They came up empty-handed

Despite an entreaty by Robin Grant on July 25, 2011, to substantiate his claim, I believe that none was ever provided. Mr Bowler then inferred that the deaths that resulted must be blamed on the red-shirt leaders. 

Even if what Mr Bowler wrote is true, that the confinement at the temple was involuntary, to blame the deaths on the leaders and not the people who had done the killing is beyond my understanding. To emphasise the act of confinement over the act of killing just to make a point is to show an unacceptable disrespect for the sanctity of human lives.

  Mr Bowler, in his letter of June 6, then compared Thaksin to Al Capone. The gist of his letter was that just because Thaksin was convicted of a crime does not mean that he is not guilty of other crimes too, just as nobody would think that Capone was guilty of only tax evasion. I do not think that you can compare the two. They were of different times and different places. The Capone prosecutors had to work within the limits of the law. Thaksin’s prosecutors had the full backing of the people, who had just torn up the Constitution and had, for all intents and purposes, absolute power. They had everything they needed to dig up the dirt on Thaksin. 

And what Somsak Pola wrote in his letter of June 5 was that they basically came up empty-handed. They had to work within the legal limits? I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry.

Kemadist Chiaracharuwat

Bangkok