Bangkok: Thailand`s pro-government red-shirt
people have voiced their support for national reconciliation,
saying that they will be also pushing for a royal pardon for
convicted ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Representing the red-shirt people, Veerakan Musikapong, a
former leader of the red-clad National United Front of
Democracy for Dictatorship (UDD), echoed the national
reconciliation support when extending his best wishes to
former Thai deputy prime minister Major General Sanan
Kajornprasart, who is now chief advisor of the coalition
Chartthaipattana, for the latter`s 76th birthday yesterday.
Veerakan said that the red-shirts will continue seeking
progress for his group`s initiation, since 2009, to submit an
amnesty petition for Thaksin to His Majesty King Bhimibol
Adulyadej, insisting that the move is not aimed to trouble or
pressure the government.
Veerakan acknowledged that the red-shirts` move to seek
the royal pardon for Thaksin, which has been backed by some
three million signatures of people, is considered rational, as
Thaksin`s ex-wife, Khunying Pojaman na Pombejra has returned a
piece of land in Bangkok`s Ratchadaphisek area she earlier
purchased from the Financial Institutions Development Fund
(FIDF) in an allegedly-underpriced deal to the government and
has received the drawn-back fund.
The former UDD chair claimed that, as the land deal has
been canceled, Thaksin should not be jailed. The exiled
ex-Thai premier was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment in
2008 for abusing his political power by giving the green light
for his then wife to purchase the underpriced land plot.
Veerakan stressed that the red-shirts will, however, heed
His Majesty the King`s decision on the issue.
PTI
