New team appointed to whitewash 2010 crackdown, mother of victim says

[Lite Beer]

New team appointed to whitewash 2010 crackdown, mother of victim says
NITIPOL KIRAVANICH
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- PHAYAW Akkahad, one of the highest-profile relatives of those killed in the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters, believes the new team of investigators appointed to reinforce the existing team aims to cover those responsible for the killings.

"Judging from the fact that the new team comprises of NCPO [National Council for Peace and Order members] and the military, their intention clearly is to whitewash their guilt," Phayaw said.

Her daughter, volunteer nurse Kamolkade, was shot dead while tending to the injured inside a temple compound in downtown Bangkok. "The military has been interfering in the cases from the very start," she said. "The NCPO claimed that it would step down after a year and it's nearly time for it to do so now, but it keeps acquiring more power - something not many sides can tolerate."

On Wednesday, the Depart-ment of Special Investigation (DSI) was ordered by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to add additional investigators led by Metropolitan Police chief Pol Lt-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul. The combined investigation team met on the same day with Srivara, DSI chief Suwanna Suwanjuta and prosecutors to lay down a new framework in solving cases related to the 99 people killed during the crackdown. At present, there are 87 unsolved cases.

Former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban, who were in government during the crackdown, have asked General Prawit Wongsuwan and General Anu-pong Paochinda to serve as witnesses. The two generals were also involved in the operation.

Phayaw alleges that the invocation of Article 44 on Wednesday was also a move to facilitate the cover-up, claiming that the now-defunct Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, which was behind the crackdown, has now "morphed" into the NCPO.

Asked if justice would ever be served under this new team, Phayaw said it was impossible if the military continued to be involved in investigating cases. She added that if both Abhisit and Suthep were found guilty, they should be penalised severely.

"Speaking as a mother who lost a child, I would urge the military to not try and absolve itself as nobody can run away from reality," she said tearfully.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/New-team-appointed-to-whitewash-2010-crackdown-mot-30257402.html

-- The Nation 2015-04-04

[EnglishJohn]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

[phoenixdoglover]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

[yellowboat]

Truth is always hard to come by when dealing with Thai officialdom . If they do choose to cover it up, only the international and social media will be able to apply pressure at this time.

Edited April 4, 2015 by yellowboat

[Suffinator]

You have to feel for the woman. Will the truth ever be known and justice served? I doubt it.

What a curse it must be to be born a Thai; being brought up with little or no chance of reaching your potential and living with the fact that everything has a price, even your own life.

The day I left Thailand was the happiest in my life and that's a fact.

[EnglishJohn]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

Open your eyes : this is all part of the propaganda machine preparing the ground for when the truth of what happened is exposed in court. It will be nothing new to most of us : we've all seen the youtube clips, but this will be the first official acknowledgement since Pheu-Thai made sure the investigation never went near.

Did you know Chalerm made it official policy from the start that men in black never existed and henceforth banned any mention of them in official documents ?.

The clip I linked explains why this woman's opinion should not be used as any justification. That whole article using her emotion to sneak propaganda through is a very cheap and dirty trick by someone.

[Linky]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

Open your eyes : this is all part of the propaganda machine preparing the ground for when the truth of what happened is exposed in court. It will be nothing new to most of us : we've all seen the youtube clips, but this will be the first official acknowledgement since Pheu-Thai made sure the investigation never went near.

Did you know Chalerm made it official policy from the start that men in black never existed and henceforth banned any mention of them in official documents ?.

The clip I linked explains why this woman's opinion should not be used as any justification. That whole article using her emotion to sneak propaganda through is a very cheap and dirty trick by someone.

Yes it seems totally unreasonable for this woman to want an independent investigation instead of the defendants investigating themselves. How dare she. (Yes sarcasm)

[seajae]

and the fact that her other daughter is a red shirt terrorist that has been caught out trying to plant bombs means nothing hey. The only ones trying to stir the pot are the ones that dont want the real truth to emerge, last thing they want is for the red terrorists to be shown to have been a major cause and possibly the ones doing much of the shooting. Easier to blame everyone else, seems they were quite happy when the ptp were running the investigation as they were trying to pin all the blame on the pm and let all the reds off but now the truth is going to come out they are all sh*tting themselves

[rubl]

The moment this mother was asked to sign a document to promise not to sue the government before she received the check the Yingluck Government handed to relatives of casualties, the moment the Dept. PM Yongyuth had to explain to her that of course that only meant the Yingluck Government, that was the moment she could have realised to have become entangled in a political web.

