Matubhum Party leader Sonthi Boonyaratkalin said the national reconciliation bill he has put forward is not intended to whitewash anyone.
Gen Sonthi said this in an interview on Tuesday which he said on Monday would explain all about the bill.
On the suggestion that his filing of the bill just happened to coincide with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's recent mentioning of the need for reconciliation, Gen Sonthi said he had talked of this long before Thaksin did.
Asked whether the bill was intended to whitewash Thaksin, he said nobody would be cleared of any wrongdoing. Only those who committed political offences would be amnestied or pardoned. Offenders in some other cases would have to be brought back into the justice process, he added.
Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Gen Sonthi dismissed as groundless a suggestion that the bill would cause a renewed crisis in the country.
"I think the crisis is now over and we are on the way to reconciliation. I don't think it would lead to another round of conflict or eventually another coup.
"The military must think hard before doing that, because the situation today is totally different from the situation on the day I did that," he said.
Gen Sonthi, then the army chief, led the coup on Sept 19, 2006 that removed the Thaksin Shinawatra caretaker government. He has been accused of being the main cause of the subsequent conflict in the country.
To a suggestion that his role as the coup leader and now as proposer of a reconciliation bill was contradictory, Gen Sonthi said: "I stand to get nothing from doing this. This piece of legislation is not for myself. I only want the country to have peace."
Asked whether he thought reconciliation meant the payment of 7.7 million baht in compensation for a death, Gen Sonthi said: "I used to be a military commander. I felt pain every time I lost a subordinate. Money cannot compensate for the loss. But in this situation remedies are the best option. It's better than doing nothing."