Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
If the situation continues down the current path, with a unilateral reconciliation process, no fixed date for elections, and little genuine effort to address the grievances of urban and rural poor, there is likely to be a deepened political divide and renewed violence, exacerbated by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s continuing role.
(...more)Thailand needs open dialogue between all stakeholders to solve the country’s “phenomenal” political polarisation, conflict resolution facilitator Adam Kahane says.
(...more)Cambodia’s prime minister said Thursday he will ask United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help mediate talks he is proposing to help settle a border dispute with neighboring Thailand…
Thailand opposes the idea as unnecessary because a 2000 agreement between the two countries provides the framework for a solution.
(...more)You can’t solve a national controversy by hosting a television show – not even one that lasts three hours. But Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva did make that attempt last Sunday. And the outcome: The show did get good ratings, and a rally on the subject dispersed a few hours later.
No, the issue hasn’t been settled. But the fact that Abhisit sat down with his critics on the Preah Vihear temple controversy for a live programme allowed him to once again claim that no other prime minister had done this before…
The four members who represented the “Thai Patriots’ Alliance” on the show should also be commended for their no-nonsense, well-argued presentations. There were no emotional outbursts, there was no exchange of vitriolic rhetoric.
(...more)The situation along Thai-Cambodian border became more tense Wednesday as villagers avoided farming at border areas, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported Wednesday.
(...more)Thailand’s “yellow shirts” have agreed to shift their rally venue from the Government House to the Kilawes Stadium in central Bangkok on Saturday, the Thai News Agency (TNA) reported quoting Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as saying Friday.
The decision to stage the rally at the Kilawes Stadium of the Thailand-Japan Youth Center in the Din Daeng area was made after an over two-hour meeting between Abhisit and representatives of the “yellow shirts” network.
The “yellow shirts” rally is aimed to demand the government to revoke the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on boundary demarcation signed with Cambodia in 2000.
(...more)After taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama decided to use Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) as his Asian experiment in reversing Bush administration policy. As it did with Iran and Sudan, the Obama administration engaged with Myanmar’s junta, although it did not push to end sanctions Congress passed in the late 1990s in response to massive human rights abuses. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has made two trips to Myanmar over the past year to try to spur dialogue about critical issues like the upcoming national elections, which will probably take place in late fall. They would be Myanmar’s first since the 1990 polls won by the party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, though the military never allowed that party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to take its seats.
Engagement has delivered some results. A willingness to talk with the regime in Myanmar has signaled to the other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that Washington is committed to upgrading relations with Southeast Asia.
(...more)BANGKOK — Thailand must immediately lift emergency rule imposed during the recent mass opposition protests and hold an election as soon as possible for national reconciliation, a leading think-tank said Monday.
The emergency decree was invoked across about a third of the country during the “Red Shirt” rallies in Bangkok that sparked clashes leaving 90 people dead, ending with an army crackdown on May 19 and a subsequent rampage by protesters.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said the emergency law, which has handed sweeping powers to the police and military, had empowered authorities to stifle the anti-government movement and should be lifted at once.
“While the Red Shirts have no opportunity for open and peaceful expression because of draconian laws, their legitimate frustrations are being forced underground and possibly towards illegal and violent actions,” ICG said.
(...more)A recent seminar by the Lek-Prapai Viriyapant Foundation unravels the living conflict in southern Thailand and how they play a part in society’s round-the-clock turmoil…
(...more)That the military would succeed in defeating the UDD, also known as the “red shirts”, and in securing the city space occupied by many who came from rural Thailand was never in doubt. In fact, some from within the security community might regard this operation as a success given the resulted “low” number of casualties. What certainly is , however, is how the military solution chosen by the government and violent methods incorporated by some UDD leadership will shape the form of continuing political conflict in this society.
(...more)There is no question that Thaksin is culpable for using his wealth and influence to support the red shirts not only for peaceful demonstrations but also for the use of violence.
