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Thai protest leader ready to negotiate
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The leader of Thailand’s anti-government protest movement said yesterday he is willing to negotiate to end the country’s political crisis, if the prime minister is willing to talk with him live, one-to-one, on every national television station.
The offer by Suthep Thaugsuban came as increasing violence associated with his group’s months-long protest has prompted fresh calls for negotiations.
Protesters want Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign to make way for an unelected interim government to institute reforms.
Yingluck, who is in northern Thailand, responded that her government wants negotiations, but that protesters must stop blocking elections and other constitutional processes.
Suthep’s offer was an evident ploy to offset criticism of his long-standing position that his movement would refuse negotiations, even as the government said it was open to them.
He placed several other conditions on talks. These included a refusal to discuss an amnesty for Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile to avoid serving a two-year jail term for a 2008 corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated.
“The most important thing that everyone wants is the end of the protests and for the election to carry on,” Yingluck told reporters in her hometown of Chiang Mai.
She deferred the question of whether she was willing to hold live televised talks
Elections held this month were disrupted by protesters and remain incomplete.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s anti-graft commission yesterday summoned Yingluck to hear charges of negligence for allegedly mishandling a government rice subsidy program.
Violence has worsened recently, with shootings and grenade attacks. Twenty-two people have died with hundreds injured since November.
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