Who Will Blink First in Bangkok? – The Irrawaddy
March 15th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=18038
UPDATE Monday 4pm – 2 soldiers were injured after 4 grenades were thrown into a Thai army barracks outside Bangkok earlier today. The incident came after a tense stand-off outside the 11th Army Regiment, which ended at 130pm this afternoon, after tens of thousands of Red shirts made their way from central Bangkok. Red shirt leaders demanded that soldiers open the gates, and reiterated an ultimatum for the Government to step down.
Stand-off at the Thai army barracks on Monday afternoon (Photo: Simon Roughneen©)
Predictably, the Army refused to open the gates, and the Government refuses to step down, though it says it will listen to what the Red shirts have to say. The demonstrators are moving back to Phan Fa bridge to spend the night there, and have said they will protest at Government House tomorrow, where they have vowed “to spill blood”.
Leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) have told the Thai government that it must dissolve parliament by noon on Monday or have hundreds of thousands of Redshirt demonstrators on the march around Bangkok, The Army’s 11th Infantry Regiment, where the prime minister has spent the last few days, is a likely demonstration site for some of the group.
The statement came on Sunday while demonstrators celebrated in a carnival atmosphere on Ratchadamnoen Avenue. The crowd numbered around 600,000 by Sunday evening, according to UDD spokesman Sean Boonpracong. Other estimates put the crowd between 100,000 and 200,000.
While this is far short of the ‘million man march’ promoted by the UDD last week, the numbers may be enough to stifle traffic in Bangkok at the start of the working week, depending on where the demonstrators go. While the UDD pledged a peaceful demonstration, it is not clear how it could realise its stated ambition of forcing the government to disband by occupying the streets around Phan Pa bridge for a few days. At a press conference last week, senior Redshirt Jaran Dithapichai said that the demonstrators wanted to force the Government to “clamp down” on the march, if they demonstration did not lead to a dissolution. At the same press conference, UDD spokespersons, including some former Communist rebels, spoke openly, albeit vaguely, to foreign media about “civil war” in Thailand, if the ‘million man march’ leads to violence. (more…)
Reds in the city, Bangkok brinkmanship – New Mandala/CBC Canada
March 14th, 2010
http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/03/14/sunday-in-bangkok-reds-in-the-city/
Earlier today, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship demanded that the Thai Government dissolve the House of Representatives within 24 hours. Otherwise, the Red shirts will disperse from the main rally area in front of Phan Fa bridge and spread around Bangkok.
Red shirts in party mood on Ratchadamnoen Ave earlier today. Will they be so cheerful tomorrow? (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
*UPDATE – Some of the Red shirts intend to move from the rally area to the HQ of the 11th infantry Regiment tomorrow morning, where PM Abhisit has been staying in recent days, and perhaps to other as-yet unspecified locations in Bangkok.
The deadline is noon tomorrow (Monday), so the Reds could bring Bangkok’s already-choked traffic to a standstill at the start of the working week, upping the ante with the Government.
Jaran Dithapichai told me that “we still have to analyse the situation, to see where we would go. But General Prem’s house, or the Prime Minister’s office, they are not important.”
Both sides are now clearly engaged in a form of brinkmanship, with Government mulling the introduction of emergency powers. The UDD takes this as an attempt to disband the protest, saying that the emergency laws prevent gatherings of more than 5 people.
UDD leaders speaking near the stage set up at Phan Fa Bridge believe that the Government is considering asking the courts to revoke the bail for some of its leadership, which would leave them vulnerable to arrest, which presumably the army would be empowered to enforce, under emergency powers.
The UDD believes that the police are “on our side”, citing the relaxation of stop-and-search procedures deployed on Redshirt convoys coming into Bangkok since Friday, mostly from the North and Northeast. Here and there this morning some police (not UDD guards) were seen sporting UDD paraphernalia. I counted four in all. (more…)
Burma’s Election (f)Laws – ISN
March 11th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=113635
Burma’s new election rules vindicate the Cassandras who warned that the 2010 polls would be little more than window-dressing for continued army rule.
Given the track record of Burma’s rulers, a free and fair election was never likely, and the election laws make it even less so. Since abrogating civilian rule in 1962, the army has maintained a vice-like grip on power. Its ‘Four Cuts’ army policy has caused immense suffering in ethnic minority areas, where civilians have been targeted as part of the junta’s attempts to defeat ethnic militias. The UN human rights rapporteur on Burma believes that the attacks could constitute war crimes, and has recommended an international investigatio. (more…)
Quintana recommends war crimes commission on Burma – The Irrawaddy
March 11th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18013
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, has recommended that the UN should consider establishing a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Burmese government.
The recommendation was included in an advance, unedited version of his report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, which published it on its Web site.
The special rapporteur report said that the “gross and systematic” nature of the abuses and the lack of action to stop them indicated “a state policy that involves authorities in the executive, military and judiciary at all levels.”
It said; “According to consistent reports, the possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. (more…)
Ramos-Horta Launches Burma Petition – The Irrawaddy
March 9th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17987
Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta has launched a worldwide petition for democracy in Burma, which also calls for the release of Aung Saw Suu Kyi ahead of the election due sometime in 2010.
Speaking at Bradford University in the UK, as part of the PeaceJam event, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ramos-Horta said that Burma’s political divisions should be resolved by dialogue between all relevant parties and not through sanctions that penalize the people of the country.
His comments come after a recent controversy in which the Timor-Leste ambassador to the UN was apparently fired after voting in favour of a General Assembly resolution condemning the human rights situation in Burma. (more…)
No EUdaimonia after Lisbon – The Casual Truth/Eurasia Review
March 8th, 2010
http://www.thecasualtruth.com/story/europe-country
http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010/03/32232-no-eu-daimonia-after-lisbon.html
Lacking a democratic mandate and acting by stealth, the EU elites – namely senior Brussels-based bureaucrats and fellow traveler politicians at national level – have sought to make the Union a state in its own right, and a world power to boot. But have they gotten ahead of themselves?
