Progress made on red-yellow reconciliation, Surapong tells UN rights body

The government has been fully supportive of the work of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT), he said.
The TRCT was set up by the previous government after a major military crackdown on red-shirt protesters left 91 people dead, including security officials, in April and May 2010.
A committee has been set up to coordinate with the TRCT to follow up on actions taken to implement its recommendations, Surapong said. A compensation package was recently approved for all sides in the political conflict on an equal basis.
Investigations are still ongoing to bring the perpetrators to justice and provide redress to the victims, he said.
The Independent Committee to Promote the Rule of Law is studying ways to ensure that the work of state agencies follows the intent of the law and is fair and free of double standards, he said.
“Human rights lie not only at the heart of Thailand’s domestic policies, but also our foreign policy. We will deliver on what we have pledged. Indeed, some of these commitments have already been realised,” he said.
In his speech to the UN human-rights watchdog, various issues of concern were brought up, such as the rights of ageing and disabled people, women, children and victims of trafficking as well as political and human-rights development in Burma and Sri Lanka.
However, his speech did not address the issue of lese majeste, which has drawn the attention of many international human-rights defenders.
New York-based Human Rights Watch last week expressed deep concern over a Thai court’s rejection of the bail requests of 12 of those charged with lese majeste. The criteria used for the red shirts and yellow shirts are not the same, it said.
“Bail appears to be systematically denied to members of the red shirts while they await trial for lese majeste,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “Denial of bail seems to be for punishment rather than for justified reasons.”
TRTC chairman Kanit Na Nakhon has publicly called for judges to treat lese majeste offenders more leniently, but to no avail.
Three bail requests were turned down this month. Members of red-shirt groups are basically major supporters of the incumbent government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, while the conservative yellow-shirt royalists are mostly its opponents.