TPM - June 2012

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(seemingly rather successful) by Thaksin to repair his relationship with redshirt supporters after damaged done by his remarks in a 19 May address.

Investigation On 18 June, the southern Bangkok criminal court heard testimony from witnesses and investigators probing the deaths occurred at the temple of Pathum Wanaram on May 2010. During the hearing, investigators from the police confirmed that five of the six people killed at Wat Pathum Wanaram during the crackdown were shot with bullets normally used by military forces and that the victims were shot from an elevated position. The six people killed that day were Suwan Sriraksa, 30, a farmer; Atthachai Chumchan, 28, a law school graduate; Mongkol Khemthong, 36, a rescue worker; Rop Suksathit, 66, a hired driver; Kamonkade Akkahad, 25, a volunteer nurse; and Akkharadej Khankaew, 22, a hired hand. Pol Col Suebsak Pansura, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's Division 6 and his team had interrogated soldiers based at the skytrain station who said men in black had fired at them from the ground up toward the skytrain track. But ballistics tests showed no bullets had been fired from ground level at the victims in the temple. The army denied it had fired the bullets, arguing that the bullets and firearms used to kill the people in the temple had been stolen during the riots, especially on April 10, 2010, when 12 Tavor rifles, 700 .223 calibre bullets, 35 shotguns and 1,152 rubber bullets were stolen from soldiers at Phra Pinklao Bridge. (Bangkok Post, 21.06.12) Institutional crisis: the charter change The month opened up with the attempt to pass four bills on reconciliation. In the closing days of May, scenes of violence against the President of the Parliament, Somsak Kiatsuranont, by opposition MPs, shocked Thailand. Opposition MPs approached threateningly and surrounded the Speaker in parliament, and one MP attempted (not particularly forcefully) to lead the Speaker from his chair and out of the chamber. MPs threw objects and sarcastically raised Nazi salutes. On at least one occasion, when the Speaker was not in the chamber, a Democrat MP tried to steal the Speakerâ€&#x;s chair and take it out of the chamber. Amidst the uproar, yellow shirts surrounded parliament on May 30-31. Somsak finally declared the postponement of the reconciliation bills until next parliamentary session. Red-shirt MPs in the Pheua Thai party were reportedly disappointed with the decision of postponement. Many red shirts considered the coming out of the PAD to oppose the deliberation of the reconciliation bills in parliament “a signal for a power outside parliament to topple the governmentâ€? (Nattawut Saikuea, Bangkok Post, June 1, 2012) At a press conference held by the UDD, Jatuporn Promparn claimed that the yellow-shirts planned to create conditions for a coup, as happened on Sep 19, 2006. On 5 June, Pheu Thai MP Korkaew Pikulthong claimed that a person whose name starts with the initial "S" is lobbying parties in the coalition government and senators to support a plot to topple the government (Bangkok Post, 6/06/12). In the event of a coup, red-shirts in all provinces must travel to Bangkok and gather at Democracy Monument, Jatuporn said. He told the red-shirts to wait


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