Thai protest probe head won’t assign blame 06/12/2010

Thai protest probe head won’t assign blame

06/12/2010 BANGKOK - The head of a government-commissioned probe into deaths during Thailand’s “Red Shirt” street protests on Friday promised an unbiased investigation but said his aim was not to establish responsibility. “I am always impartial,” said Kanit Nanakorn, a former attorney general asked by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to lead an independent inquiry into the loss of 90 lives during clashes between armed troops and demonstrators. He said, however, that the probe “is not aimed at finding who should be held responsible and to punish, but to establish the facts and educate Thai society.” Kanit also refused to set a timeframe for finishing the investigation, saying it might not be completed by the next election, due by the end of 2011 at the latest. The main opposition party has said Kanit is too close to the government, warning of a likely “whitewash.” The Reds’ rally, broken up on May 19 in an army crackdown on their vast camp in the heart of Bangkok, sparked outbreaks of violence that  have left 90 people dead, including two foreign journalists, and nearly 1,900 injured. The government has defended the use of armed troops, saying they were only authorized to fire live ammunition as warning shots, in self-defense or against “terrorists” whom it has accused of inciting the unrest. Abhisit has said he wants somebody who is sympathetic to the Red Shirts in the panel to make sure all sides can be confident of its neutrality.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100612hed4.html

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