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Ending Thailand's Impunity For Real: Opinion


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REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Ending Thailand's impunity for real

Kavi Chongkittavorn

BANGKOK: -- After an impressive defence of Thailand's human right records in Geneva at the first cycle of universal periodic review (UPR) last October, concerned authorities from at least 30 agencies across the country are now hard at work.

They have met and consulted over ways and means to implement recommendations from the outcome documents of UN Human Rights Council and stakeholders.

Out of the 172 recommendations, the Thai government agreed to voluntary implement 134 in total, leaving 38 of them untouched due to their sensitive nature such as lese majeste, southern Thailand, among others. Literally it has until 2018 to follow through. With that time frame, Asean has already become a single community. The country could be a member 2016 for the non-permanent seat of UN Security Council in 2016. Its reputation and positions in the regional and global community could be further promoted or drum down depending on overall voluntary implementation on measures to improve human rights conditions at home. It is a tall order and time-consuming to fully comply with all requests, since it will be the first time that Thailand begins to address their root cause. Throughout the past decade, efforts related to rights abuses were passive and concentrated on investigation, compensations, rehabilitation and healings. The work of Department of Special Investigation (DSI) serves as a good example. DSI has more than 500 staffers with a total budget of 420 million baht. In comparison, Department of Rights and Liberties Protection, which plans and implements policies and measures on human rights, has only 65 officials and a budget of 106 million baht. The asymmetrical funding showed the government's focus on the effects than the causes. The current Thai constitution is extensive - more than 60 provisions - in protecting all forms of human rights and human dignity both at individual and collective levels. However, when it comes to implementation, there is a huge gap with the pronounced policies.

After years of trails and errors, officials handling human rights, principally at Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Commission for Human Rights and Department of Rights and Liberties Protection, are on the same page related to the best way to tackle human right violations by zeroing in on prevention and early warning system aim at stopping violations from occurring. In private discussions, some of these officials said they draw inspirations from the experience of Ministry of Public Health in tackling with all forms of contagious diseases such as avian-flu or Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Public health officials are skillful in conducting surveillance on certain diseases so they can flag early warnings and contain epidemics before it affects or spread out to the population at large.

For more ways than one, the success and failure of the country's human rights record would depend these officials' understanding of the importance of human rights protection within the national and universal contexts, especially the army and police. Truth be told, it was not until the Takbai incident in Narathiwat in October 2004 causing 90 deaths that the authorities realised something went horribly wrong in their rule of engagements and handling of demonstrators. Since then, through incremental and discreet changes from within, the Thai army officers began to educate themselves on human rights with assistance from the rights specialists from Department of Rights and Liberties Protection. They were more comfortable learning, sharing and pick up best practices from other government officials rather than outside experts. Progress is slow as the abuses still continues but nonetheless there have been some improvement.

Previously inside the army barracks a mere mentioning of human rights would be frowned upon immediately as it was a taboo. However, over the years more public demands for human rights protection and end of impunity coupling with growing influential of Bangkok-based international human rights organizations and their monitoring has slowly changed their perceptions as well as the country's treatment of rights issues. Thailand's treatment of the extra-judicial killings was the case in point. After nearly a decade, the DSI was able to complete investigation on just 3 cases as genuine drug couriers out of the estimated 2,500 extra-judicial killings of drug suspects which began in early 2003. The Thai human rights defenders believed that half of them were innocent. DSI has to do more work.

After the establishment of NHRC in Thailand in 1997, the first four-year human rights action plan was drafted followed the recommendations by the Vienna Declaration on Human Rights in 1993. The current second four-year plan (2000-2013) addresses the key human rights issues and indicators inside the country. For instance, Thailand is expected to make further progress on the deliberation of the death penalty as part of the action plan. During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages. Concerned officials think the capital punishment should be reviewed by taking into consideration all political and cultural factors. Further research must be conducted to determine if the death penalty can deter the criminal acts as often claimed. During the UPR in Geneva, ten nations urged Thailand to either place moratorium or abolish on death penalty.

