Govt red-shirts to table own amnesty

Govt red-shirts to table own amnesty

Red-shirt MPs of the ruling Pheu Thai Party will table their own version of an amnesty bill before parliament in two weeks.

The group made the decision after a Pheu Thai meeting yesterday refused to discuss the amnesty issue.

Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said the meeting agreed there were differing opinions on an amnesty law. The party should listen to the views of coalition parties and the general public first.

The party will hold a meeting on the proposed amnesty on March 10, Mr Prompong said.

Samut Prakan MP Worachai Hema, a red-shirt core leader, said the party's red-shirt MPs will present an amnesty bill to parliament in the next two weeks to help red-shirt members who have been jailed.

Mr Worachai said the meeting agreed that red-shirt members who are in prison can wait until after the election for Bangkok governor is over.

However, the MPs are also entitled to table the amnesty bill to help the detained red shirts.

He said lawyers for the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship are drawing up the bill and 20 MPs are ready to sign to it, as required by the constitution.

Meanwhile, participants at a seminar organised yesterday at the Bhumjaithai Party agreed an amnesty for political offenders must go ahead to move the country forward.

Bhumjaithai leader Anuthin Charnvirakul said colour-coded political polarisation has become intolerable.

Only reconciliation would lift the country out of crisis, he said.

He said parties involved in the conflict must work together to find a solution.

They must be ready to compromise, Mr Anuthin said.

Gothom Arya, director of the Research Centre for Peace Building at Mahidol University, said an amnesty law was appropriate as public sentiment favours national harmony.

Mr Gothom said an amnesty would be possible if the issue of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was put aside.

An amnesty should be granted to rank-and-file protesters of the yellow-shirt and red-shirt camps charged with violating the emergency decree during the anti-government protests between 2006 and 2011, he said.

But it should not cover those charged with committing serious criminal offences, protest leaders and state authorities who ordered the crackdown on the protesters, Mr Gothom added.

Bhumjaithai Party member Suchart Srisang agreed those who killed people and burned buildings during the protests should not be granted an amnesty.

Pheu Thai Party list MP Watthana Muangsuk said any amnesty must be unconditional.

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