IMHO.

[Pi Sek]

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

Open your eyes : this is all part of the propaganda machine preparing the ground for when the truth of what happened is exposed in court. It will be nothing new to most of us : we've all seen the youtube clips, but this will be the first official acknowledgement since Pheu-Thai made sure the investigation never went near.

Did you know Chalerm made it official policy from the start that men in black never existed and henceforth banned any mention of them in official documents ?.

The clip I linked explains why this woman's opinion should not be used as any justification. That whole article using her emotion to sneak propaganda through is a very cheap and dirty trick by someone.

Yes it seems totally unreasonable for this woman to want an independent investigation instead of the defendants investigating themselves. How dare she. (Yes sarcasm)

You both have very valid points.

Firstly, the RTA should not be the investigator - they should be a witness and a party of interest. But who should be the investigator?

Secondly, the truth is still not out and, like EnglishJohn, I suspect the truth would not show the Red Shirts in a positive light. It was found the RTA did end up firing into Wat Pathumwanaram but, now that it turns out one of the two key witnesses looks like she was arranging bomb attacks in BKK, it has somewhat thrown a little doubt on the judgment that was in-part based on her testimony, and lends much more weight to the suggestion that the Court was influenced by the bias in Tharit Pengdit's DSI investigation.

Let's face the facts - and this goes to both Red Shirt sympathisers and RTA cheerleaders: the army shot people, at least some with questionable motive, and the Red Shirts had an armed faction who were there to get people killed.

[yellowboat]

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

Open your eyes : this is all part of the propaganda machine preparing the ground for when the truth of what happened is exposed in court. It will be nothing new to most of us : we've all seen the youtube clips, but this will be the first official acknowledgement since Pheu-Thai made sure the investigation never went near.

Did you know Chalerm made it official policy from the start that men in black never existed and henceforth banned any mention of them in official documents ?.

The clip I linked explains why this woman's opinion should not be used as any justification. That whole article using her emotion to sneak propaganda through is a very cheap and dirty trick by someone.

Yes it seems totally unreasonable for this woman to want an independent investigation instead of the defendants investigating themselves. How dare she. (Yes sarcasm)

You both have very valid points.

Firstly, the RTA should not be the investigator - they should be a witness and a party of interest. But who should be the investigator?

Secondly, the truth is still not out and, like EnglishJohn, I suspect the truth would not show the Red Shirts in a positive light. It was found the RTA did end up firing into Wat Pathumwanaram but, now that it turns out one of the two key witnesses looks like she was arranging bomb attacks in BKK, it has somewhat thrown a little doubt on the judgment that was in-part based on her testimony, and lends much more weight to the suggestion that the Court was influenced by the bias in Tharit Pengdit's DSI investigation.

Let's face the facts - and this goes to both Red Shirt sympathisers and RTA cheerleaders: the army shot people, at least some with questionable motive, and the Red Shirts had an armed faction who were there to get people killed.

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

[Pi Sek]

You both have very valid points.

Firstly, the RTA should not be the investigator - they should be a witness and a party of interest. But who should be the investigator?

Secondly, the truth is still not out and, like EnglishJohn, I suspect the truth would not show the Red Shirts in a positive light. It was found the RTA did end up firing into Wat Pathumwanaram but, now that it turns out one of the two key witnesses looks like she was arranging bomb attacks in BKK, it has somewhat thrown a little doubt on the judgment that was in-part based on her testimony, and lends much more weight to the suggestion that the Court was influenced by the bias in Tharit Pengdit's DSI investigation.

Let's face the facts - and this goes to both Red Shirt sympathisers and RTA cheerleaders: the army shot people, at least some with questionable motive, and the Red Shirts had an armed faction who were there to get people killed.

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

Correct... but this thread is about 2010, and the yellows were not involved in any sit-ins then.