It is hoped in the third four-year human rights action plan (2014-2018), which is in the drafting stage, would dwell on preventive measures, good governance and administration of justice that would enable the authorities to greatly improve the human right protection inside the country. The third plan needs to emphasis on educating the public about their rights and their responsibilities. Of course, police should be singled out. Most of human rights violations came from the police, who have the tendency to falsify evidences, arrest suspects without due process of laws and tend to protect their own colleagues. Worse, innocent victims were abused and did not received proper apologies and compensation. More than the government would like to admit, its leaders have principally relied on police forces, who have gained monopolistic power once again in law and order, to do political works.

To be fair, some progress have been made in the past months. After some recalcitrance, Thailand has agreed to welcome all special UN rapporteurs depending priorities and scheduling in the next four years. Last year it ratified the UN Convention against Torture. Next would be the International Convention on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Within the international human rights community, Thailand has a bad reputation as no progress report was made on the 38 cases of disappearance officially filed since 1992.

It is about time that the Yingluck government with its much touted banner of democracy promotion to sign and ratify all international bills of rights without delay and must be prudent in ending all forms of impunity.

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-- The Nation 2012-07-02

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It says that Abhisit's government let 172 recommendations for human rights sit in a box and took no action on them because the yellow shirts are indifferent to human rights. And furthermore that Yingluck is proceeding at top speed and implementing 134 of the 172 recommendations and would in fact do all of them except for the yellow shirt resistance to the remaining recommendations.

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From the OP article.

After nearly a decade, the DSI was able to complete investigation on just 3 cases as genuine drug couriers out of the estimated 2,500 extra-judicial killings of drug suspects which began in early 2003. The Thai human rights defenders believed that half of them were innocent. DSI has to do more work.

And Thaksin the man responsible for those 2500 murders of innocent people, his sister is now Prime Minister and acting on his orders to have his only conviction overturned so that he can walk among us all as an entirely innocent man.

If the man sitting next to you on the train had murdered 2500 people wouldn't you want to know that fact? Wouldn't you want him in prison for life? Would you want his sister to be prime-minister and would you let her violate the Supreme Court to make her brother cleared of all charges.

Shameful strongarm nepotistic gangsterism played out for all the world to see, come to miracle amazing tinpot mafia dictatorship Shinawatra.

See Yunia doesn't need a proofreader. She understands it. Thaksin Bad. Thaksin Bad. Thaksin Bad.

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It says that Abhisit's government let 172 recommendations for human rights sit in a box and took no action on them because the yellow shirts are indifferent to human rights. And furthermore that Yingluck is proceeding at top speed and implementing 134 of the 172 recommendations and would in fact do all of them except for the yellow shirt resistance to the remaining recommendations.

If the article says anything, it's not what you have inferred

That's rather a letdown. So tell us what it says? Don't keep us in suspense. Even Yunia knows.

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From the OP article.

After nearly a decade, the DSI was able to complete investigation on just 3 cases as genuine drug couriers out of the estimated 2,500 extra-judicial killings of drug suspects which began in early 2003. The Thai human rights defenders believed that half of them were innocent. DSI has to do more work.

And Thaksin the man responsible for those 2500 murders of innocent people, his sister is now Prime Minister and acting on his orders to have his only conviction overturned so that he can walk among us all as an entirely innocent man.

If the man sitting next to you on the train had murdered 2500 people wouldn't you want to know that fact? Wouldn't you want him in prison for life? Would you want his sister to be prime-minister and would you let her violate the Supreme Court to make her brother cleared of all charges?

