding: "The creeping fear is that this could become a witch hunt. The question is: Who is next?"

Noppadon Pattama, a former foreign minister whose bank accounts have been frozen, denounced the financial probe as "clearly politically motivated." Like many on the financial blacklist, Noppadon is close to Thaksin.

The government denied engaging in a political vendetta. The money probe, said spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, is "not a tool for political conflict" but a response to a security threat. "People who have nothing to hide have nothing to worry about," said Panitan, a political scientist who taught for a time at Johns Hopkins University.

Twenty companies, most of them owned by relatives or close associates of Thaksin, are also under investigation. Like individuals on the list, they are barred from making bank, stock, insurance or other transactions without government permission. Authorities have made public no evidence of wrongdoing and have stumbled over details: One blacklisted company closed years ago.

Thailand's business community, like the rest of the country, is bitterly divided.

When Bangkok lurched toward anarchy last week, mostly pro-Thaksin red shirts turned with fury on property owned by rich families they viewed as hostile or lukewarm to their movement. Police stood by as rioters torched branches of Bangkok Bank and the country's biggest shopping mall, CentralWorld.

The arson attacks mirrored, albeit with far more violence, a campaign launched in early 2006 by opponents of Thaksin to boycott businesses close to the then prime minister. Six months later, the military removed Thaksin and set up a commission to investigate his business network.

That investigation began a long effort to choke off Thaksin's money. It climaxed in February when Thailand's Supreme Court confiscated $1.4 billion of frozen Thaksin assets. The court ruling allowed him to keep about $900 million. Soon after the court decision, red shirts began mobilizing for an occupation of downtown Bangkok.

Sean Boonpracong, a former resident of Herndon, Va., who helped lead the red shirt invasion, said after release from military interrogation over the weekend that protesters got $130,000 a day -- far less than official estimates -- from "friends of Thaksin" for food, generator fuel and other supplies. He denied that any had been used to buy weapons, adding that red shirts discussed setting up an armed wing but rejected the idea.

Some of those on the blacklist sympathized with the red shirt cause, which boiled down to a demand that the government quit and call early elections that would possibly return Thaksin's allies to power. A shopping center owned by one targeted businessman leased space to a host of now-defunct red shirt ventures, including an anti-government TV station, a journal called Red News, the Red Cafe and also the Red Shop, filled with Thaksin dolls, Thaksin T-shirts and books praising Thaksin.

Other tycoons suffered heavy losses from the turmoil they're accused of bankrolling. Particularly hard hit was Panlert Baiyoke, owner of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, an 88-story Bangkok landmark with 658 guest rooms. The hotel had just one guest last week. This week it had 20.

Prayudh, the coffee maker and chief executive of a steel venture called Thainox Stainless, declined to comment on allegations that he helped fund the protesters.

The government has given no evidence of misbehavior by Prayudh other than a long association with Thaksin. The corporate headquarters of Thainox displays a 2001 photo of Prayudh receiving a business award from Thaksin.

Prayudh made his first big money from a coffee joint venture set up in 1972 with the Swiss multinational Nestle. Nophadol Siwabur, director of corporate affairs for Nestle in Thailand, said the blacklist "is essentially a private matter for Mr. Prayudh." Nestle, he added, "keeps a strict neutrality in political matters."

This hasn't helped Nestle escape the consequences of politics: Its Bangkok offices were in CentralWorld, the shopping and office plaza torched by protesters.

May 23, 2010

Thai PM: Thailand Returning to Normal

Thailand's prime minister has said the country is "calm and returning to normality", four days after a deadly military crackdown on anti-government protesters sparked arson and looting.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, appearing relaxed and confident, said in his regular Sunday television address that "everything is calm and returning to normality".

He said schools, streets and government agencies would reopen on Monday after being closed to keep civilians out of central Bangkok during clashes between government forces and the so-called red shirts.

However, Abhisit indicated that a night-time curfew in force for four nights in Bangkok and 23 other provinces could be extended for another two nights.

Squads of workers remain out on Bangkok's thoroughfares, continuing to clean up in the aftermath of Wednesday's crackdown and ensuing riots, which left at least 15 people dead, bringing to 85 the number of people who have died since the first violence flared on April 10.

The violence also left nearly 100 people wounded, bringing to around 1,400 those who have been injured in the crisis.