What we know as the EU started off in 1950 as the European Coal and Steel Community, when six countries centered on France and West Germany began sharing economic resources in the years after World War II. While aiming to prevent a repeat of Europe’s 20th Century wars, thinkers behind the project hoped that such links would in time lead to a European state.
Jean Monnet was the intellectual driving force. In 1957, a year before the ECSC became the European Economic Community, he wrote to a Dutch politician saying “the current communities should …lead us to European economic unity. Only then would the commitments make it fairly easy to produce the political union which is the goal.” (more…)
What is Important Now: Free and Fair Elections – The Irrawaddy
March 5th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17960
Tomas Ojea Quintana was appointed UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Myanmar [Burma] in May 2008. His task is “to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations” in Burma, one of eight countries that the Council focuses on. He is the fourth person to hold this position, and since his appointment has conducted three visits to the country. He concluded his most recent trip, from Feb. 15 to 19, with the assessment that a free and fair election could not be held in the country under current conditions.
Simon Roughneen spoke with him in the aftermath of the visit to find out more about the trip and what comes next.
Question: You expressed disappointment at not meeting Aung San Suu Kyi during your recent visit to Burma. Can you tell us why you felt it was so important to meet her at this time?
Answer: Firstly, on my two previous visits I was denied the opportunity to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held under arbitrary detention for a long time now, and her human rights have been violated. Given the fact that the government has said it will hold elections this year, it was important that I get to meet with the leader of one of the most important political parties in the country. (more…)
Redshirts Ready for ‘Million-man’ March – The Irrawaddy
March 4th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17945
Anti-government Redshirt supporters say that the Thai government must choose between suppression of its proposed “million-man” peaceful protest on March 14, or dissolution of the current Democrat-led government.
A supporter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra holds his portrait during a protest at Democracy Monument in Bangkok last year. (Photo: Getty Images)
“Our aim is to bring down the administration,” said Sean Boonpracong, a spokesman for the Redhshirt United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD)
“We will use only peaceful means,” he said, acknowledging that Redshirt violence at the disbanded Asian summit in Pattaya and in Bangkok during the Songkran 2009 protests damaged the anti-government cause.
How a peaceful protest will force the government to choose between suppression of the protest on the one hand, and dissolution of the parliament on the other, was not clarified.
However, senior UDD member Jaran Ditthapichai told media at a Bangkok press conference on Thursday that if the protest is met with violence, then a civil war in Thailand could be possible.
“If the government suppresses us, then they will have declared civil war.” he said. “If this happens, you will not see elections of democracy in Thailand for five, maybe ten years.”
The Redshirts have pledged a peaceful march, with estimates between 500,000 and 1.3 million given as a possible turnout. UDD leaders believe that substantial portions of the army and police support their cause, which they feel will help bring down a government that was “established in the army barracks,” according to Sean Boonpracong.
The current prime minister assumed his position after anti-Thaksin Yellowshirt protestors occupied Government House and the country’s international airports, in protest at what they decried as corruption during the Thaksin era, and under the elected pro-Thaksin administrations that followed the restoration of civilian rule after the 2006 coup that removed Thaksin from office. (more…)
Nobel Laureates Urge Inquiry into Junta Crimes – The Irrawaddy
March 3rd, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17937
After hearing testimony from 12 women who outlined abuses they suffered at the hands of the Burmese army and military regime, a panel of Nobel peace laureates and international jurists have added to calls for such crimes to be the subject of an international investigation.
Dr. Heisoo Shin and Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn joined Nobel peace winners Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams in urging “the UN Security Council to refer Burma to the International Criminal Court.”
Earlier, Heisoo Shin said that “Burma is in violation of rights under treaties it has ratified such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” Burma’s army has been accused of recruiting child soldiers and using child labor by the UN and foreign governments. (more…)
Judgment Day in Thailand – ISN/The Irrawaddy
February 25th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17892
Politically troubled Thailand faces “Judgment Day” on Friday when the country’s Supreme Court rules on what to do with US $2.26 billion frozen in ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s family bank accounts.
Fading Away or Looming Large? Thaksin Shinawatra addresses redshirt rally in Bangkok by videolink (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
The nub of the allegations are that Thaksin transferred his wealth to family members to sidestep a rule that he could not hold company shares while in office. It is also alleged that as PM, he implemented policies that were of commercial benefit to businesses controlled by him. The charges include his dealings with the military junta in Burma, alleging that state loans were extended to the regime to finance a deal with a company then under the control of Thaksin’s family.
The case appears to be the first of its type in Thailand. A foreign diplomat in Bangkok – speaking on condition of anonymity - said that the case is complex and difficult to second-guess. Speculation is that some or all of the one-time telecom entrepreneur’s assets will be seized, or some could be seized and some remain frozen, perhaps with with a final decision left pending for another day. We will know on Friday when the judges read the verdict.
Worries abound that seizure of Thaksin’s assets could be the spark for demonstrations like those that forced the cancellation of an April 2009 summit of Asian leaders in Thailand, which could prompt a violent counter-reaction. How the police and army respond to the demonstrations is cause for worry among the public and politicians.
The government has massed some 20,000 security forces in the capital in the lead-up to the verdict. Even before the ruling is announced, Thaksin supporters have pledged to demonstrate in March.
Thaksin’s Redshirt supporters have vowed to topple the current government, which they view as an illegitimate usurper put into place by the military coup. Redshirts claim that they will get a million supporters onto the streets in March, for what they say will be peaceful protests. (more…)