Shameful strongarm nepotistic gangsterism played out for all the world to see, come to miracle amazing tinpot mafia dictatorship Shinawatra.

ermm.gif

There are some 6 charges outstanding against Shinawatra (told to me by certain judicial and ranking people I know) and each one will be pulled from the files and opened as this exiled criminal tries his tricks. The Thai's have time - the inciting to riot pawns simply believe and do what they are told. Unintelligent or more correctly uneducated people, are always easily manipulated. Perhaps if there was a real incentive and Shinawatra wants to make merit - i.e. return funds misappropriated from the Thai people and spread the proceeds correctly amongst the poor of this land, (not back to the coffers of corruption) then perhaps there really could be a huge lift in sincerity rather than complacency and manipulation of this individual of his obvious puppets. Edited by asiawatcher
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It says that Abhisit's government let 172 recommendations for human rights sit in a box and took no action on them because the yellow shirts are indifferent to human rights. And furthermore that Yingluck is proceeding at top speed and implementing 134 of the 172 recommendations and would in fact do all of them except for the yellow shirt resistance to the remaining recommendations.

If the article says anything, it's not what you have inferred

That's rather a letdown. So tell us what it says? Don't keep us in suspense. Even Yunia knows.

What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately.

Succinctly put.

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From the OP article.

After nearly a decade, the DSI was able to complete investigation on just 3 cases as genuine drug couriers out of the estimated 2,500 extra-judicial killings of drug suspects which began in early 2003. The Thai human rights defenders believed that half of them were innocent. DSI has to do more work.

And Thaksin the man responsible for those 2500 murders of innocent people, his sister is now Prime Minister and acting on his orders to have his only conviction overturned so that he can walk among us all as an entirely innocent man.

If the man sitting next to you on the train had murdered 2500 people wouldn't you want to know that fact? Wouldn't you want him in prison for life? Would you want his sister to be prime-minister and would you let her violate the Supreme Court to make her brother cleared of all charges?

Shameful strongarm nepotistic gangsterism played out for all the world to see, come to miracle amazing tinpot mafia dictatorship Shinawatra.

ermm.gif

There are some 6 charges outstanding against Shinawatra (told to me by certain judicial and ranking people I know) and each one will be pulled from the files and opened as this exiled criminal tries his tricks. The Thai's have time - the inciting to riot pawns simply believe and do what they are told. Unintelligent or more correctly uneducated people, are always easily manipulated. Perhaps if there was a real incentive and Shinawatra wants to make merit - i.e. return funds misappropriated from the Thai people and spread the proceeds correctly amongst the poor of this land, (not back to the coffers of corruption) then perhaps there really could be a huge lift in sincerity rather than complacency and manipulation of this individual of his obvious puppets.

Good one man. Right on. Thaksin bad ya ya ya. Bad bad bad! I really don't know what your post has to do with the topic but good on you.

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If the article says anything, it's not what you have inferred

That's rather a letdown. So tell us what it says? Don't keep us in suspense. Even Yunia knows.

What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately.

Succinctly put.

Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

and that means:

"What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately."?

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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

and that means:

"What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately."?

I think you are quoting a poster and thinking it was in the article.

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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

Don't know why I bother, but ... I have not heard anyone in the PT calling for abolishing the death penalty, in fact Chalerm wants drug dealers to be killed faster. Guess what, there are a lot of people who feel that removing someone who is a threat to society from the gene pool rather than paying their room and board for the rest of their lives is a good idea. I would guess there are probably some in Norway who are reconsidering their view on the death penalty after a guy kills dozens of innocents and can only receive a maximum of 21 years in jail for it. Also, the death penalaty is apprantly one of the points that falls into the category of not easy and cannot be addressed immediately. The Dem government said they would review it and probably did. Decided to keep it, along with many other countries. PTP has done nothing to change that.
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Good one man. Right on. Thaksin bad ya ya ya. Bad bad bad! I really don't know what your post has to do with the topic but good on you.

I think the reason it was ontopic was because of the paragraph in the OP which discussed Thaksin's killing-spree and how it relates to the concept of "impunity" in the thread title. To kill 2500 and face no charges is a good example of impunity, which is why it was put into the thread OP and discussed by several members afterwards.

