Thai PM urges reconciliation as calm returns to Bangkok
Thailand’s prime minister today promised an independent probe into “all events” surrounding anti-government protests, and called for reconciliation to heal deep political divisions that led to widespread violence and 83 deaths in two months.
“Fellow citizens, we all live in the same house. Now, our house has been damaged. We have to help each other,” Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a nationally broadcast address on television.
“We can certainly repair damaged infrastructure and buildings, but the important thing is to heal the emotional wounds and restore unity among the Thai people,” the Oxford-educated premier said in an emotional speech that contrasted with his typical academic style.
Mr Abhisit said authorities have restored order in Bangkok, where soldiers overran an encampment of Red Shirt protesters on Wednesday after a week of street fighting. The crackdown came after two months of violence which left 83 people dead and more than 1,800 injured.
He acknowledged that “huge challenges” lay ahead in overcoming the divisions, which he said can be achieved through a five-point reconciliation plan announced earlier.
“That plan is based on the principle of participation, democracy and justice,” he said. The plan includes economic and media reforms and aims to reduce social and economic divisions in Thai society, which the protesters had been railing against.
But he made no mention of new elections, a key demand of the Red Shirts.
Earlier finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said Mr Abhisit’s earlier offer to hold elections on November 14 is on hold until political passions have subsided and the security situation has stabilised nationwide.
“We need to make sure that emotions have cooled to the extent that candidates from all parties can feel safe in campaigning anywhere in the country. Frankly we would not feel safe doing that today,” he told participants at a conference in Tokyo.
Mr Abhisit said the government will allow due process of law and parliamentary democracy to resolve the country’s problems with the participation of all Thais.
“At the same time that plan will include an independent investigation of all the events that have taken place during the protests,” he said.
The Red Shirts streamed into Bangkok in mid-March and set up an encampment in a historic part of the city. An army crackdown to remove them on April 10 left 25 people dead. Another 15 were killed on Wednesday when the army overran their second, heavily barricaded encampment in Rajprasong, one of Bangkok’s most fashionable neighbourhoods. In addition, 39 people were killed in clashes between troops and protesters in the week before the crackdown and four were killed in previous related clashes.
The protesters, many of them poor farmers or members of the urban underclass, say Mr Abhisit came to power illegitimately and is oblivious to their plight. They were demanding his resignation, the dissolution of parliament and immediate elections.
Wednesday’s crackdown triggered widespread arson attacks in central Bangkok on landmark buildings including the stock exchange and major shopping malls.
Security forces today swept 10 high rise buildings including two luxury hotels for explosives and weapons, possibly left behind by fleeing protesters.
The Four Seasons Hotel and the Grand Hyatt Erawan in the upscale Rajprasong area were among the buildings searched by soldiers, said army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd. Soldiers also led a search of the elevated Skytrain tracks as the service remained closed for the seventh day.
