(SEAPA/IFEX) – The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemns the latest violent protest against an academic seminar as an act of “hooliganism” that threatens to undermine the right to free expression and to free assembly, rights that apply to all regardless of political perspective. “We are gravely concerned that this pattern of violence has increasingly […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemns the latest violent protest against an academic seminar as an act of “hooliganism” that threatens to undermine the right to free expression and to free assembly, rights that apply to all regardless of political perspective.
“We are gravely concerned that this pattern of violence has increasingly been employed as a political tool to silence critics of the government, especially those who continue to speak against care-taker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra”, stated SEAPA.
On 23 April 2006, several hundred protesters, allegedly led by lawmakers of the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT), stormed the building of Rajabhat Udonthani University in Thailand’s northeastern province of Udonthani and forced a seminar, focusing on the “Thaksin Crisis”, to be called off before it began.
According to local press reports, the protesters broke through a police blockade and entered the building, cutting electricity to the seminar room in an apparent attempt to disrupt the seminar, and harassing two guest speakers: spokesman for anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), Suriyasai Katasila, and a key member of the PAD, Chaiwat Sinsuwong.
The reports said the protesters hurled stones, bottles and shoes at Suriyasa and Chaiwat as they tried to escape out from the building. The two speakers and others were trapped inside the building for nine hours before police successfully negotiated the protesters’ dispersal.
Suriyasai and Chaiwat, who sustained injuries during the incident, have already filed charges against the protesters and accused two lawmakers of TRT of instigating the violence. They claimed to have video tapes showing the two politicians inciting the mob.
SEAPA urged the government to take speedy action to bring those responsible to justice and to prevent a recurrence. “The government is to be blamed if this violent trend continues unabated,” said the statement.
Similar violence occurred during the months of political tension between the government and PAD-led civil groups seeking to topple Thaksin and to boycott the 2 April general elections called by the government.
These included: the disruption of an opposition rally in Chiang Mai; the siege of the headquarters of The Nation Multi Media Group, publisher of the local daily “Kom Chad Luek”; and an attack on the office of Manager Media Group, the publisher of the local daily “Manager Daily”.
In a related incident on 4 April, a reporter of the local daily “Matichon” in Saraburi province was physically assaulted by two teenagers who were believed to have been hired by opponents of the PAD.
Kamolrat Suphanok was attacked while he was walking to a parking lot after he had finished observing the ballot counting near the meeting hall of the Provincial Administrative Organization. Komolrat reported on an anti-Thaksin rally organized by PAD on 30 March.
This increasing violence against media and opposition groups is believed to have been engineered by supporters of the ruling TRT party in order to discourage the media from reporting on the anti-Thaksin political movement and to prevent the movement from gaining influence across the country.