I'm not sure how your "Thaksin bad ya ya ya bad bad bad" responses are ontopic though. Perhaps you find it contentious that people are accusing a massmurderer of wrongdoing. Is murdering 2500 innocent peoople not "bad", to use your word. Would you defend the murder of thousands? I would see him jailed for the murders and for his grand-larceny and nepotism too. Both brother and sister's actions are giving Thailand a tarnished name globally, they are extremely bad ambassadors for this beautiful nation. And the human-rights abuses the Shinawatras have and are still committing, are an extremely slippery slope, once you start falling down that hill it often becomes hard to stop until you hit the ground.

ermm.gif

Edited by Yunla
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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

Don't know why I bother, but ... I have not heard anyone in the PT calling for abolishing the death penalty, in fact Chalerm wants drug dealers to be killed faster. Guess what, there are a lot of people who feel that removing someone who is a threat to society from the gene pool rather than paying their room and board for the rest of their lives is a good idea. I would guess there are probably some in Norway who are reconsidering their view on the death penalty after a guy kills dozens of innocents and can only receive a maximum of 21 years in jail for it. Also, the death penalaty is apprantly one of the points that falls into the category of not easy and cannot be addressed immediately. The Dem government said they would review it and probably did. Decided to keep it, along with many other countries. PTP has done nothing to change that.

You gotta give credit where credit is due. No government for 20 years executed anyone till Abhisit got there and he injected 3. Good on ya.

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Good one man. Right on. Thaksin bad ya ya ya. Bad bad bad! I really don't know what your post has to do with the topic but good on you.

I think the reason it was ontopic was because of the paragraph in the OP which discussed Thaksin's killing-spree and how it relates to the concept of "impunity" in the thread title. To kill 2500 and face no charges is a good example of impunity, which is why it was put into the thread OP and discussed by several members afterwards.

I'm not sure how your "Thaksin bad ya ya ya bad bad bad" responses are ontopic though. Perhaps you find it contentious that people are accusing a massmurderer of wrongdoing. Is murdering 2500 innocent peoople not "bad", to use your word. Would you defend the murder of thousands? I would see him jailed for the murders and for his grand-larceny and nepotism too. Both brother and sister's actions are giving Thailand a tarnished name globally, they are extremely bad ambassadors for this beautiful nation. And the human-rights abuses the Shinawatras have and are still committing, are an extremely slippery slope, once you start falling down that hill it often becomes hard to stop until you hit the ground.

ermm.gif

Previously inside the army barracks a mere mentioning of human rights would be frowned upon immediately as it was a taboo. However, over the years more public demands for human rights protection and end of impunity coupling with growing influential of Bangkok-based international human rights organizations and their monitoring has slowly changed their perceptions as well as the country's treatment of rights issues.

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Previously inside the army barracks a mere mentioning of human rights would be frowned upon immediately as it was a taboo. However, over the years more public demands for human rights protection and end of impunity coupling with growing influential of Bangkok-based international human rights organizations and their monitoring has slowly changed their perceptions as well as the country's treatment of rights issues.

Yes, there are growing human-rights concerns and increasing awareness of these rights allover the world. Your point is somewhat vague, but I agree that many people in Bangkok, and other cities around the world, do want human rights to be enforced and protected.

Of course, defending human rights and protecting the innocent, is not always possible preemptively, and when abuses occur it is essential for retroactive justice, for the guilty person to be charged and convicted and punished. Especially when those human rights violations overlap with more old fashioned crimes such as murder and massmurder.

ermm.gif

Edited by Yunla
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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

It seems that 4 people were put to death in 2003.

(2009 article)

The last executions in Thailand were carried out in 2003, when four people were executed by lethal injection. These were the first executions by lethal injection, which had replaced execution by shooting in the same year.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/thailand-first-executions-six-years-20090826

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Previously inside the army barracks a mere mentioning of human rights would be frowned upon immediately as it was a taboo. However, over the years more public demands for human rights protection and end of impunity coupling with growing influential of Bangkok-based international human rights organizations and their monitoring has slowly changed their perceptions as well as the country's treatment of rights issues.

