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Thailand, Reconciled to Division? – ISN

June 8th, 2010

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=117160

A government peace plan is viewed with skepticism by opposition leaders as the fallout from recent political violence continues.

By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok for ISN Security Watch

Three weeks after a violent conclusion to a two-month political protest in downtown Bangkok, the Thai government says it wants to implement a five-point reconciliation plan, which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva believes will address some of the grievances anti-Government redshirts say motivated their mass rally in the capital.

The plan was first proposed on 3 May, and while leaders initially welcomed it as “quite constructive,” they turned it down in the end. (more…)

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Evidence Points to Burma’s Nuclear Weapons ‘Intent’ – The Irrawaddy

June 4th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=18622

BANGKOK—There are regional and international security implications arising out of fresh evidence that Burma is

seeking nuclear weapons and is in breach of a UN arms embargo on North Korea.

Referencing the nuclear issue, US Sen. Jim Webb on Thursday canceled his scheduled trip to Burma. “It would be inappropriate and counter-productive for me to go at this time,” Webb told journalists at a Thursday press conference in Bangkok. While the substance of the nuclear issue and the potential breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1874 remain to be clarified, Webb said, “There is enough for now in these two allegations, which need to be resolved,” before he could reconsider going to Burma.

While allegations about a junta nuclear weapons program have emerged in the past, the latest reports are backed by documentation and photographs supplied by Burmese army defector Maj Sai Thein Win. A news documentary about the issue ran on Al-Jazeera today and is based on work carried out by the Democratic Voice of Burma news agency. Sai Thein Win had to flee Burma after superiors suspected that information about missile-building and uranium enrichment programs were being leaked. He says “that they really want to build a bomb, they want rockets and nuclear warheads.”

American nuclear scientist Robert Kelley, a former director in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the international nuclear watchdog, said he spent months examining the material supplied by Sai Thein Win and concluded that the projects outlined in the material are “useful only for weapons.”

In an overview published on the DVB website, Kelley said: “The total picture is very compelling. Burma is trying to build pieces of a nuclear program, specifically a nuclear reactor to make plutonium and a uranium enrichment program. Burma has a close partnership with North Korea.” (more…)

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The Press Under Fire, Again – The Irrawaddy

June 4th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18621

Thai and foreign journalists came under fire and sustained casualties during the recent political violence in Bangkok, with two foreign cameramen killed in action. However, foreign media have come under fire of a different sort, with the Thai government and a number of Thai citizens taking issue with what they deem as one-sided coverage of recent events in the capital.

“Misperception of the foreign media regarding the current situation in Thailand” was the headline of an 8-page missive given to journalists on Saturday outlining the government’s view that the foreign media has got it wrong on 12 issues, including the use of “live ammunition,” the urban-rural divide, and the role of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the anti-government redshirt protest.

Perceived one-sided coverage by CNN, BBC and others has riled some elements in Thai political and civil society, with newspapers publishing open letters criticizing the nature of the reportage, which they deemed as pro-Redshirt. A Facebook page criticizing CNN correspondent Dan Rivers has attracted more than 8,000 members, and despite carrying some highly personalized invective against the reporter in question, has not been blocked by the Thai authorities, unlike some other websites and online reports. This is despite CNN carrying reports describing the armed elements among the protestors as “extremists,” similar to the government line, after some of the protestors refused to stand down after the rally was ended on the afternoon of May 19. (more…)

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Mantras, Misperceptions and Mutual Acrimony in Thai MP Debate – The Irrawaddy

June 2nd, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18602

BANGKOK — Despite a comfortable margin of victory in a parliamentary no-confidence vote held on Wednedsay, Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva faces considerable challenges if his stalled reconciliation plan is to be implemented.

The no-confidence debate was televised, allowing the issues discussed to reach Thai homes after weeks of government censorship of pro-Redshirt and independent media sites such as Prachatai.

From the time the debate opened on Monday morning until its close on Tuesday, bitter and heated exchanges have highlighted the depth of animosity and distrust between those aligned to the anti-government Redshirts, on the one hand, and the Democrat party-led government, on the other.

While the words exchanged were blunt, giving the debate an air of transparency and frankness, they were not necessarily truthful or accurate. But then such is the way in almost any parliament in the world. the difference is that this debate took place after unprecedented violence on the streets of Bangkok.

