Auf dem Wege zur nationalen Versöhnung gibt es etwas Positives zu vermelden. Ganz langsam beginnt selbst die Nation damit, ab und an, kritische Texte zu bringen.
Da gab's am Freitag im Rahmen des Institute for Democratic Studies and Development - welches Thaksin nahesteht - eine Diskussion über den sog. crowd dispersal während des letzten Songkran.
Und dennoch bringt man diesen Bericht auf der Titelseite. Da war lange Zeit auch in D nicht so einfach, wenn z.B. die Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung eine Tagung für die CDU oder die Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung eine Tagung für die SPD ausgerichtet hatte. Es gehörte zur Entwicklung einer minimalen Zuhörbereitschaft - als Voraussetzung für das Funktionieren von Demokratien - in D, die jeweiligen Berichte der "anderen Seite" nicht sofort als "Ausgeburt des Teufels" zu verdammen, sondern einfach einmal zur Kenntnis zu nehmen.
Gleiches versucht man nun auch in Thailand.
Hier der Bericht der Nation:
"A symposium has condemned the use of soldiers in suppressing the Songkran red-shirt riot.
Sirote Klampaiboon told Friday's discussion by the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra Institute for Democratic Studies and Development that the military crackdown on rioters of the pro-Thaksin Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship on April 13 and 14 had been excessive and a bad precedent for Thai society.
"The government used the violence around the main protest sites as an excuse to pressure the protesters at Government House to end their protest ... This was a serious political mistake," said the independent political scientist. "What did the protesters at Government House do wrong? They were unarmed."
Sirote said the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration could not shirk responsibility for "excessive force" by bringing out soldiers with M-16 and Uzi rifles and humvees. He said that even if blank bullets had been used, the weapons had had a real intimidating effect on the largely peaceful crowd.
Sirote warned that the government was dangerously relying on the military to maintain its power and would soon find itself unable to control that military. Once the military is let out, it is hard to contain, he said.
"What government has relied on the military and not ended up with the military sitting on its neck?" he asked, adding that the government had now become part of the political feud with the protesters, whom it regarded as its enemy.
Another speaker, television anchorman ML Nattakorn Devakul, said the media had tried to justify the crackdown by labelling the red-shirt protesters a mob funded by Thaksin.
"Most people who followed the mainstream media think some force [by the military] is alright and the red shirts floating dead in the Chao Phaya are no big deal, because the overall picture is that the reds have been deligitimised." He was referring to two deaths that the authorities insist were unrelated to the crackdown.
Police General Achirawit Suphanpesat, deputy police chief under the Thaksin government, said it went against international standards to have soldiers instead of riot police clear up the protesters. "It's shameful in the eyes of the world," he said. He claimed the mainstream Thai media had censored a lot of disturbing footage from being aired or reported."
Die Kernaussagen der 3 Hauptreferenten wird vielen nicht gefallen - als ob es darauf ankommen würde.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/26/politics/politics_30101325.php