11 June 2010 / ,
Thailand’s prime minister appealed to the country on Thursday to join a reconciliation effort aimed at mending political divisions and paving the way for elections after bloody anti-government protests.
Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy saw its latest bout of political convulsion from March to May when protesters occupied two parts of Bangkok including an affluent shopping district, demanding the government call snap polls. The rallies spiraled into clashes between soldiers and shadowy gunmen when troops moved in to dislodge the protesters, who broadly support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. In all, 89 people were killed and more than 1,800 wounded. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva first floated the reconciliation plan in early May at the height of the crisis but most protest leaders rejected it as inadequate. He stressed the importance of pushing forward the plan in a televised address on Thursday. “Hatred, vengeance and anger cannot build a future for Thailand and our posterity, it is time for us to reconcile to reform Thailand,” Abhisit said. But few expect a quick end to an entrenched conflict that some analysts see as pitting an old military- and royalist-linked establishment against a new, economically powerful class represented by former telcoms tycoon Thaksin.