Yes, there are growing human-rights concerns and increasing awareness of these rights allover the world. Your point is somewhat vague, but I agree that many people in Bangkok, and other cities around the world, do want human rights to be enforced and protected.

Of course, defending human rights and protecting the innocent, is not always possible preemptively, and when abuses occur it is essential for retroactive justice, for the guilty person to be charged and convicted and punished. Especially when those human rights violations overlap with more old fashioned crimes such as murder and massmurder.

ermm.gif

To be fair, some progress have been made in the past months. After some recalcitrance, Thailand has agreed to welcome all special UN rapporteurs depending priorities and scheduling in the next four years.

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To be fair, some progress have been made in the past months. After some recalcitrance, Thailand has agreed to welcome all special UN rapporteurs depending priorities and scheduling in the next four years.

You are aware no doubt, that for a government to distribute the home-addresses and phone numbers of dissenters to an angry mob, is a very serious human-rights abuse. It is very serious human-rights violation and it is also an act of state-fascism.

Yingluck's PTP committed this human rights abuse this year. I wonder how you feel about that particularly public and aggressive human rights violation, and the shameful attempts by Yingluck to avoid and ignore the subject of her party's human rights abuse altogether in the ensuing weeks.

ermm.gif

Edited by Yunla
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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

and that means:

"What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately."?

I think you are quoting a poster and thinking it was in the article.

I think you are having another case of losingthethreaditis

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Oh come on now, the article says,

"During the Abhisit government, Thailand pledged to review the archaic practice. Indeed, the penalty has not been carried out for over two decades. Under his government, three executions by injections were administrated. The government at the time viewed the execution as a preventive measure to deter the rise of drug trafficking and usages."

and that means:

"What it says is, that a meeting held last October, when the PT was in power, not the Dems, came up with 172 recommendations. The government will act on 134 of them now, probably because they are easy or simply require a statement that existing laws will be enforced. The remainder are related to issues which are not so easy and may or may not have anything to do with anything the Dems or Yellow shirts have protested in the past. As there is not description of the outstanding issues it is impossible for anyone here to decide the reason for action not being taken immediately."?

I think you are quoting a poster and thinking it was in the article.

I think you are having another case of losingthethreaditis

No, man you are quoting a guy named Joeb.

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From the OP article.

After nearly a decade, the DSI was able to complete investigation on just 3 cases as genuine drug couriers out of the estimated 2,500 extra-judicial killings of drug suspects which began in early 2003. The Thai human rights defenders believed that half of them were innocent. DSI has to do more work.

And Thaksin the man responsible for those 2500 murders of innocent people, his sister is now Prime Minister and acting on his orders to have his only conviction overturned so that he can walk among us all as an entirely innocent man.

If the man sitting next to you on the train had murdered 2500 people wouldn't you want to know that fact? Wouldn't you want him in prison for life? Would you want his sister to be prime-minister and would you let her violate the Supreme Court to make her brother cleared of all charges.

Shameful strongarm nepotistic gangsterism played out for all the world to see, come to miracle amazing tinpot mafia dictatorship Shinawatra.

See Yunia doesn't need a proofreader. She understands it. Thaksin Bad. Thaksin Bad. Thaksin Bad.

I think you got that right Thaksin is bad.
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Do you think this includes human rights for Farangs living here? Or, perhaps, just finding a way to cover everything up.

It depends. Can we get some negative Thaksin pr out of the deal?

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Do you think this includes human rights for Farangs living here? Or, perhaps, just finding a way to cover everything up.

It depends. Can we get some negative Thaksin pr out of the deal?

A man who murders 2500 innocent people and steals an estimated 400bn from a developing nation's state fund, does not need any help generating negative PR. He's doing a fine job all by himself. Some of the sycophants who support him don't improve his image either.

ermm.gif

Edited by Yunla
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