Will the Thai Leaders Deail with Thaksin for Peace?
Posted by myps | Filed under HOT Issues
People seems to care more about Thia’s next step as the fighting between Thai government and Red Shirt stopped in the Bangkok street.It’s a big headache for Thia government to solv this lasting conflict and seek for the permanent peace.I think Mr Thaksin Shinawatra may be the key. If Thailand’s leaders hope to stitch their country back together again, they’ll have to come up with a way to deal with the Mr Key they blame for masterminding weeks of bloody street protests.
Since being thrown out of power in a military coup four years ago and convicted of corruption, Mr. Thaksin has played a complex game to claw his way back to power in Thailand. From his self-exile in Dubai and Montenegro, he sometimes cuts a statesman-like figure, recently calling on the United Nations to help intervene in this week’s violent protests in Bangkok.
At other times, he lashes out at the soldiers and royalist bureaucrats who toppled him from power, urging on his so-called Red Shirt followers to launch a full-blown revolt and regain control of Thailand. He regularly extolls his followers via video links, Twitter and other media to take on the authorities. Government investigators go further and say he has provided significant financial support for Thailand’s antigovernment movement.
In a statement earlier this week, Mr. Thaksin denied orchestrating the violence, which has claimed 83 lives in clashes between protesters and troops in Bangkok over the past two months. The 60-year-old former prime minister regularly downplays his role within the Red Shirt movement. He has never specifically addressed the government’s charges that he has been financing the protests.
But in recent weeks Mr. Thaksin has kept in close contact with rogue military officers training a paramilitary “people’s army” to attack troops and turn Bangkok’s streets into a war zone, according to opposition members involved in the conflict.
Mr. Abhisit and his government are portraying Mr. Thaksin as the mastermind behind the Bangkok riots, calling him a “terrorist” in the hope it will tarnish his reputation among his longtime supporters. Political analysts say it might not work, especially now the Thaksin camp is trying to focus attention on the way army troops shot dozens of unarmed protesters.
“For the Red Shirts, Mr. Thaksin is a catalyst —a funder and deliverer of a more-just society,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “He casts a long shadow over much of what happens here.”
Thai security forces worried about close ties between Mr. Thaksin and a rogue general who had defected to the Red Shirts and was threatening to turn the antigovernment protest into a full-blown revolt. Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol said he answered directly to Mr. Thaksin. He was shot in the head by an unknown sniper on May 13 and died later in hospital.
The final straw for the government—as well as moderate factions in the Red Shirts—came earlier this month when the protesters and government negotiators failed to agree on a deal on that would have enabled the Red Shirts to go home in exchange for elections in November.
People involved in both government and opposition camps say Mr. Thaksin urged hard-liners to come up with fresh demands that stalled the process, ultimately leading to the talks’ collapse.
They say Red Shirt leader Veera Musikapong quit the negotiations in disgust.
“He was questioning why they were bothering to talk when Mr. Thaksin was delaying any progress,” says one person involved in the mediations. Mr. Veera is in army custody and couldn’t be reached for comment.
Up to now no one knows what will the Thai government do next.We can only wait for the measures they will take stilly.
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