UK actress Emma Thompson among invitees to reform talks

ELEVEN HIGH-PROFILE international statesmen and experts, including British actress Emma Thompson, have been invited to attend special talks to enhance reconciliation in Thailand, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said yesterday. 

 

The leaders agreeing to take part in the forum entitled “Uniting for the Future Learning from Each Other's Experience”, which resulted from Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s initiative, are former British prime minister Tony Blair, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, and Priscilla Hayner, an expert in truth and reconciliation commissions.

 

Those who can’t make it include Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton; ex-United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan; Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize; Jose Ramos-Horta, the former president and prime minister of East Timor and the current special representative to the secretary-general of the United Nations in Guinea-Bissau; and UN Peace Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.

 

Former Irish president Mary Robinson and British actress Emma Thompson, who supports human rights, were invited but Surapong did not mention if they would be attending.

 

Two or three rounds of talks will be held, so those who can’t join the first one could come to the second or third, he said. The first round will be on September 2.

 

The Democrat Party yesterday accused Yingluck of participating in the red-shirt protest in 2010 that led to the violent and confrontational street protests undeniably led by Thaksin’s supporters. 

 

“Yingluck, herself, also participated in the protests. The protests were ruled by the Thai courts to be unlawful because they infringed on the rights of the general public, especially with documented evidence of the usage of weapons such as M67s, M79s and rocket grenade launchers,” the opposition party said in an open letter.

 

The protest against the amnesty bill being deliberated by Parliament will be distributed to foreign diplomats in Thailand, democratic associations and political parties in Asia and international organisations such as the United Nations and the UN Human Rights Commission.

 

The letter said the fact that the move of the government and the ruling party to push for quick passage of the much-criticised amnesty bill was facing opposition from various groups was because the government has not heeded the advice of the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Thailand, National Human Rights Commission, the King Prajadhipok Institute or even the families of the red shirts who died during the street protests of 2010. 

 

“All parties fear that the precedent of whitewashing of all crimes, including arson attacks, looting, killings of innocent bystanders and law enforcement personnel, will undermine the rule of law in our country and allow the perpetrators of human rights abuses to go free without trial, instead of making them accountable for their crimes,” the letter said.

 

“But if the prime minister really valued the input of the international community, she has had ample opportunity. So far she has failed to address the concerns Human Rights Watch and the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights have raised regarding the current amnesty being pushed through Parliament by the Shinawatra-ruled Pheu Thai Party,” the letter said.

 

The Democrat Party believes that reconciliation should not simply be the forcing through of parliamentary bills by majority vote without transparency and due consideration of minority rights as well as the long-term national interest, the letter added.