Mark MacKinnon
Beijing — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Published on Wednesday, May. 26, 2010 11:13AM EDT Last updated on Friday, May. 28, 2010 5:52AM EDT
His followers have been ousted from the streets of Bangkok and he now faces charges of terrorism that could lead to the death penalty, but Thailand’s fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra says the Red Shirt struggle against the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is not over, and warns it could get more violent yet.
In a telephone call to The Globe and Mail placed from an unknown location, Mr. Thaksin said “reconciliation feels very far away” in Thailand after a military crackdown that brought an end to more than two months of rolling anti-government protests by the Red Shirts that had paralyzed the centre of Bangkok.
He recalled that when Red Shirt leaders announced their intention to surrender after the military moved in last Wednesday, they were jeered by many of the protesters who had been sleeping in the streets for weeks in the effort to bring down Mr. Abhisit’s government and force new elections. “The protesters, they were very angry. They were ready to die because they feel the injustice against them. They want to fight,” Mr. Thaksin said, in some of his first comments since those events. “Those who survived are very angry. It’s not a good sign. I am very worried. … I worry about the anger and I worry the government has cornered them instead of talking to them.”
Mr. Thaksin accused the government – which he repeatedly described as a junta – of hunting down his supporters and detaining them without charge even after they had ceased their protest and returned home. He said he was “ready to compromise,” but charged that the government was more interested in persecuting its political opponents than in bringing the deadly political crisis to a close.
“Those who survived are being hunted by the government. They are innocent people who are being hunted and detained. I’m more worried about that than myself,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is reconciliation in the country. The government uses the word reconciliation, then creates more conflict.”
Mr. Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon who became one of the few Thai prime ministers to finish a full term and then win re-election, is easily the most controversial figure in the country. Beloved in the countryside as the man who introduced effective rural development programs and cheap universal health care before he was ousted in a 2006 military coup, he is equally reviled by Bangkok’s university-educated elite, who remember him as a corrupt and authoritarian leader who curbed press freedoms and launched a “war on drugs” in the south of the country that appalled human rights groups and left more than 2,000 people dead.
“Thaksin has become in their eyes the devil incarnate – a demon-like figure very comparable to the witches in traditional societies who are seen as the causes of all misfortunes and maladies,” columnist Charles Keyes wrote in Wednesday’s edition of the Bangkok Post newspaper.
Though many Red Shirt protesters said their fight was more about social justice than about Mr. Thaksin’s case, he was nonetheless an icon to many who took to the streets, and his image was popular on red T-shirts and placards.
The Thai government accuses Mr. Thaksin of having financed and directed the Red Shirt protests from abroad. It also accuses him of having been in contact with hard-line elements that stockpiled weapons used in sporadic violence that killed at least 88 people and injured nearly 2,000 more. The new terrorism charge could carry the death sentence if Mr. Thaksin is convicted.
Mr. Thaksin said during the interview that he has always insisted his followers stick to non-violent tactics in their fight to bring down the government. However, he warned that “resentful people will become guerrillas” following the military crackdown, which saw soldiers use live ammunition against hard-core Red Shirts, who fought back with slingshots, Molotov cocktails and at least a few firearms.
He dismissed the terrorism charges levelled against him this week by Thailand’s criminal court as ridiculous, and said he wasn’t worried about being extradited. “Most countries feel these are very stupid allegations,” he said. “How can a former prime minister, who won landslides [in 2001 and 2006 elections], become a terrorist? Why would any leader want to hurt his own country?”
In Bangkok, which remains under nightly curfews to prevent new violence, Mr. Thaksin’s lawyers filed an appeal Wednesday against the terrorism warrant, saying other Red Shirt leaders would testify that Mr. Thaksin never encouraged violence. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said the government was considering suing Mr. Thaksin and others to recover some of the $3-billion in damage done to the economy by the protests, which saw the commercial centre of Bangkok paralyzed for weeks on end and major shopping malls and banks lit ablaze by protesters as they clashed with advancing soldiers.
Speaking to The Globe and Mail this week, Mr. Korn alleged that Mr. Thaksin had mobilized Red Shirt supporters in the streets with a “big lie” – telling them the protest was about democracy and equality when in fact they were being used as pawns in a struggle for political power.
Despite having been convicted in absentia on corruption charges two years ago, the 60-year-old Mr. Thaksin has been able to move around the world with surprising freedom. He has spent much of his time in Dubai, but reportedly also has passports issued by Nicaragua, Montenegro and other countries. The Thai government said Wednesday it hoped foreign governments would act on the new warrant once it was distributed via Interpol.
Asked where he was calling from, Mr. Thaksin would only say he was “in Europe.” Media reports have placed him in France in recent days. Children could be heard shouting in the background during the call. Despite rumours swirling in Thailand that he is in ill health, or possibly dead, Mr. Thaksin’s voice sounded strong and he even made light of the country’s grim situation at one point, joking that Mr. Abhisit should instead be called Mr. Opposite for repeatedly going back on his word.
Mr. Thaksin said he won’t be returning to Thailand unless the political situation there changes dramatically. He said recent events had revealed that Mr. Abhisit’s government, which came to power through a parliamentary vote after two of Mr. Thaksin’s allies were ousted from office by controversial court rulings, was in fact a junta run by the military.
Mr. Thaksin said he believed his enemies would try to kill him if he returned to Thailand. “During my premiership, they tried to assassinate me four times,” he said. “If I go back now, they will definitely try to assassinate me. All my supporters say, ‘Please, don’t come back now. They will kill you.’ ”
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