Crackdown defended

Despite the high human cost, Abhisit defended the conduct of government forces.

in depth


	Videos:
	Noose tightens on red shirts
	On the ground amid Thai offensive
	Thaksin lawyer on protests
	Rivals explain positions
	Businesses see red

	Timeline
	Battle in Bangkok

	Programmes:
	Inside Story: Thai battle
	Thailand: Warring colours
	101 East: The red shirts
	Thailand's TV wars

	Profiles:
	Thaksin and the red shirts

	Gallery:
	Crackdown in Thailand

"The losses were caused by clashes between groups of people attacking authorities' efforts to set up checkpoints to secure the area," he said.

"All weapons use was based on international standards. Weapons were used for self defence and to establish peace and order."

Seeking to blunt criticism from international rights groups as well as the red shirts, who said they were largely unarmed, the government displayed on Saturday a huge cache of weapons it said had been collected from the ruins of the protesters' encampment.

The rifles, bullets, grenades and components of bombs were put on display to defend the government's position that troops faced a serious threat and exercised appropriate force when they moved in to clear the main protest area on Wednesday.

However, Abhisit admitted there were serious concerns over fighting at a temple within the red shirts' camp. It had been designated a "safe zone" but six bodies were found there after the crackdown.

"The most distressing were the deaths at the Pathum Vanaram temple," he said.

He maintained there was no military action at the time of the temple shootings, but said the events would be investigated by an independent committee.

Concern has been growing over rights abuses in Thailand, with the European Union the latest to call on the authorities to respect the rights of protesters and saying the violence had harmed the nation.

Emergency decree

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was concerned that Thai authorities were using what it called a "draconian" emergency decree to hold red shirt prisoners in secret detention.

Elaine Pearson, HRW's acting Asia director, said the crisis was "no excuse for mistreating detained protesters or holding them in secret detention.

IN VIDEO

Red shirt protesters go underground

But there has also been criticism that the government has been too lenient in its treatment of suspected red-shirt leaders after pictures of the men looking relaxed and smiling for group shots in a spacious, well-furnished house were circulated on the internet

Some of the suspects also reportedly continued to send text messages to supporters and the media for days after they were detained.

The Thai police said on Saturday that eight suspected red shirt leaders being detained at a seaside police camp south of Bangkok, had now been separated and had their phones taken away.

The police said they put the men in the one house because there were not enough rooms elsewhere and the house was more secure.

Umnuay Nimmano, the deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police, said that police could not imprison the detainees because they had not been convicted of any crimes.

Bangkok Crackdown Is No Replay of Tiananmen

By ALEXA OLESEN / AP WRITER

Saturday, May 22, 2010

BEIJING — Before the military crackdown on Red Shirts in Bangkok this week, one Thai protester ominously claimed: "This will end as our Tiananmen Square."

It was a dire warning that did not come true. The clashes Tuesday between the Thai military and the so-called Red Shirt protesters left at least 15 people dead — compared with the hundreds or more believed killed when People's Liberation Army troops stormed into central Beijing in June 1989 to break up student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.

Thai army armored personnel carriers (APCs) guard along the Lumpini Park inside the Red shirt anti-government protesters' camp in Bangkok on May 19. (Photo: Getty Images)

For some, images of Thai armored personnel carriers breaking through makeshift barriers this week to end an anti-government protest brought back memories of China's crackdown in Tiananmen Square two decades ago.

Both were military missions to clear entrenched protestors who had paralyzed a key downtown area in the capital—but the political realities behind the two incidents have little in common, analysts say.

Thailand is a democracy, albeit one now in crisis and long prone to military coups, while China was and is staunchly authoritarian.

"Tiananmen in China in 1989 was really a black-and-white story, a black-and-white confrontation, the authoritarian government with the People's Liberation Army crushing the pro-democracy movement," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Thailand's protesters are angry because they see their democratic rights are being frustrated: the parties they voted for won the election but were then ordered dissolved and the politicians they voted for were banned from politics.

"In Tiananmen, they didn't have rights. In Thailand, the rights have been usurped, manipulated and disenfranchised," Thitinan said.

The Chinese military's bloody crackdown brought an end to weeks of largely peaceful demonstrations that at their height drew a million people to Tiananmen and saw students erecting a makeshift statue of liberty. In one famous moment of resistance, a lone man holding shopping bags defiantly stood in front of a column of tanks on a street near the square.

Tiananmen's resonance as a clear fight between good and evil was invoked this week by Sean Boonpracong, a spokesman for the Red Shirts.

"The people are defiant," the Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying. "They do not trust the government. They don't want violence, but they are prepared to fight with their bare hands. The government does not want to negotiate, so I think many more people will die. This will end as our Tiananmen Square."

