We don't need the ICC's help

We don't need the ICC's help

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul has broken both the spirit and the letter of international relations in his proposal to let the International Criminal Court (ICC) take charge of investigating the 2010 political violence in Bangkok. His advice to the government to give jurisdiction to the ICC violates the underpinnings of Thai law, including the constitution.

The most charitable interpretation of Mr Surapong's message is that he has been taken in by the most radical members of the red shirts. As a member of the government, Mr Surapong is putting extremely bad politics ahead of the country.

The idea of calling on the ICC came from extremists in the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). Their foreign lobbyist and legal advisor, Robert Amsterdam, actually sent a citizen's petition to the ICC last year. The dream of these radical red shirts is that the ICC will arrest ex-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and imprison him for life for crimes against humanity.

Mr Amsterdam, who was once the foreign legal representative of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has provided ridiculous advice to his UDD clients.

The ICC has no right, nor even the intention, to operate in a country where the law functions and citizens have legal recourse.

It is offensive to most Thais even to suggest that the ICC is somehow superior to Thai justice, let alone for the country to hand over jurisdiction to a foreign court.

Mr Surapong apparently has been harbouring this notion of handing over Mr Abhisit to a foreign tribunal for a while. Last week, he held what seemed to be a routine meeting with Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of war crimes for the ICC.

Ms Fatou never has raised the preposterous notion of prosecuting Mr Abhisit. But Mr Surapong did, and then told the media he would be making the same proposal to the government.

This is not what the ICC does, nor what it was designed to do.

Let's try a word association test. What name and event should follow this list? Joseph Kony, wanted for abducting children to become sex slaves and conducting war against Uganda; Omar al-Bashir, under indictment for attempted genocide of fellow Sudanese in Darfur; Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic of Serbia, on trial for war atrocities, including the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

If Mr Surapong's so-called logic prevails, the next name and charge is Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, imprisoned for ordering war crimes by the country's security forces in 2010.

This is a horrifying charge by the nation's foreign minister. It is humourless and humiliating. To equate the events in 2010 on Bangkok's streets to the slaughter of tens of thousands of defenceless people is grotesque. Mr Surapong should be criticising and ridiculing this type of comparison. At best, it is overwrought exaggeration. In reality, though, it is a slanderous misrepresentation.

One need not be a supporter of Mr Abhisit to see the lunacy of such an invitation. It is difficult to choose which is worse _ giving legal jurisdiction to a foreign court, or putting the former prime minister alongside such offenders of decency as Bashir and Karadzic.

Mr Surapong should drop this proposal quickly, before the country drops its respect for him.

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