70+ civilians were killed, 10+ security forces killed. My point is that I suspect the RTA and the UDD are both guilty in some respect... the UDD for supporting and organising outright terrorism, the RTA for shooting people when their orders didn't allow them to. Your point regarding the yellows' use of violence has bearing on this discussion.

My other point is that the RTA should not be allowing themselves to take a lead in this investigation, just like PTP should not have allowed Tharit to take a lead when he was so senior in the CRES and just like the UDD's suggestion that they should be involved should be refused out of hand. Conflicts of interests do not support due process.

[Pi Sek]

and the fact that her other daughter is a red shirt terrorist that has been caught out trying to plant bombs means nothing hey. The only ones trying to stir the pot are the ones that dont want the real truth to emerge, last thing they want is for the red terrorists to be shown to have been a major cause and possibly the ones doing much of the shooting. Easier to blame everyone else, seems they were quite happy when the ptp were running the investigation as they were trying to pin all the blame on the pm and let all the reds off but now the truth is going to come out they are all sh*tting themselves

I wasn't aware that the bomber was Phayao Akhahad's daughter?

I was under the impression that the bomber was merely one of two key witnesses in Kamolkade Akhahad's murder... not a relative. I may be mistaken, but don't think so... you have a link?

[h90]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

It doesn't matter whether she was there or not. She's complaining that the investigation is being run by people who are either biased or culpable.

She's asking for an independent investigation without interference by the military.

It's a completely reasonable request.

What do you want to investigate.....the reds told that they'll burn down Bangkok, they told they'll fight with guns and shoot down helicopters, the men in black walked around with guns.....all on video.

There are non who wanted to demonstrate peaceful and didn't know about it, as it was told on the stage. And beside it they filled bottles with gasoline.....When they army came the first time without weapons solders got shot, specially the commanding officers.

What do you want to investigate?

[yimlitnoy]

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

What the yellows have to do with the present subject? We are talking abour Red shirts possible crimes in this investigation.

[yellowboat]

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

What the yellows have to do with the present subject? We are talking abour Red shirts possible crimes in this investigation.

They were in charge during this unfortunate event, and many would bet that it will get white washed because of the Army is bias towards the yellows and the Thai elite.

"PHAYAW Akkahad, one of the highest-profile relatives of those killed in the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters,"

Are saying the red-shirt protesters killed there own ? Is this based on fact or blind hate ?

[Pi Sek]

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

What the yellows have to do with the present subject? We are talking abour Red shirts possible crimes in this investigation.

They were in charge during this unfortunate event, and many would bet that it will get white washed because of the Army is bias towards the yellows and the Thai elite.

"PHAYAW Akkahad, one of the highest-profile relatives of those killed in the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters,"

Are saying the red-shirt protesters killed there own ? Is this based on fact or blind hate ?

No they weren't. The Yellow Shirt PAD's Chamlong was actually threatening a mass-protest against the Abhisit-led government, which was in charge during this unfortunate event, and the PAD's political party the NPP was very critical of Abhisit's tenure. But then I suppose you consider Abhisit to be a member of the PAD/NPP for some reason?

There is plenty of evidence to suggest the Red Shirt movement killed their own. (The one that stands out for me is the video of front-line protesters on 10 April asking each other why Seh Daeng's boys were shooting at them... but Wikileaks has some interesting stuff too.)

I do hope this all comes out in a public hearing, so we can actually have the true facts and all the mis-truths scrutinized. Anyone that thinks that either side is telling the absolute truth is deluded.

[rubl]

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

What the yellows have to do with the present subject? We are talking abour Red shirts possible crimes in this investigation.

They were in charge during this unfortunate event, and many would bet that it will get white washed because of the Army is bias towards the yellows and the Thai elite.

"PHAYAW Akkahad, one of the highest-profile relatives of those killed in the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters,"

Are saying the red-shirt protesters killed there own ? Is this based on fact or blind hate ?

Of course red-shirts didn't kill each other. The Men-in-Black were hired to cry havoc.

The 'yellows' as in PAD were no longer. After Sonthi got shot April 2009 he seems to have disbanded PAD. In 2010 we had multi-colour shirts, some being originally yellow shirts, but not all. Like any non-red-shirt also the multi-colour shirts got attacked, April 22nd or 24th, 2010. They were taunting the red-shirts behind their bamboo wall. Can't have that of course, so a total of five grenades were dropped on them, one Thai lady at the BTS killed, lots of wounded.