Huang Shan, the international editor of one of China's most daring news publications, Caixin Weekly, said Chinese who grew up during the Tiananmen era would likely have the same associations.

He said he thought immediately of Tiananmen when he heard how the Thai military was clearing the Red Shirts out of downtown Bangkok.

"It's like how they cleared Tiananmen Square in the late 1980s," he said.

Beyond the superficial similarities however lies a world of difference. Tiananmen was a clear battle between dictatorship and democracy, but what's happening in Thailand today is more nuanced and less radical, said William Callahan, professor of international politics at the University of Manchester in England and an expert on Asian politics.

He said the Red Shirts are opposed to the top-down authority of Thailand's "network monarchy," a system which favors wealthy elites with links to the Thai king, but they are not asking for a new political system. Instead they demand new elections, which they hope will bring their people back into power.

"Their stated goals are within the system," he said. "So, they are working within the system but they don't see the system as working very well."

Perhaps the clearest sign of how little the struggles have in common is the free rein Chinese media have been given to report on Thailand's political turmoil. Though Beijing routinely censors news and ideas it considers potentially destabilizing, there seems to be little concern that the chaos in Bangkok will revive the ideals that drove Tiananmen.

Huang, the Caixin Weekly international editor, said so far there's been no gag order from Chinese authorities on covering the Thai crisis. Like other Chinese television and print media, Caixin has reported extensively on the situation and plans to continue doing so, he said.

Li Datong, a veteran Chinese journalist who was forced from a top editing job at a national state-run newspaper for publishing reports that were too probing, said the government is probably allowing plentiful and objective coverage of Thai crisis "because it poses no threat to China."

Thailand today and Tiananmen 20 years ago "were very different situations. In fact, they have nothing to do with each other," Li said. He said the Chinese student demonstrations were spontaneous and largely peaceful while the Red Shirt protests have been relatively organized and sometimes violent.

If anything, he said, the situation in Thailand offers Chinese authorities another negative example, like the occasional fist-fights in Taiwan's rambunctiously democratic legislature, to fend off those clamoring for faster political reforms on the mainland.

"The mouthpieces of the Chinese Central Propaganda Department can point to democracy in Taiwan and democracy in Thailand as cautionary tales," Li said. "They can say: 'You think democracy is good, well have a look at Thailand, see what kind of trouble they've got there?'"

Bangkok riots spark frenzy on net pages

Published: 23/05/2010 at 12:57 AM

Social media have become the new frontline of Thailand's political scene with Facebook and Twitter activity exploding over recent weeks in Bangkok.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's Facebook page has over 300,000 followers, while Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij's page has over 61,000. Many popular groups have emerged, such as ``STOP! Ruined [sic] Thailand'', which has over 22,000 members.

The political unrest has given rise to many other Facebook groups as people use the website to express their political views without fear of government censorship.

``Thailand Chaos Update'' (9,877 members) Thailand Chaos Update (9,877) posts updates about the current situation, missing people, danger zones and safety warnings for Bangkok residents.

``Watch Red Shirt'' (51,549) provides updates on the red shirt movement.

Many groups have also been created to counter a perceived pro-Thaksin bias in reporting by foreign news agencies. ``Real BBC_Bloody Bulls**t Corporation'' slams what the group calls the British broadcaster's ``biased, unethical and irresponsible approach to international journalism''.

Likewise, the group ``CNN Please Fire Dan Rivers'' targets what members regard as the biased reporting of the CNN journalist.

The ``I Support PM Abhisit'' (86,700) has had more posts than the prime minister's official page as people express support for him.

The ``Over one million Thai people miss CentralWorld'' page was created shortly after reports of the devastating arson attacks on the shopping centre and now has over 28,000 fans.

Meanwhile, Twitter has become the medium of choice of many for breaking news and analysis.

Traffic on the micro-blogging network reached a frenzy in the run-up to and immediately following the arson attacks throughout the capital.

Twitter users sent pictures and videos of everything from fires to protesters hit by sniper fire as well as live reports from the US embassy town hall meeting of American citizens in Bangkok.

Users of the service captured unforgettable images, perhaps none more so than those of a baby being held above a red shirt barricade sent by user @freakingcat.

Along with eyewitness accounts, came a sea of emotion as Twitter users expressed sorrow - and often outrage -at unfolding events.

The Thai ``Twittersphere'' has grown up. Gone are the days when it was primarily a conduit for the rumour mill.

Newspapers and TV channels have taken up the medium. At The Nation, both its former and current editors were tweeting breaking news, gossip and other stories, as well as polling Twitter followers for ideas.

