The prime minister is key to reconciliation: Sonthi

“The only person who can build up national unity after the national rifts is the person in the prime minister’s post. If previous prime ministers had been more determined in creating unity or an atmosphere for unity, they could have succeeded. But nobody really got started,” he said.

Sonthi said rehabilitation of people affected by the political conflicts was just one of the ways towards reconciliation. Besides money, building understanding and changing attitudes as well as creating an attitude of forgiving would be the duty of the House members. And the government must also implement such policies.

Sonthi said he believed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra wanted to return to the country. If the atmosphere in the country got better and national reconciliation occurred, that would be the right time for Thaksin to come back.

Meanwhile, Thaksin yesterday phoned-in to a red shirts party at the house of a Pheu Thai MP, telling them to be patient. He also said he would welcome visitors who wanted to meet him during his trips to Laos and Cambodia next month, Matichon Online reported.

The party for red shirts from 20 provinces in the Northeast was held at Teeyai Poonsrithanakul’s house in Surin.

Thaksin said he would be in Vientiane from April 12-13 and in Siem Reap from April 14-17.

“If I go home, I won’t go just as Kwanchai Praipana [a red-shirt leader in Udon Thani] said. That is not cool. I have to come back cool but I will tell you later how to come back cool,” he said.

He told the red shirts not to have conflicts with anyone considering that the government was working hard to help them. He also told the red shirts to petition him via Teeyai and he would fix their problems.

Before departing for the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters that the conclusion on national reconciliation should come from discussions in Parliament. 

She said earlier it was up to Parliament to work and decide on reconciliation and the government would not interfere but she did not expand on that remark.

Yingluck did not comment directly yesterday when asked about an option proposed by King Prajadhipok’s Institute to waive all the cases against her brother, the former premier Thaksin. She said the principles should be discussed before looking into details of what and how to do.

“If we stick on each side’s principles, there will be no way to reconciliation. We should look ahead and think together on what and how we can do for the country. Then we look at the obstacles and solve problems one by one. It might take some time to talk. I agree to have forums. But I’d like the conclusion to follow the legislative procedure,” she said.

Democrat Party and Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday: “I am concerned as the Democrats who have joined the reconciliation panel and met with Sonthi told me that the panel was likely to submit the report to the House and there would be no meeting before that. Many members of the committee haven’t seen the report. Meanwhile, the previous draft of the report was going in an opposite direction. It brought up amnesty and claimed support by some committee members,” he said. He said Yingluck should make sure her MPs on the reconciliation committee do not distort the report or do anything that might lead to a new conflicts.