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26 Jun 2010
First of all, I must congratulate Thailand on being chosen to chair the UN Human Rights Council for one year (2010-2011). According to the 15th annual meeting of the Council on 22 June 2010, Thailand’s permanent ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Sihasak Phuangkatekaew will chair the Council. Although the chairmanship lasts only one year, while the membership of the Council is for three years, this opens a window of opportunity for crisis-ridden Thailand.
11 Apr 2010
Hiroyuki Muramoto, a Japanese cameraman working for the Reuters news agen
29 Apr 2009
Surachart Bamrungsuk, political science lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, wrote about the red shirts’ movement in his column in Matichon Weekly, Apr 24, 2009.
Surachart says the crushing of the red-shirts by military force was not unexpected. And such use of force was not the result of the collapse of the ASEAN Summit, but was due to the fact that the red shirts politically and socially pose a threat to the middle-class and the elite.
28 Apr 2009
In the present political crisis in Thailand, it is shocking that most Thai NGOs have disgraced themselves by siding with the Yellow Shirt elites or remaining silent in the face of the general attack on democracy. It is shocking because NGO activists started out by being on the side of the poor and the oppressed in society. To explain this situation, we must go beyond a simple explanation that relies on personal failings of individuals or suggestions that NGOs have “underlying bad intentions”, or that they are “agents of imperialism”.
22 Apr 2009
Thailand's top diplomat on Tuesday linked exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to last week's violent attack on a prominent Thai protest leader.
In a speech to the Asia Society, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya accused Thaksin of playing a role in Friday's shooting of Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of Thailand's "yellow shirt" protest movement that shut down Bangkok airports last year.
21 Apr 2009
One week after Thai soldiers clashed with rioting pro-democracy “red shirt” protesters on the streets of Bangkok the country is still governed under the state of emergency decree imposed by Thailand Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The emergency declaration bans gatherings of more than five people for political purposes, censors news reports considered threatening to public order, and allows for the use of the Thai military to quell unrest.
18 Apr 2009
Robin Wigglesworth, Gulf correspondent, interviewed Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand, in Dubai on April 16 2009.
Do you think your supporters, the red-shirts, have been defeated?
Thaksin: The movement’s aim is to get true democracy for all. Thailand has been telling the whole world that we are a democracy, but we are not really a democracy for all. It is a democracy for a few: for the political elites in Bangkok who still have a very big influence over Thai politics.
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