Bangkok 18 becomes Bangkok 19

Apologies for again being slow with this post. PPT is continuing to experience difficulties in keeping up with the volume of material on lese majeste.

The Bangkok Post reported on 21 May that the political police at the Department of Special Investigation “will summon 19 red shirt leaders to hear lese majeste charges related to remarks made during a rally early last month.”

PPT earlier posted on this and added a Bangkok 18 post to our page of pending cases. We’ll need to change that to the Bangkok 19 as DSI chief Tharit Pengdit added Payap Panket to the list of those to be charged.

The other 18 are: Weng Tojirakarn, Nattawut Saikua, Korkaew Pikulthong, Thida Tawornsate Tojirakarn, Karun Hosakul, Yoswaris Chuklom, Wiputhalaeng Pattanaphumthai, Veera Musigapong, Chinawat Haboonpat, Wichian Kaokham, Suporn Atthawong, Kwanchai Sarakham (Praiphana), Nisit Sinthuprai, Prasit Chaisisa, Worawut Wichaidit, Laddawan Wongsriwong, Jatuporn Promphan and Somchai Paiboon.

Tharit said a “summons will be issued on Monday [23 May] and sent to the red shirt suspects by mail. They will have 10 days to prepare prior to appearing before authorities on June 2.”

While he can’t complete investigations into the deaths and injuries of April and May 2010, the puppet-like Tharit can get lese majeste cases sown up in a jiffy (as long as they are against the regime’s opponents).

DSI plans to “take the suspects to the Criminal Court to request their detention. The DSI will also go to Bangkok Remand Prison to file charges against red shirt leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Nisit Sinthuprai, who are detained there.”

Tharit also revealed that the DSI is taking over yet another lese majeste case that “involves six community radio stations which allegedly broadcast Mr Jatuporn’s April 10 remarks which were deemed offensive to the monarchy.”

Just because there is a bit of reformist lese majeste static about doesn’t mean that the political police aren’t on the job. Thailand remains a dangerous place for opposition activists. The royalists are keen to crush them.

18 red shirts charged with lese majeste

From Prachatai

In an expected update to PPT’s many posts on this topic post-10 April, 18 red shirts have been summoned by the political police at the Department of Special Investigation to acknowledge charges of lese majeste.

As PPT understands it, the 18 charged are: Weng Tojirakarn, Nattawut Saikua, Korkaew Pikulthong, Thida Tawornsate Tojirakarn, Karun Hosakul, Yoswaris Chuklom, Wiputhalaeng Pattanaphumthai, Veera Musigapong, Chinawat Haboonpat, Wichian Khaokham, Suporn Atthawong, Kwanchai Sarakham (Praiphana), Nisit Sinthuprai, Prasit Chaisisa, Worawut Wichaidit, Laddawan Wongsriwong, Jatuporn Promphan and Somchai Paiboon.

The Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has been heavily criticized going nuclear on lese majeste. The Post says this:

Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha had acted within his authority when he ordered the Judge Advocate General Department to file lese majeste charges against Mr Jatuporn, Puea Thai MP for Udon Thani Wichian Khaokham and former Puea Thai MP for Nakhon Ratchasima Suporn Atthawong.

“Soldiers act in line with the constitution, which says the army is duty-bound to protect and uphold the institution of the monarchy,” Col Sansern said.

In a sign of how politicized the Army is, the Post adds:

An army source said yesterday more than 1,000 soldiers attached to the army’s st Division (Royal Guards) will today gather for military training at the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bang Khen district, in what is seen by observers as a show of support for the army commander.

PPT thinks we’ll just refer to these 18 as the Bangkok 18 and list them at our Pending Cases. The same report in the Post lists one further complaint of lese majeste. We will report that in a separate post.

We are having trouble keeping up with the mad use of lese majeste to repress opposition.

Updated: Wichian Kaokham responds on lese majeste

The Isaan Record has an interview with Wichian Kaokham, one of the red shirts accused of lese majeste in the latest, Army-driven, set of cases that use lese majeste as a political weapon against the opposition.

The report explains that the term that appears to have been used against Wichian, a Pueau Thai Party member of parliament, in the recent lese majeste case was first used in parliament last month. The phrase he used was: “Why the hell are you shouting for your father?” [โห่หาพ่อมึงเหรอ]. He used this when Democrat Party members were heckling him. The Isaan Record says this term “amounts to a commonplace, moderately offensive ‘Shut up’.”

Apparently, the term caught the imagination of many red shirts and they chanted it back to him when he was on stage at the red shirt rally on 10 April. The Isaan Record says: “Two days later, on April 12, Army Chief Prayuth Chan-ocha charged Mr. Wichian with lèse-majesté.”

Wichian claims to be unconcerned by the lese majeste charge: “I didn’t say anything against the royal family. What I said is the phrase from [the debate]…. I just repeated it without any innuendo.” He says the innuendo comes from his political enemies, adding: “I’ve been charged because members of the military along with [Privy Council President] Prem want to destroy me and Pheu Thai. They want the Democrat … [Party] to win the election.”