Of course, real peaceful protesters were not involved in this, don't know anything and their UDD leaders even less.

[seajae]

and the fact that her other daughter is a red shirt terrorist that has been caught out trying to plant bombs means nothing hey. The only ones trying to stir the pot are the ones that dont want the real truth to emerge, last thing they want is for the red terrorists to be shown to have been a major cause and possibly the ones doing much of the shooting. Easier to blame everyone else, seems they were quite happy when the ptp were running the investigation as they were trying to pin all the blame on the pm and let all the reds off but now the truth is going to come out they are all sh*tting themselves

I wasn't aware that the bomber was Phayao Akhahad's daughter?

I was under the impression that the bomber was merely one of two key witnesses in Kamolkade Akhahad's murder... not a relative. I may be mistaken, but don't think so... you have a link?

my mistake, she was a medic there, confused nurses with sisters for some reason but doesnt change it, the truth needs to come out and seeing she is a red bomber her testimony may well be all crap and she was possibly involved in the killing in more ways than we know or even the hiding of weapons. Still doesnt change anything, if reds were using the temple as a cover while shooting they are just as guilty of the killings

Edited April 4, 2015 by seajae

[Alwyn]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

you find comedy appropriate for this? You really are twisted

[phoenixdoglover]

A whole lot of argument above that totally misses the point.

The lady is asking for an impartial investigation.

You would think this would be a "no brainer" in that many of us come from countries where that standard is the aspiration (if not the consistent reality) for the criminal justice systems.

This is a pity. The problems in Thailand have root causes. I would argue the problems of political violence in Thailand are very much the result of a justice system that is biased and corrupted. When people believe they are not getting a fair deal, they look for "extra-judicial" solutions. (What is Article 44 but a huge extra-judicial action borne of mistrust?)

This pervasive injustice applies to all parties, and the red vs yellow argument is boring by comparison.

[mango66]

No one have told your daughter or anyone else to be there and make this mess to

other people and the city !

Blame your Red Masterminds and Dubai to send yours there,

or maybee even you did it,

than look fo the fault by yourselfe !!

[Linky]

No one have told your daughter or anyone else to be there and make this mess to

other people and the city !

Blame your Red Masterminds and Dubai to send yours there,

or maybee even you did it,

than look fo the fault by yourselfe !!

What has that to do with it. She isnt blaming anyone, she is simply asking for independent investigation.

[Chris Lawrence]

Fortunately the judges here on TV don't matter.

It does need to go to court. However what she is saying is that some of the evidence has been tampered with.

The General has also said that he would not attend court to answer questions? He had a big part in the events. Article 44 may offer that protection?

The woman is in a process of grieving the loss of her daughter. That I feel for.

[15Peter20]

The army has never illegally murdered anyone ever. We know this because there has never been a successful prosecution brought against any military party in the death of another during their duties.

Edited April 6, 2015 by 15Peter20

[ballpoint]

I am all for a totally independent inquiry into all the events of 2010. It would have to be held by an international team though, with complete and binding control on who they can call for evidence. As this is something that neither side would allow, I doubt that we'll ever get the truth about what happened. I would also respectfully ask this lady to consider which side has consistently pushed for a whitewashing amnesty of all crimes - whether "political" or criminal, occurring prior to, during, and post this event? In other words, just which side is prepared to trade off the unfortunate death of her daughter in order to gain amnesty for one man?

[halloween]

Yes, and the yellows had their own masked men guarding their sit ins. Neither side shied from the use of violence.

Do you understand "anachronism"? In 2014 the "yellows" had their own armed guards. Given the number of attacks against them, was that unreasonable?

[Fat Haggis]

Not unreasonable, just breaking the law, one of many.

[halloween]

Not unreasonable, just breaking the law, one of many.

And having the RTP to defend them, not to mention catch and prosecute their attackers, a bloody good idea.

[fasteddie]

As someone who was not even there, she has no idea what really happened.

Don't know if I can link to this, but it hits the nail on the head for these kind of articles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CWbGG2DJ0

What a crass statement. As a mother of one of the murdered innocents, I think we can certainly assume she knows a lot more about what happened than you do.