Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday he would accept the findings of an independent investigation into a deadly army crackdown on anti-government “Red Shirt” protesters.
Abhisit has been accused by his political opponents of violating human rights in the tense standoff between the demonstrators and armed troops, who fired live rounds during several confrontations in the capital.
“Whatever the outcome of the fact-finding investigation, [deputy prime minister Suthep Thaungsuban] and I are ready to accept it,” Abhisit said on the second day of a debate in parliament on a censure motion against his government.
He said the government “will not interfere” with the probe, which has not yet been set up.
The Red Shirts’ street rally, broken up on May 19 in an army assault on their vast encampment in the retail heart of Bangkok, sparked outbreaks of violence that left 88 people dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 1,900 injured.
Abhisit — who has surprised many by remaining in power during the crippling street protests — is expected to survive the no-confidence motion thanks to his ruling coalition’s majority in the lower house.
Jatuporn Prompan, a Red Shirt leader and opposition member of parliament, urged Abhisit and his deputy Suthep to “enter the justice process.”
“I don’t expect any change [after the parliamentary debate] but I want people to hear the facts. It is up to the prime minister and deputy prime minister to decide what will they do,” Jatuporn said late on Monday.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay called Monday for an independent probe into the recent deadly violence in Thailand and that “all those found responsible for human rights violations are held to account.”
The Red Shirts were campaigning for elections they hoped would oust the government, which they view as undemocratic because it came to power with the backing of the army after a court ruling threw out the previous administration.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
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