The majority of reliable reports came from professional reporters in the field rather than citizen journalists.

Gossip or news from unreliable sources was routinely challenged for sources and clarification.

Twitter also had translators such as the Bangkok Post's Terry Fredrickson (@terryfrd), who provided English translations of what was being said on the red shirt stage as well as announcements from the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation.

The spectrum of views expressed on Twitter over the past week was wide, and included expatriates who expressed support for Thaksin as the democratically elected leader of Thailand and disdain for Mr Abhisit, as the head of a military-backed government. Views on the monarchy were expressed that are not fit for print.

Beyond Facebook and Twitter, Google Guru is quickly becoming another Pantip.com. Designed as a venue in which questions can be posed, Guru is quickly making a name for itself as a replacement for Pantip.com's Ratchadamnoen forum, which is now closed.

About the author

Writer: Sasiwimon Boonruang and Don Sambandaraksa

May 20, 2010

Normalcy on the Horizon in Smoldering Bangkok

by Jocelyn Gecker

Soldiers collecting identification cards of protestors who were cleared from their camps in downtown Bangkok on Thursday. (AP Photo)

Normalcy on the Horizon in Smoldering Bangkok

Bangkok. The Thai government declared on Thursday it had mostly quelled 10 weeks of violent protests in the capital as buildings still smoldered, troops rooted out small pockets of resistance and residents attempted to return to normal life.

But a curfew was extended in Bangkok and 23 other provinces for three more days. Troops and die-hard antigovernment protesters exchanged sporadic fire in parts of the city after the military operation the day before cleared most of a protest encampment in the center of the capital, leaving 15 dead and 96 wounded.

A special police unit on Thursday led more than 1,000 people — many of them women and children — away from a Buddhist temple in the heart of the former Red Shirt protest zone. Six bodies were found on its grounds.

The police had the approval of the temple’s abbot, but many of the women feared they would be jailed or abused by police and cried or clung to each other as they were led out. Others remained defiant.

“We won. We won. The Red Shirts will rise again,” one woman shouted.

Three more Red Shirt leaders surrendered to authorities on Thursday. Five leaders gave themselves up the day before and were flown to a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation.

“I’d like to ask all sides to calm down and talk with each other in a peaceful manner,” said Veera Musikapong after being taken into custody Thursday. “We cannot create democracy with anger.”

Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kawekamnerd said the situation in the capital was mostly under control.

But a branch of Siam City Bank was set afire, the first reported arson attack after 39 buildings were torched the day before. According to state-run television, a firefighter was shot and wounded on Thursday while trying to put out the flames at a shopping center.

The situation was also volatile outside Bangkok.

Nation Television reported one person was killed and 14 wounded in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, one of several provinces where protests erupted Wednesday.

Among the torched buildings in Bangkok were Thailand’s stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theater and one of Asia’s largest shopping malls.

Troops in the central business district exchanged fire on Thursday morning with holdouts as locals looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.

Since the Red Shirts began their protest in mid March, at least 83 people — mostly civilians — have been killed and nearly 1,800 wounded. Of those, 51 people died in clashes that started on May 13 after the army tried to blockade their three-square-kilometer camp.

City workers on Thursday removed debris and collected piles of garbage left in the streets. With military checkpoints coming down, residents in protest areas were able to leave home to shop.

Sansern said the arson and looting were “systematically planned” by Red Shirt leaders before they surrendered.

He said the military showed restraint.

“If we had the intention to attack civilians, the death toll would have been much higher,” he said.

It was unclear what the next move would be for the protesters who had demanded the ouster of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government and new elections. The protesters, many of them poor farmers or members of the urban underclass, say Abhisit came to power illegitimately and is oblivious to their plight.

The crackdown should silence the large number of government supporters who were urging a harder line, and the rioting that followed may extinguish some of the widespread sympathy for the protesters’ cause.

But that same violence also showed a serious intelligence lapse by the military, and the failure to secure areas of the capital raised doubt over the government’s ability to still unrest in the protesters’ heartland of the north and northeast.

May 18, 2010

Thai Tourism Takes Big Hit From Street Mayhem

Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times

A porter in front of Dusit Thani, one of the grand hotels of Bangkok, as it prepared to close temporarily on Monday amid clashes between antigovernment protesters and the Thai military.

By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — Some of the city’s grandest hotels are shut and ringed with coils of glittering razor wire. Foreign visitors have deserted its temples and backpacker haunts. Military roadblocks hem in some of its famous nightspots.

