ICC in Bangkok V

Guess which English-language newspaper is opposed to the International Criminal Court having jurisdiction on the 2010 events that saw more than 90 killed, mostly red shirt protesters, and some 2,000 injured, also mostly red shirts?

Yes, too easy. Of course, it is the Bangkok Post. As we have pointed out several times of late, this newspaper has been stoic in its bias in support of the Democrat Party and of former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva.

In an editorial, the Post shouts loudly that Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul’s consideration of granting the ICC jurisdiction in investigating the crackdowns in 2010 is hopelessly flawed.

It begins with a claim that the minister “has broken both the spirit and the letter of international relations in his proposal…” and adds that ICC jurisdiction “violates the underpinnings of Thai law, including the constitution.” It doesn’t explain how this is so. Rather, the Post splutters and fumes for several paragraphs of outrage.

It charges that Surapong “has been taken in by the most radical members of the red shirts” and barks that the “idea of calling on the ICC came from extremists in the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).” These “extremists” are said to have received “ridiculous advice” by their lawyer Robert Amsterdam.

Ignoring these bleatings, the claim that the “ICC has no right, nor even the intention, to operate in a country where the law functions and citizens have legal recourse” seems remarkable when the ICC has visited Thailand as a result if the UDD petition.

The Post then looks pathetic when it claims that it “is offensive to most Thais even to suggest that the ICC is somehow superior to Thai justice…”. PPT guesses that many Thais see much of the Thai justice system as flawed, biased and corrupt. Thankfully, the ICC maintains much higher standards.

For no good reason, the Post editorial finds the idea of charging Abhisit “is a horrifying charge…. It is humourless and humiliating.”  The Post seems to think that the ICC only deals in crimes involving  “tens of thousands of defenceless people…”; perhaps the outraged writer should consider the case of William Samoei Ruto of Kenya (the ICC case is here), and then blather less about “overwrought exaggeration,” “lunacy” and “slanderous misrepresentation.”

The Post seems unable to fathom the gravity of the crimes of 2010 and sounds like it is merely protecting one of its own.

Just for interest, the Stock Exchange of Thailand lists directors of Post Publishing as including the following supporters of the Democrat Party: M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, Suthikiati Chirathivat, Chartsiri Sophonpanich and Supakorn Vejjajiva.