Royalist's scattered marbles

That seems a pretty reasonable summary of events of the past two weeks.

Update: The Nation lists the 18 red shirts being investigated for lese majeste and sedition. PPT thinks the royalist elite has lost its marbles. The 18 are: Weng Tojirakarn, Nattawut Saikua, Korkaew Pikulthong, Thida Tawornsate Tojirakarn, Karun Hosakul, Yoswaris Chuklom, Wiputhalaeng Pattanaphumthai, Veera Musigapong, Chinawat Haboonpat, Wichian Khaokham, Suporn Atthawong, Kwanchai Sarakham (Praiphana), Nisit Sinthuprai, Prasit Chaisisa, Worawut Wichaidit, Laddawan Wongsriwong, Jatuporn Promphan and Somchai Paiboon.

Incredibly, many of these red shirts now look like facing charges of terrorism, lese majeste and sedition.

Stories worth reading

There are a bunch of useful stories worth reading, although PPT is having trouble getting to them. So we thought listing them for readers might be a way of ensuring that attention is given to these accounts:

MCOT: “Four more leaders of the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) on Monday surrendered to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) after being on the run for nine months with outstanding arrest warrants for terrorism, and were later granted releases on bail. Suporn Atthawong, Payap Panket, Chinnawat Haboonpad, and Waipoj Arpornrat turned themselves in at DSI headquarters Monday morning but denied all charges and posed Bt600,000 as bail bond for each.” They seem keen to stand in any upcoming election. Jim Taylor has more on this at Prachatai.

MCOT: “Police have withdrawn from the protest site of Thailand’s yellow-clad activist movement, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), on Rajdamnoen Nok Avenue after their deployment there stirred fears among demonstrators that the police might try to disperse their months-long rally.” The story on the massed police attempt to clear PAD toilets is quite funny.

Bangkok Post: “Thailand is well suited to democracy, thanks to its extensive civil society and a high level of social trust, a renowned American professor said…. Robert D Putnam, of Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, was speaking at a seminar titled “Community and Democracy: Why Civil Society is Essential to Democratic Reform” held at Chulalongkorn University yesterday…. Mr Putnam said democracy required a lot of work, time and strong social capital or civil society. He pointed out how the United States saw rapid political changes during the 1910s due to intense social capital interactions and at other times on the ups and downs of social capital, including the Great Depression, the country’s longest period of high unemployment and poverty.”

PPT is not aware that Professor Putnam knows anything at all about Thailand. We think he confuses social capital and political activism and largely ignores political power and ideology as a driving forces behind civil society organizations. Bringing in the “experts” is a long tradition when Thailand faces crisis and doesn’t often lead far. Recall the junta government bringing in a bunch of experts to “discuss” sufficiency economy.

Asia Provocateur by Andrew Spooner has a story on a death threat received by Jitra Kotchadej, who was involved in a protest against Abhisit Vejjajiva a few days ago.

AHRC has a Forwarded Press Release on “Angkhana Neelaphaijit, the chairperson of the Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), released a statement on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) during the presentation of the joint report of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention during meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. In the statement, the JPF and the ICJ called for the Thai government accept the request to visit by the Working Groups and for the Working Groups to work with the Thai government to end arbitrary detention and to bring to light the fate of people who have been disappeared.”

Updated: A “country of lies” headed for civil war?

A report in The Nation (18 April 2010) indicates the continuing censorship of red shirt media. Because of this, red shirts have launched a new community radio station that went on air Saturday, attempting to “counter the continued shutting down of red-shirt media by the government under emergency rule.”

Chinawat Haboonpak, a red-shirt leader told the crowd: “They should allow us to criticise [the government], but instead they shut our ears and eyes…. We ask for just one television channel, but they have taken it away from us and shut our ears and eyes again.” Chinawat had had to “shut down Taxi Radio on Friday after the government had succeeded in jamming it to the point where its reception was so limited as to be inconsequential.” Red shirt community radio stations are being investigated and shut or blocked by the government under its state of emergency and websites and URLs by the thousands are being blocked or shut down by the government.

With considerable justification, the red shirts complain that this continued and intensified censorship “has turned the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva into a ‘tyrannical regime’.” A red-shirt radio host called Abhisit a “liar” and said “Thailand has become a country of lies. This government can order the media around and shut down media and infringe on people’s rights and liberty – truly a dictatorship. He’s shameless.”

It is this kind of government that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta has come out to support. Readers might be shocked to hear Horta pronouncing a Democrat Party line. He said: “There must also be a cessation of disruptions to government functions and illegal occupation of public and private buildings, including commercial centres, as well as road blockades.” He seems unaware of Thailand’s constitutional rights and seems to believe that red shirts are occupying buildings. He calls for an election in 6-9 months, the Democrat Party’s timetable.

Horta owes members of the Democrat Party a huge debt, most notably Kraisak Choonhavan, and he also has close military connections, developed when Thailand had a peace-keeping force in East Timor. In addition, Horta has a family connection to hi-so Thais. Horta is engulfed by yellow-shirt friends and opinions.

