JAPAN: Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra seeks international involvement to Thai investigation: lawyer said

Record ID: 465432

  • Title: JAPAN: Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra seeks international involvement to Thai investigation: lawyer said
  • Date: 23rd June 2010
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JUNE 22, 2010) (REUTERS) ROBERT AMSTERDAM, LAWYER REPRESENTING THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, TAKING SEAT FOR INTERVIEW AMSTERDAM'S HANDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT AMSTERDAM, LAWYER REPRESENTING THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, SAYING: "Clearly, we are urging an international investigation." AMSTERDAM LISTENING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT AMSTERDAM, LAWYER REPRESENTING THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, SAYING: "We need to see if the government is going to investigate their conduct as well as that of the demonstrators during this period in a fair, impartial, independent way with international involvement." MORE OF AMSTERDAM LISTENING TO REPORTER'S QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT AMSTERDAM, LAWYER REPRESENTING THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, SAYING: "You can't fight the charges if you were in a country without a rule of law." AMSTERDAM TALKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT AMSTERDAM, LAWYER REPRESENTING THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, SAYING: "We cannot make the mistake of assuming that the way to maintain stability in Thailand is through supporting the defacto government, because that's actually a road to instability." MORE OF AMSTERDAM TALKING WITH REPORTER
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA93IBJCXQR2X13E10DG2M453RL
  • Story Text: Exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is demanding an international input in the investigation of the recent bloody anti-government protests in Bangkok, a lawyer representing him said on Tuesday (June 22).
    The political riots in April and May in which 90 people were killed were the worst in the country's modern history and hit growth, although recent data showed Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy remained buoyant.
    The protesters were mainly drawn from the ranks of supporters of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, and the Thai government named an ex-attorney general this month to investigate the riots in the face of opposition's rejection.
    "Clearly, we are urging an international investigation," Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer representing Thaksin, told Reuters in an interview in Tokyo.
    "We need to see if the government is going to investigate their conduct as well as that of the demonstrators during this period in a fair, impartial, independent way with international involvement," he said.
    Thaksin, a telecommunications billionaire who won widespread support among the rural and urban poor with populist policies, has been convicted of graft after he was ousted in a bloodless coup and has lived in self-exile since 2008.
    He has denied organising the protests in what critics saw as a bid to regain power.
    While the Thai government has accused Thaksin of "acts of terrorism" for funding the protests and inciting violence, Amsterdam called the charges as "surreal" and said the wise course for the former prime minister would be to stay abroad.
    "You can't fight the charges if you were in a country without a rule of law," he said, without saying where Thaksin currently is, citing security concerns. The former premier has spent his exile largely in Dubai.
    Amsterdam, in Tokyo to meet with Japanese lawmakers and the media, said Japan, Asia's biggest economy and the biggest foreign investor to Thailand, should not assume that stability can be kept in Thailand through supporting the current government.
    "We cannot make the mistake of assuming that the way to maintain stability in Thailand is through supporting the defacto government, because that's actually a road to instability," he said.
    Abhisit has reassured foreign investors this month that his government would do its best to protect their investments and that it would strive to for national reconciliation.
    Japanese investors to Thailand pledged 33 billion baht (1.02 billion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of 2010, about 40 percent of the total 86.3 billion baht that foreign investors pledged, data from the Board of Investment showed.
    That total amount rose 108 percent from the year before, despite fears over Thailand's instability and growth prospects.
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