Slain nurse's mum to talk to ICC lawyer
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The mother of a volunteer paramedic who died at Wat Pathum Wanaram during the political turmoil in 2010 will give a statement to a prosecutor today at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, lawyer Karom Poltaklang said yesterday.
Karom spoke at Suvarnabhumi Airport before Phayao Akkahad – mother of volunteer medic Kamonkade – and her son, departed for The Hague in the Netherlands.
In a complaint filed on January 31 last year, the ICC was asked to investigate the dispersal of the red-shirts’ rally on May 19, 2010, said Karom, who is a lawyer for the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship or red shirts.
The case is still being investigated and it was important that the court sees it as systematic wrongdoing that harmed a vast number of people, Karom said. The court has not yet decided whether to proceed with the case.
Karom said he wondered why Pheu Thai MP and red-shirt leader Sunai Chulpongsatorn had said the court had already accepted the case, because it had not. According to process, the court let the prosecutor make an inquiry first.
Karom said he and Phayao would testify how “Thai jurisdiction” made if difficult to convict former deputy premier Suthep Thaugsuban, who was in charge of the dispersal, and then-PM Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Karom said an amnesty in Thailand or a Reconciliation Bill was unlikely to help the complainants. Phayao, meanwhile, said she did not care about the amnesty law. She believed in the international legal process and would fight, as her daughter should not have been killed.
“I’m going there as a victim who had to face the loss. I want to give the information to the prosecutor, as my daughter should not have died at the event. Didn’t the Red Cross sign mean anything to the (Thai) state officials? My daughter was a volunteer. She graduated in nursing. I will speak via a translator without a script,” she said.
Phayao said she wanted the government to delay its Reconciliation Bill although she did not oppose it; but she did not support an amnesty. “The government must care about people’s feelings. The justice process must go on so the cases go to court. Don’t just let the people forget it,” she said adding that the most important thing, before any amnesty, was that the truth be revealed.
Pheu Thai MP and red-shirt leader Korkaew Pikulthong said red-shirt leaders Weng Tojirakarn and Thida Thawornseth were going with Phayao. Weng, an MP, said he was using his own money for the travel costs, as he was attending as a red-shirt leader.