Meanwhile, the army chief and former coup conspirator Anupong Paojinda has met with “Army, Navy and Air Force commanders-in-chief …[and they] agreed that emergency laws would be enforced strictly through security checkpoints in Bangkok and the provinces to deal with the protesters’ offensive.” Anupong is said to be “in the hot seat, as he is the chief of operations in charge of executing the government’s order to capture red-shirt leaders and men-in-black ‘terrorists’ as well as launching a possible crackdown on red shirts.”

Now here’s a really telling line from The Nation: “However, the government said Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban remained the head of the emergency situation centre and hence there was no rift between the government and armed forces as speculated.” Ah ha! So there is a rift. This is the country of lies, half-truths and hidden messages, and that seems to be the message.

It is added that “Anupong will have to prove that he can execute the order for the arrest of 24 red-shirt leaders or even crack down on the red-shirt protesters if needed.” Anupong had earlier stated that “dispersing the tens of thousands of red shirts at the Rajprasong intersection was not an option because of the inevitable risk of large-scale loss of life and property damage in the commercial area.” In addition, The Nation points out that a new crackdown could well “risk of igniting a full-scale civil war with pockets of resistance throughout the country.”

However, The Nation’s unnamed sources imply that the Democrat Party-led government of Prime Minister Abhisit wants to take that risk, for “if the Army chief failed to execute the order, he could be replaced by his deputy, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, a more hawkish general who is believed to be have been behind the operation on April 10 which lead to 24 deaths and more than 850 injured.” Another a ha! moment. Maybe the truths are slipping out. Prayuth is indeed hawkish and he failed on Saturday, but the government needs him because they can trust him as a killer of civilians.

The Nation reports that the “red shirts are trying their best to appeal to Anupong to think twice and not shed blood.”

Update: The Nation also reports the red shirts talking about civil war. Red shirt leader Jaran Ditthapichai said that he was sure that if the red shirts were attacked again, soldiers would fight each other: “Soldiers would deal with one another. Tanks would fire at one another. And even if [the government] won, it would be on the rubble of ruins for everyone…”. Jaran estimates that up to 60% of soldiers would support the red shirts.

Speaking of Abhisit’s stubbornness, Jaran said there could be hundreds more casualties, predicting, if the government “felt bloodthirsty enough, they would do it…”. He also claimed that “businesses in the area had been summoned by the government and informed that they would be compensated for any collateral damage – a sign that the use of force to disperse the opposition could be imminent.” For more on these businesses and their Democrat Party connections, see Siam Report.

He added: “But it wouldn’t end there. They may win the battle [at Rajprasong] but not the war. A huge loss of life and property would result and they couldn’t blame it all on us. Our strength is the hearts of many people who are fearless, as proven at Phan Fa Bridge [on April 10].”

Updated: Government to arrest red shirt leaders, closes People TV again

Police claim that they “are poised to arrest, whenever they can, 24 United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship figures wanted under arrest warrants…”. PPT would assume, given the events over People TV, that any arrests would be met with red shirt anger and responses.

The report states that the “Criminal Court has approved arrest warrants for two groups of UDD leaders. The first group of seven are wanted for breaking into the parliament compound on Sunday. The second group of 17 are wanted for leading the red-shirts to block the Ratchaprasong intersection in violation of the emergency decree.” Those named in the new warrants are Weng Tojirakan, Darunee Kritboonyalai, Jaran Dithapichai, Natthawut Saikua, Nisit Sinthuprai, Veera Musigapong, Korkaew Pikulthong, Kwanchai Sarakham, Chinawat Haboonpat, Wiputhalaeng Pattanaphumthai, Adisorn Piengket, Worapol Prommikbut, Waipot Arpornrat, Samroeng Prachamrua, Visa Khanthap, Paijit Aksornnarong, and Khattiya Sawasdipol (Seh Daeng).

The police “had closed in on the 24 and would arrest them whenever they could. After they were arrested, they would be detained at six locations to prevent them from further illegal activities.” The emergency decree means they can be held for 30 days.

The police have also warned “motorcycle taxi and cab drivers had been warned against joining the UDD rally, under threat of legal action under the emergency law.”

Abhisit Vejjajiva’s acting police chief Police General Pratheep Tanprasert told a meeting of police commanders “to arrest the 24 UDD leaders as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Post reports that the army has “reoccupied the Thaicom station at Phatum Thani province’s Lat Lum Kaeo district and have managed to black out the red shirts’ People’s Channel TV broadcast again on Friday night.”  Acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said that “the government has again blocked signal of PTV, and vowed that authorities would not let the red-shirts … break into the station’s compound one more time.”

With the police threatening to arrest red shirt leaders and the government taking down People TV again, conflict seems assured.

Update: Not really for this post alone, but on the red protests generally, New Mandala has pointed PPT to this important set of photos at the Boston Globe website. PPT didn’t understand why Abhisit had earlier stated that soldiers should not feel “discouraged.” See the last few photos for an explanation.