PM to skip compensation hand-out ceremony
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Prime Minister Yingluck on Thursday cited a conflicting engagement in Chiang Mai as the reason for not chairing this afternoon's ceremony to hand out compensation to red-shirt victims of the 2010 political violence.
Yingluck designated Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit to preside over the ceremony on her behalf at Government House.
Her last-minute decision to skip the ceremony occurred after Democrat MP Sathit Pitutecha threatened to petition for a graft probe into Yingluck's involvement in the compensation payments.
Sathit said there was no legal sanction on the compensation computed by the government.
Of 4,817 victims entitled to compensation, about 522 victims and their surviving family members are scheduled to receive payments today.
The government has earmarked Bt579 million for compensation. Despite the promise of Bt7 million per victim killed in the mayhem, the actual payment at today's ceremony will amount to Bt400,000 per victim killed. Incapacitated victims will receive the same compensation as those who were killed. Those who sustained serious injuries will get Bt100,000 and those who sustained minor injuries will receive Bt20,000.
Security forces killed, incapacitated and injured in the mayhem will receive the same compensation as civilian victims.
The soldiers to be compensated include Colonel Romklao Wuthitham who was killed in a grenade-launcher attack while supervising crowd control at Rajdamnoen Avenue on April 10, 2010. Romklao was elevated posthumously to the rank of general.
