Relatives and victims of the April-May 2010 military crackdown on red-shirt protesters yesterday made a last-ditch attempt to stop the amnesty bill being rushed through parliament.
Protesters rally yesterday at the United Nations office against the blanket amnesty bill. PANUMAS SANGUANWONG
The bill would offer a blanket amnesty for all political offenders.
They said they were dismayed by the House panel vetting the bill's decision to change details in the bill to provide a "wholesale" amnesty for wrongdoers.
The government should review the change and seek the views of all affected by the decision before pushing it through, the relatives and victims said.
"The House committee, which is dominated by the ruling Pheu Thai Party, has changed the bill to favour former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The favour is also extended to former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban in exchange for their support for the bill. They should stop doing this," said Payao Akkahad, the mother of a volunteer medic who was killed on the last day of the 2010 violence inside Wat Pathum Wanaram.
She made the announcement before leading dozens of relatives, survivors, students and activists to voice their opposition to the bill at the United Nations building and parliament.
The government should try to help secure bail for red-shirt prisoners detained on political charges. Instead it has acted on Thaksin's orders to strive for compromise with the bill, which will whitewash the Abhisit government and his military commanders from criminal acts in the 2010 crackdown, Ms Payao said.
Phusadee Ngamkham, a red-shirt protester who defied the dispersal on May 19, 2010 at the Ratchaprasong intersection, also voiced her opposition to the blanket amnesty for political offenders.
"How many times has Thailand seen murderers in the capital's streets get away with the crimes they committed? We voted for the Pheu Thai Party hoping it would not embrace the rotting system of impunity.
But it is bending the rules for its own benefit," Ms Phusadee said.