"Thailand’s former prime minister charged with murder" by Thomas Fuller | New York Times, December 07, 2012
HONG KONG — The former prime minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva, was charged with murder Thursday for his role in a military crackdown on antigovernment protesters in Bangkok 2½ years ago.
Tharit Pengdit, the director of Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, said Abhisit and his deputy had issued ‘‘orders that caused the deaths of many people.’’
Abhisit was charged in the killing of Phan Khamkong, a taxi driver whose case is one of the first from the protests to advance through the courts. More than 90 people were killed in the violence, mostly civilians.
“Even though there was already loss of life, the operations were not stopped, and other methods were not implemented,’’ Tharit said at a news briefing in Bangkok.
Tharit said that at this stage no charges would be brought against the soldiers who fired at protesters, because they acted under orders from their commanders and are shielded under Thai law.
The capital’s streets have remained largely calm since the violence, which took place in April and May 2010, but political tensions are still simmering among the country’s main power brokers. Abhisit, whose Democrat Party lost in a general election last year, has found himself on the defensive as political battles have moved from the streets into the courts.
Crucially for Abhisit, the levers of power in Thailand are now in the hands of the party allied with the ‘‘red shirt’’ protesters who were swept from Bangkok during the 2010 crackdown.
No mention of the yellow shirts?
Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, a spokesman for the Democrat Party, described the murder charge as a politically motivated ‘‘attempt to distort the judicial system.’’
He accused civil servants of shamelessly seeking to advance their careers by aligning themselves with ruling politicians. If found guilty, the men could face the death penalty or a sentence of up to life in prison.
Looks like an AmeriKan bureaucracy.
The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has proposed the idea of a broad amnesty in connection with the protests.
She's the sister of the western-backed and sheltered-in-exile dictator that was chased out, although I like the idea to reconcile.
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Related: Sunday Globe Special: Thai-Dyed Shirt
There they are. So the yellow shirts were the people that wanted to buck the IMF, huh?
And now the leader who threw in with them is up on murder charges.
"Thai protest leaders face charges" AP, December 28, 2012
BANGKOK — Protest leaders in Thailand were indicted Thursday for storming the prime minister’s office compound and sealing off Parliament during massive antigovernment rallies in 2008 at the height of political turmoil, which left the country deeply divided.
So much for amnesty and reconciliation.
Prosecutors filed charges against Sondhi Limthongkul, Chamlong Srimuang, and other leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, also known as the Yellow Shirts.
They face up to five years in prison for trespassing at Government House during an August 2008 rally, in which protesters stormed the compound and thousands occupied the grounds for weeks. They face an additional seven years in prison for blockading the Parliament in an October 2008 rally that injured hundreds.
They also led a two-week seizure of Bangkok airports but have not yet been charged for that.
Mostly hailing from the urban elite, the Yellow Shirts vehemently opposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications tycoon whose democratically elected government was in power from 2001 until it was overthrown in a 2006 military coup. The Yellow Shirts claimed that he was corrupt and that his proxies were running the country after he went into exile following the coup.
The charges were correct, and it was more than an urban elite if you see my links.
His sister, Yingluck, is now premier, which critics say has accelerated long-stalled legal cases against opponents of Thaksin, who says the corruption charges are trumped up.
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Oh, btw, Thailand also has a Muslim insurgency (which I now consider all western intelligence operations along the Al-CIA-Duh" line.
"Thai marines kill 16 insurgents during shootout" by Sumeth Parnpetch | Associated Press, February 14, 2013
NARATHIWAT, Thailand — Marines fending off a militant assault on their base in Thailand’s violent south killed 16 insurgents in a shoot-out, authorities said Wednesday. It was the deadliest toll the Muslim guerrillas suffered since more than 100 died in a single day nearly a decade ago.
Thailand’s military has struggled to control the insurgency since it flared in the country’s Muslim-majority southernmost provinces in 2004....
You think they would have learned their lesson.
Violence has occurred nearly every day in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since 2004, and more than 5,000 people have died. Security forces as well as teachers have been targeted by insurgents because they are seen as representatives of the government of the Buddhist-dominated nation.
Muslims in the deep south, which was once independent, have long complained of discrimination by the central government in Bangkok, and the insurgents are thought to be fighting for autonomy. But the insurgency remains murky, with militants making no public pronouncements on their goals.
That means it's a CIA destabilization effort.
Somkiat said the marines who fended off the attack suffered no casualties because they had been tipped off by local residents and had prepared for the assault.
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Also see: Thailand vows end to ivory trade but gives no date
Related:
"Conservation body votes to regulate shark trade" Associated Press, March 12, 2013
BANGKOK — Conservationists at a global wildlife conference on Monday voted to regulate the trade of shark species that have been threatened because their fins are used to make expensive delicacies in Asia.
Delegates at the triennial meeting in Bangkok of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna adopted the proposals to put the oceanic whitetip, hammerhead, and porbeagle sharks on a list of species whose trade is closely controlled.
Related: "More than 1,000 delegates at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES"
More than two dozen species of shark are officially endangered, and more than 100 others considered either vulnerable or near threatened. Like manta rays, sharks are seen as valuable to nations with dive tourism industries, with island territories such as the Bahamas, Fiji, and the Maldives deriving major benefits.
Eleven nations, including Brazil, the United States, and Egypt, proposed regulating trade in the species. Japan and China were among the proposals’ opponents.
Sonja Fordham, the founder of US-based Shark Advocates International, said in a statement she was pleased with the votes. ‘‘These highly traded, threatened shark species urgently need protection from the unsustainable trade that jeopardizes populations, ecosystems, livelihoods, and ecotourism.’’
Threats against oceanic whitetip and hammerhead sharks are driven by demand for their fins, while porbeagle sharks are targeted primarily for their meat in Europe.
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Related:
Lawmaker wants to ban shark fin sales
Federal rule could upend states' shark fin bans
Also see:
Japan’s whale hunt before World Court
Japan defends whaling in World Court