And while heated discussion of a variety of incendiary and controversial issues is part and parcel of what parliamentary debate is about in a healthy democracy, it remains to be seen whether the acrimonious debate smoothes the way for Abhisit’s reconciliation plan. (more…)

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Thai prime minister survives no-confidence vote – Financial Times

June 2nd, 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2c7cc230-6e01-11df-b5c9-00144feabdc0.html

By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok

The Thai prime minister on Wednesday survived a no-confidence motion tabled against his Democrat party-led administration after two days of bruising parliamentary exchanges that highlighted the country’s deep political divisions.

Abhisit Vejjajiva won the no-confidence vote by 246 votes to 186. Over the past two days, government and opposition lawmakers argued fiercely over the recent anti-government “red shirt” protests in central Bangkok in which clashes between army, police and demonstrators left 87 dead and well over a thousand injured.

The vote took place exactly two weeks after a Thai army crackdown forced the “red shirt” leaders to end their protests.

Mr Abhisit may feel more confident about pushing his reconciliation proposal after 246 members of parliament voted to support his administration.

The reconciliation plan was first tabled on May 3. Although initially welcomed by leaders of the anti-government movement as “quite constructive”, the protesters ultimately refused to accept the plan. The finer points have not yet been clarified or agreed upon, but the reconciliation proposal pledges some constitutional amendments, an independent investigation into the recent political violence, increased social spending and the establishment of a media monitoring body. (more…)

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Thai premier cools hopes for early poll – Financial Times

May 30th, 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/547da710-6c06-11df-86c5-00144feab49a.html

By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok

Thailand’s prime minister said previously proposed November elections are not feasible “in the current environment”, 10 days after the Thai army quashed an anti-government protest in Bangkok. However, in his weekly television address on Sunday, Abhisit Vejjajiva said he believed that the situation in Thailand was “getting back to normal.”

Thai authorities have lifted a night-time curfew in place since May 19, when leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) called a halt to their two-month protest amid chaotic violence in the commercial heartland of Bangkok.

Mr Abhisit told foreign diplomats and media he did not “rule out early elections”, but believed that polls could not be held before a broader reconciliation programme was implemented. He hoped to revive a five-point peace plan offered in early May, which protest leaders initially welcomed but ultimately turned down.

A proposed election date of November 14 was then rejected by the UDD, also known as red shirts, who wanted the prime minister to dissolve the Thai parliament within 30 days. Red shirts regard the government – a coalition headed by Mr Abhisit’s Democrat party – as illegitimate.

Journalists who attended a Saturday press conference given by the prime minister were handed an eight-page statement entitled “Misperception [sic] of foreign media regarding the current situation in Thailand”. The government denied allegations that it “came to power through dubious means with manoeuvring by the military”, going on to list 11 other points that it believed had been misunderstood by foreign journalists covering two months of political violence, during which 88 people were killed. (more…)

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From Balibo to Bangkok: Journalists Under Fire – The Irrawaddy

May 28th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18573&Submit=Submit

BANGKOK—A couple of days before Italian journalist Fabio Polenghi was cremated at a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, another ceremony took place in New Zealand in memory of Gary Cunningham.

Separated by thousands of miles and 35 years time, the two events have a common thread: both men were journalists killed while doing their job. Cunningham was killed in late 1975 alongside four other journalists by the invading Indonesian Army while reporting from Balibo, a dusty hillside border town in East Timor. Polenghi died in unclear circumstances last Wednesday while photographing the fighting between the Thai military and Redshirt protestors in central Bangkok.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban spoke about the Polenghi case to Italy’s ambassador to Thailand, but his comments were vague. According to translations carried on the Bangkok Pundit website, Suthep talked about “an M79 bullet.” He is also quoted as saying that the “M79 bullet” caused multiple casualties.

There is no such thing as an M79 bullet, and while an M79 grenade caused multiple injuries to soldiers and a Canadian journalist during a separate incident, multiple accounts of the Polenghi case say that he was killed while photographing the army advance from the Redshirt side, and that the cause of death was a high velocity bullet or bullets to the chest and/or stomach.

On the afternoon of May 19, a couple of hours after Polenghi had been shot, Redshirt militants fired grenades at advancing troops, severely injuring Canadian journalist Chandler Vandergrift. As the troops and protestors fought it out, a group of around 40 correspondents spent an hour trapped in a side alley while the news that Polenghi had died filtered through to the already-frightened group.

