I'll fight charge, accept any outcome: Abhisit
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Former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has told the British Broadcasting Corporation he will fight to clear his name of a murder charge levelled against him in connection with the political riots in 2010, adding that he will accept the court's verdict,
He said that while his side of the country’s political divide allowed justice to take its course, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the ruling politicians are pushing for a new law to grant themselves amnesty.
“I will accept any verdict, even if it brings the death penalty. I will prove my innocence in court, and if the court for whatever reason renders a guilty verdict, I will accept it,” he said.
“I’m asking the former prime minister and members of this government to do the same, because they’re always looking to find a way to pass a bill to grant themselves amnesty.”
In an exclusive interview shown on the BBC on Monday night, Abhisit tried to explain that the violence occurred when armed protesters fired grenades and did acts of terror in the middle of Bangkok.
“We tried to negotiate with the protesters, and they wouldn’t accept any of the deals that we offered them,” he said. “Unfortunately we were facing a situation where they occupied the middle of the city... It was our duty to restore order, and that’s what we were trying to do.”
Thousands of red shirts began street protests in Bangkok in mid-March 2010, a little over a week after a court seized Bt46 billion in assets from Thaksin, found to have been obtained improperly.
The red mob called for Abhisit’s government to step down, occupied Ratchaprasong business district and adjacent areas, setting up barricades and paralysing the city centre between mid-April and May 2010. Ninety-one people were killed in bids to crackdown on the protesters and end days of rioting.
Abhisit, the Democrat leader and now opposition leader, will go to the Department of Special Investigation tomorrow to hear the murder charge, along with senior Democrat Suthep Thaugsuban, who served as deputy prime minister in Abhisit’s government, according to party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut.
“[Abhisit] will not run away. He will fight through the justice system,” Chavanond said yesterday.
Abhisit and Suthep are the first officials to face charges over the deaths caused by the crackdown. The DSI filed the murder charge after the Criminal Court found that a taxi driver was killed by a “high-velocity bullet”, supposedly fired from a military weapon.
The Democrat leader told the BBC that some protesters had stolen weapons from the military.
Abhisit said that although his government authorised the use of live ammunition, the instructions were clear as to how and under what circumstance soldiers could use it.
“First of all, it was self defence. It was about preventing possible loss to other people, and they [the military] must use [such power] with extreme care,” he said.
Meanwhile, red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua, who is now a deputy commerce minister, yesterday urged Thaksin’s red-shirt supporters not to gather at the DSI when Abhisit and Suthep show up tomorrow. He said the presence of red shirts could be viewed as an attempt to pressure the authorities to act in a certain way.
