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 Groups warn of Thai civil war, say int'l help needed
BANGKOK (Kyodo) -- International groups warned late Friday the spiraling crisis in Thailand may lead to "an undeclared civil war."
At least 27 people have been killed and more than 900 others have been injured, mostly on April 10, during clashes between government troops and members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the UDD, who are mostly poor.
UDD members, popularly known as Red Shirts, have demanded for the past seven weeks that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call an early general election.
"The Thai political system has broken down and seems incapable of pulling the country back from the brink of widespread conflict," the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group said in a conflict risk alert issued late Friday.
"The stand-off in the streets of Bangkok between the government and Red Shirt protesters is worsening and could deteriorate into an undeclared civil war," it added.
Separately, New York-based Human Rights Watch warned Thailand is spiraling further into political violence as protesters, counter-protesters and security forces "respond tit for tat against attacks and provocations."
Human Rights Watch slammed the Red Shirts for advocating and using violence although they claim to be a peaceful political movement.
"Contrary to the repeated claims of various UDD leaders that their movement is nonviolent, photos, video, and eyewitness accounts demonstrate that many UDD security guards and protesters are armed with guns, explosives, petrol bombs, slingshots, metal clubs, knives, sharpened bamboo sticks, and other weapons," it said in a statement.
At the same time, HRW Asia Director Brad Adams expressed "serious concerns" over the state of emergency declared by Abhisit on April 7 as it provides government officials immunity for their actions against protesters.
"The Thai government needs to be doubly clear about its rules on using force and ensuring that soldiers and police on the streets strictly follow those rules," Adams said.
"The army and government should demonstrate that no one in the security forces or administration can escape accountability for serious abuses," he added.
Tense Bangkok has been hit by a series of explosions by unidentified assailants as ordinary people await an army operation to "remove" the Red Shirts from the streets.
The protesters have offered to accept an election within 90 days.
Abhisit who came to power in December 2008, has told the Red Shirts in two rounds of open negotiations before the April 10 clashes that while he is willing to cut his term short by about a year, he needs at least eight or nine more months in office to accomplish various tasks.
According to the ICG, the fault lines are widening between the establishment -- an amalgam of elderly courtiers, powerful generals and middle class supporters - and the protesters, many of whom support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The crisis comes as Thailand faces its first prospect of royal succession in more than six decades.
The think tank recommended the creation of a high-level group of international figures to bring the government and Red Shirts together to end the military operation and limit the protests "to a small, more symbolic number of people who do not disrupt life in Bangkok."
The group should "also begin negotiations on an interim government of national unity and preparations for elections."
In a related development, the National Human Rights Commission, which held a meeting with four former Thai prime ministers earlier last month to listen to their suggestions on the political upheavals, called for the government to "accept the people's demand" to solve the problem.
The ICG also said the time has come for Thailand "to consider help from international friends to avoid a slide into wider violence."
Despite the calls, Thailand is likely to refuse international intervention.
In its Saturday editorial, Thai daily Kom Chad Luek said the Thai public has been exercising maximum restraint in dealing with the defiant antigovernment protesters.
"The international community should, instead, praise the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for upholding restraint much more than any previous democratically elected governments. All measures taken by the government were accountable and were not done with hatred," it said.
"Any government may disperse any illegal protests by force in order to retain peace and stability of the country. Even the United States, EU and ASEAN member countries have records of using force to evict protesters who claim their protests were peaceful and nonviolent," it said.
Earlier this week, following a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya reiterated Thailand did not need international intervention to settle the political unrest in the country, saying the situation is under control.
"I think we're very much in control of the situation and it's still very much an internal affair of Thailand," Kasit said.
(2010-05-02 / Mainich)
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