Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda had nothing to do with the Sept 19, 2006 coup that overthrew the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, Maj-Gen Sanan Kachornprasart said on Thursday.
Maj-Gen Sanan, chief adviser of the Chartthaipattana Party, was responding to questions arising from one of his questions to Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, chairman of the House committee on national reconciliation, during a reconciliation study forum held by the King Prajadhipok's Institute on Wednesday.
He based this opinion on information that he had received.
Maj-Gen Sanan had asked Gen Sonthi who was the actual mastermind behind the coup.
Gen Sonthi, then army chief, was chairman of the Council for National Security (CNS), that staged the Sept 19, 2006 coup. He refused to answer the question, saying he would take that information with him to the grave and that answering it would not serve the best interests of the country and reconciliation.
Maj-Gen Sanan said he raised the question with the sincere intention of wanting people throughout the country to know the answer. Since the the Sept 19 coup the country had been plagued with violence.
The people believed from the beginning that there were some other people behind the coup.
He thought it was now time for Gen Sonthi to speak out whether there was anyone else behind it. Both Thaksin and the red shirts believed Gen Sonthi received an order to stage the coup.
This belief led a group of red shirts to lay siege to Gen Prem's Si Sao Theves residence and the matter escalated to affect a high institution, he said.
Maj-Gen Sanan said for as long as Gen Sonthi did not speak the truths, reconciliation would never get started.
People in society would continue to question why Gen Sonthi, himself the coup maker, is now chairman of the House committee for reconciliation and wonder what was going on.
Not only the people in general believed the high institution was involved in the coup, even some MPs of his party also held the same belief.
He said the three questions he raised were simple ones. If he were Gen Sonthi, he would not hesitate to answer them to clear the people's suspicion, he added.
Maj-Gen Sanan said although Gen Sonthi did not answer his questions, he had learned from his own intelligence that the high institution and members of the elite were not involved in the Sept 19 coup.
Had he not obtained clear information he would not dare to raise the questions with Gen Sonthi at a public place.
The information he had obtained could provide answers to the three questions, Maj-Gen Sanan said.
To the question who were behind the coup, the answer is nobody.
To the question whether it was Gen Prem who lead Gen Sonthi and his team to have an audience with His Majesty the King after the coup and whether Gen Prem was aware there would be a coup, the answer is "no." Gen Prem knew nothing about the coup plot.
"To the third question whether he met Gen Prem before the coup and whether after the coup Gen Prem asked him twice, via Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit (a former supreme commander), to speak out the truths concerning the coup, I also have the answer.
"Although Gen Sonthi did not answer, the intelligence I got revealed that Gen Prem really did that through Gen Mongkol," Maj-Gen Sanan said.
The Chartthaipattana chief adiviser said he believed the situation in the country would improve once Gen Sonthi spoke out the truths.