Thai authorities are ready to discuss an amnesty for anti-government protest leaders as part of a proposed reconciliation roadmap to November elections, a government source said yesterday.
“The government wants to create a good climate and end the protests. Details will be discussed later. However, one of the topics that will discussed is related to an amnesty,” the source said, asking not to be named.
Arrest warrants have been issued for many top leaders of the Red Shirt movement, which has been protesting in Bangkok since mid-March in its campaign for elections despite a ban on rallies under a state of emergency in the city.
PHOTO: EPA
The Bangkok Post newspaper said the government is open to talks about an amnesty for people who have violated the ban on gatherings, but not for those who have committed criminal offenses.
Some protesters stormed parliament last month, forcing lawmakers to flee.
Thailand’s anti-government protesters said yesterday they were seriously considering Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s offer to hold elections in mid-November, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the crippling standoff.
“Our stance on Abhisit’s reconciliation roadmap will be made based on the interests of the people,” Jaran Ditha-apichai, a senior Red Shirt, said from a rally stage in the city’s commercial heart.
“For the sake of the struggle for democracy, we will discuss and listen to our people who are on the frontline,” he said.
The movement said that it wanted to be sure the proposed roadmap had the full backing of ruling party lawmakers and their coalition partners in the government before deciding whether or not to accept it.
There have been a series of tense confrontations between the demonstrators and the security forces in Bangkok, where 27 people died and nearly 1,000 were injured in unrest last month.
Many of the opposition demonstrators are seeking the return of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption.
Abhisit, the British-born, Oxford-educated head of the establishment Democrat Party, does not have to go to the polls until the end of next year.
In March he had offered to hold elections by the end of the year but protest leaders rejected that proposal.
Some observers say that when he does face the people, his failure to connect with the rural masses means he faces a tough battle against the pro-Thaksin forces that have won every election for a decade.
The Red Shirts have fortified their sprawling protest site in the city’s main shopping district with barricades made from piled-up truck tires, razor wire and bamboo stakes.
In recent days, however, a weary air has descended on the rally area, which is strewn with garbage.
Many of the protesters have been sleeping on the streets for weeks with little or no shelter and fatigue appears to be setting in, along with the start of the rainy season, which brought heavy downpours to the capital yesterday.
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