Arrivals at Bangkok’s international airport are down by at least one-third, and hotel occupancy rates hover around 20 percent to 30 percent.

Thailand’s tourism industry, built on an image of gentleness, pleasure and smiles, is suffering its worst setback in decades — perhaps the worst in its history, according to tourism officials.

As scenes of the country’s violent uprising have spread around the world — bombs and bodies, street fights and gunfire — people abroad are asking whether it is safe to visit Bangkok.

The brief answer, from embassies and security experts and even some people in the tourism industry, is: probably not right now.

At least 37 people have died in five days of fighting between the military and antigovernment demonstrators, known as the red shirts. Although the two sides may now be edging toward negotiations, the potential for more violence remains.

Forty-seven nations have told their citizens to be cautious about travel to Thailand, and several, including the United States, have warned them to stay away.

The violence has been confined so far to a relatively small, though central, area of Bangkok. But the city is tense. Roadblocks, checkpoints and shutdowns of public transportation have made travel difficult. Taxi drivers refuse to take passengers to some parts of the city.

On Saturday, the United States Embassy issued an advisory that said, “All United States citizens should defer all travel to Bangkok and defer all nonessential travel to the rest of Thailand.” It said all nonemergency government workers and their families were authorized to leave.

On Tuesday, the Tourism Authority of Thailand issued its own advisory, saying, “Visitors and tourists are advised to be vigilant, follow news developments, exercise extra caution and avoid areas covered by the declaration of a severe emergency situation” — areas that include not only the capital, Bangkok, but also 21 provinces.

In fact much of Bangkok is peaceful, as are virtually all parts of the provinces covered in the advisory, and many Thais are disturbed to see their country portrayed as a place of violence.“When you get out from those areas of political turmoil, things seem to move as smoothly as ever,” said Korakot Punlopruksa, a travel writer and photographer. “We still live peacefully, we still love good food, and the sea is still beautiful.”

Thais try to break away from thoughts of the conflict, she said.

“Otherwise, we would go crazy.”

On Khaosan Road, a low-budget haven that is far from the fighting, the calm weighed like a heavy cloud over half-empty bars and souvenir shops and hostels. Rows of three-wheeled tuk-tuk taxis stood idle in front of empty Internet cafes and foot-massage parlors.

“It’s annoying,” said Muk Singh, 50, the proprietor of a tailor shop called Novo Fashion, speaking of the political violence. “It’s affecting us. We have expenses to meet and rent to pay.”

Most visitors seemed to shrug off the city’s tensions.

“We went to the train station today to buy tickets, and we saw soldiers with guns and police on barricades and SWAT teams,” said Jake Frieda, 19, from Britain, who is traveling before he attends college. “But I think they’re not bothering tourists. They’re leaving tourists alone.”

On Soi Cowboy, a street filled with bars where women dance in skimpy outfits, Bobby Edwards, 50, a retiree from Britain, said he had come here rather than to the more famous Patpong Road because of the protests.

“Patpong is the sex entertainment center of Bangkok,” he said. “The red shirts have basically closed it down because it’s located near of the center of their protests.”

Rebecca Hinckley, 33, a legal secretary from Ireland, said she had been terrified Saturday night when she had found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Two bombs went off, and we started running,” she said. “We could hear the crowds coming towards us, we could hear gunfire, we just started running like crazy. Everybody was very, very great to us. They were shouting, ‘Run, run, run!’ They were running with us.”

But still, she added: “I love Thailand. I still feel safe here. Unfortunately we were stupid enough to be out walking last night. It seems like everywhere else is quite normal.”

Tourism, one of Thailand’s most sophisticated and successful industries, accounts for 6 percent or 7 percent of the country’s economy. Twenty percent of employment in Thailand is directly or indirectly linked to tourism, according to the Thailand National Statistical Office.

Two weeks ago, before the worst of the violence erupted, Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa estimated that the number of tourists would slide by 10 percent, to 12.7 million this year, from 14.1 million last year. Earlier, officials had projected a rise to 15.5 million.

Charoen Wanganonanond, a spokesman for the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, told The Bangkok Post: “It’s hard to say what will happen. What is certain is that the recovery process will be long and costly. This is the worst crisis ever faced in the history of the Thai tourism industry.”

Bangkok is already planning its clean-up operation once the protesters move out of the high-end shopping area they have occupied. The city administration said it would clean roads and sewers and water mains, remove garbage and bring in 1,000 monks to chant and accept alms.

Surveillance cameras, disabled by the protesters, will be repaired.