Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjjajiva Vows to Promptly Restore Peace and Order to the Thai Society

ANGKOK, 6 April 2010 (NNT)-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva states his disappointment with the solving of the political rally impasse and vows to work devotedly to restore peace and order to the Thai society as soon as possible.

Speaking from the 11th Infantry Regiment, flanked by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan this afternoon, the Prime Minister confirmed that he and all responsible persons in the Center for the Administration of Peace and Order, CAPO, had been closely following up on the situation and had worked tirelessly to seek the way out and restore peace and order to the Thai society.

He pointed out that the Government had worked to clearly show that the rallies were held beyond the demonstrators’ constitutional rights, and had propagated the fact to the demonstrators to a certain extent.

With the verdict made by the Civil Court, CAPO had sent in military and police officers to enforce the law, according to the defined steps and international practices. The reinforcement was made to start the information campaign for demonstrators to realize the unlawfulness of the rally. At the same time, arrest warrants had been requested from the court for the speakers on stage, as the inciters of an unlawful rally. In this case, police officers were told that they could arrest law violators on the spot, without arrest warrants. Only when they wanted to arrest those people afterwards, that the court procedure would be required, thus the arrest warrants were not issued. Police were told to summon those violators instead, except when it was possible to arrest them on the spot.

The Prime Minister cited that core leaders of protesters had distorted the court verdict to mislead demonstrators that the rallies were lawful, and that authorities were prepared to break up the rally with force. These were repeated by the UDD television network, inciting more demonstrators to join the rally, making law enforcement difficult.

The Prime Minister confirmed that CAPO, the Government and himself remained committed to enforce the law and solve the problems. He was well aware of the dissatisfaction on the part of the general public who wanted to see the end to the illegal protest. He admitted that he was also disappointed with the solving of the tense situation, but was not discouraged in working towards the goal of restoring normalcy to the country as soon as possible.

On his part, the Prime Minister would curtail his visit to Vietnam, in order to stay in touch with the situation at home. Should the problem remain up to 10 April, he would cancel his trip to Washington D.C. to take part in the Nuclear Security Summit.

The Prime Minister said he remained hopeful that the Thai people would be able to celebrate Songkran normally. He and all officials would do their best to restore peace and order to the Thai society.