Meanwhile, amid flickering mobile phone signals, other journalists trapped in the main rally area at Rajaprasong reported that Redshirt militants had declared the media a target. Gunfire rained down from troops advancing on Rajaprasong, even on the so-called ‘safe haven’ at Wat Pathum Wanaram, five hundred meters from the protesters’ main stage. The few reporters trapped in the crowded Wat reported coming under heavy fire, with people struggling to take cover. (more…)

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Obstacles Facing Thai Reconciliation – The Irrawaddy

May 24th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18536

BANGKOK – The brutality seen on the streets of Bangkok in recent days is unlikely to be forgotten quickly, irrespective of the ‘mai pen rai’ thinking that many panglossian observers attribute to Thai culture.

Thai society is divided, and animosity now runs deep. Redshirts and the pro-Government supporters have plenty of accusations they can level at each other. Some are justifiable, but then both sides have peddled plenty of half-truths about themselves and the other.

The redshirts can depict the Government and Army as assassins who fired on unarmed protestors. They can say that the Army supports an unelected Government, which it previously helped slip into power. The Government and yellowshirts can describe the redshirts as violent protestors, as they sheltered or tolerated a violent black-clad militia. And they can point out that these men laid waste to dozens of buildings when they failed to get their way. (more…)

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Land of Snarls? – Eureka Street/RTÉ World Report/Sunday Business Post

May 23rd, 2010

http://eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=21477

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0523/worldreport.html

http://www.thepost.ie/news/world/battle-for-bangkok-reaches-an-end-but-divisions-remain-49407.html

BANGKOK –  Standing this morning amid the burnt-out ruins of southeast Asia’s second biggest shopping mall right in the heart of Bangkok, it has become clear that the ‘Land of Smile’s has become –  for now at least – a land of snarls.

Although some media have been accused of hyping-up the situation – or of being oblivious to the fact that the rest of Thailand has not yet been embroiled in the surreal violence hitting Bangkok in recent weeks – what took place in the capital in recent days was unprecedented and brutal. Not least on the media – with 2 journalists dead since April 10, injuries running into double-figures, and talk of reporters being deliberately-targetted.

Over 50 people –  mostly civilians – are now dead and hundreds have been wounded. Amid an increasingly polarised political situation, the uncompromising quashing of the anti-Government redshirt rally by the Thai Army may have sown the seeds for more conflict later on.

The redshirts can point to the government and Army as brutal killers, firing on unarmed protestors and acting to support an unelected Government, which they previously helped manoeuvre into power. The Government and yellowshirts (anti-redshirt protestors who took to the streets in 2006 and 2008 while redshirt parties were in Government) can point out that the redshirts were not peaceful protestors, that they sheltered or tolerated a violent black-clad armed faction, and that they laid waste to the shopping heartland of the city when they failed to get their way. (more…)

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Redshirts leave, but resolution unlikely soon – The Irrawaddy/Fox News

May 20th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18516

BANGKOK – “We will be back”, said a quietly-defiant sounding Chompoo Nutch, sitting halfway down a rickety red bus

bound for Bangkok’s main train station, from where she and some of the last remaining redshirt protestors in Bangkok will make their way home.

Dozens of buses filled up with evacuees from the main Rajaprasong rally site in central Bangkok, and by 2pm today twenty awaited clearance to move off. Some are bound for towns and cities to the north and east of Bangkok.

Whether or not the redshirts wull be back in Bangkok soon remains to be seen. With core leaders mostly in police custody right now, where the movement goes from here is open to question. When its leadership announced to the crowd yesterday that they were giving themselves up, saying that the rally was over, some protestors reacted angrily. Soon after, the shopping malls under which the protestors made the encampment in recent weeks were ablaze. Hardcore militants continued to fight the advancing Thai soldiers a kilometer away from the main rally stage. Grenades started to land on Ratchadamri Road and in Lumpini Park minutes after the redshirt leaders announced that the rally was over. A group of around 40 reporters, including this correspondent, were pinned down as the Thai army fired back, close to Sarasin Junction. A Canadian freelance reporter was seriously injured by shrapnel during the exchange of fire.

The redshirt movement appears divided, and the prospect of a negotiated settlement with the Government has caused ructions within the leadership for at least two weeks now. (more…)

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