However, if the Abhisit government and others involved in promoting reconciliation continue to focus solely on Thaksin as the only cause of the conflict, they will be making a strategic mistake. The path to reconciliation will soon lead to a dead end, and further conflict will ensue.
(...more)Local and international human rights activists are calling for the urgent establishment of an independent panel to investigate the deadly clashes between security forces and red shirt anti-government protesters…
Nimit Tienudom, from the No Civil War Group, said… people on all sides of the political divide – including red shirts, military officers and peace advocates – should contribute to the investigation to ensure impartiality…
(...more)Wednesday’s events threw two key facts about Thailand into sharp relief. First, because the Thai economy is so integrated with the world, the country’s internal conflicts are played out in the full glare of international publicity, and the economy will be badly burned too. Second, a lot of ordinary, reasonable people are very angry about what has happened to the political system. If they are not soothed by real changes, then the frustrations will keep spilling into violence of one sort or another. Thailand needs to bring its politics into line with its economy….
Several recent opinion surveys have shown that the overwhelming majority of Thais believe a fair judicial system, open press and electoral democracy are the best tools for resolving social conflict. …
(...more)First-hand accounts and Twitter updates from journalists on the ground in Thailand this week have given an insight into the level of violence faced by citizens and journalists reporting ongoing clashes between the red-shirt anti-government protestors and the Thai military.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least eight journalists have been shot, two fatally, while covering the unrest in Bangkok. Freelance Italian photojournalist Fabio Polenghi was killed on Wednesday – another casualty following the death of Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto on 10 April.
Those journalists reported to have been injured include Dutch freelancer Michael Maas; the Independent’s Andrew Buncombe, and freelance Canadian writer and photographer, Chandler Vandergrift.
“Covering civil unrest in Thailand is always dangerous, but for months, neither side in the political turmoil has been willing to address ways of allowing journalists to do their jobs without fear of being killed or injured,” says Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, on the group’s website.
(...more)Clearing demonstrators from the streets using military force is messy enough, but in a major political conflict like Thailand’s, the sweeping-out operation is really the easy part.
Despite almost reaching a negotiated settlement with the protesters last week, the Thai authorities have ordered security forces to overrun the main redshirt encampments in central Bangkok, arresting major leaders and apparently shooting dead at least four people, including an Italian journalist, in a continuation of ham-fisted military tactics already condemned by Amnesty International.
(...more)BaNGKOK – An intervention of religious leaders could help provide a peaceful solution in Thailand before the possible “catastrophe” of a civil war, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand has said.
Archbishop Louis Chamniern of Thare and Nonseng told Fides news agency that the leaders of different religious communities in the country, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims, have “the confidence, credibility, and esteem of the population that today could be very useful in resolving the deadlock and avoiding more violence.”
(...more)NEW YORK – The Thai government should immediately revoke the designation of neighborhood areas as “live fire zones” that might be used to justify the unnecessary and unlawful use of lethal force, Human Rights Watch said today….
(...more)For those of us and foreigners who still cling to the myth that Thais are non-violent – cling no further.
The gruesome killing of 25 people on April 10 as a result of a night-time military crackdown on the red-shirt protesters says a lot about how we value life and how peaceful we are…
(...more)AN END could finally be in sight to Thailand’s political crisis, with the warring parties understood to be close to reaching a deal that would result in the anti-government red shirts abandoning their central Bangkok protests after nearly two months.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has, for the first time, offered a firm date for elections to resolve the political impasse that has resulted in 27 people being killed and more than 1000 injured on the capital’s streets.
(...more)BANGKOK – Thailand’s anti-government ‘Red Shirt’ United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) on Tuesday accepted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s road map for national reconciliation but want the government to announce a specific date for dissolving the Lower House of Parliament.
While a preliminary understanding has been reached, the protesters will not disperse until they see details of Mr Abhisit’s road map. They said Mr Abhisit does not have the authority to see an election date, but urged him to propose a timetable for dissolving Parliament.
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