The Court sentenced the three members of the EC to four years in jail, revoked their voting rights for 10 years and denied them bail before sending them to remand prison.

In order to prevent further damage being caused by the three commissioners in continuing to hold office all three were refused bail.

Now new commissioners will have to be selected according to the process stipulated in the Constitution for the conduct of the election fixed for October 15.

The Asian Human Rights Commission regards this great judgement as being one of historic importance in the development of the application of legal principles on ensuring free and fair elections. Free and fair elections are the heart of the democratic process. All those who wish to subvert this process and to introduce authoritarian practices will want to interfere with the process of elections. The duty of an Election Commission in a democracy is to ensure that all interference is eliminated and to make it possible for voters to achieve their ends. Dishonesty and corruption in the electoral process is one of the worst acts that can be done against the common interests of a people. The Criminal Court of Thailand has given proper consideration to the gravity of the actions of the commissioners and has in fact set an example that should be emulated elsewhere.

The courts are the ultimate guardians of the people's constitutional rights. The emergence of Thai courts to deal with matters of grave importance to the nation and the people is a sign of hope that democracy in Thailand will take greater root in the years to come. Whether persons are powerful, either due to their economic strength or due to other reasons, this should not allow them to interfere in the process of free and fair elections. Where commissions fail it is the duty of the courts to uphold the balance and to save the system in terms of the principles enshrined in the Constitution.

Interference with free and fair elections is not a problem that occurs only in Thailand. It has happened many times in many of the neighbouring countries. Often election commissions or similar institutions have not been held liable for the subversion of the democratic process of elections. In order to be able to develop proper legal strategies to deal with similar problems this judgement of the Criminal Court of Thailand needs to be studied by everyone in the region.

The Asian Human Rights Commission

Hong Kong

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Once Thaksin is dealt with 'dark clouds will disappear'

There's no need to pity those three election commissioners. One has to realise how much damage they have inflicted on the nation in terms of money, loss of time, investors' confidence and so on.

I'd prefer it if the Court had given them 14 years imprisonment and had their relatives' assets checked to determine who was behind this, which would open another Pandora's box. It's ironic that Thaksin was given a state scholarship to further his studies abroad and this is how he is repaying his motherland.

The attorney-general should initiate investigations and an anti-corruption body should also be set up. It's very clear, to those who follow the news, who is behind all this trouble.

Thaksin has done so many bad things that it shouldn't be at all difficult to catch him. He should meet the same fate as those three commissioners. This would be the greatest present the judiciary could give the nation. Once this is done, dark clouds will disappear and we will require only an honest government - not necessarily a quick decision-maker - to run the country. I wish Thailand and His Majesty the King a fast recovery.

Happy citizen Alex

Bangkok

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TRT wasting funds on PR that could be spent on education

Re: "School's out for many poor families as costs spiral", News, July 27.

While caretaker prime minister Thaksin and his pack of yes-men strut about the country crowing over their "achievements", the majority of Thais have to live in the real world and contend with the consequences of the government's blind arrogance.

If the state has sufficient money to throw into self-aggrandising public relations exercises and burn on overblown infrastructure vanity projects, such as building Suvarnabhumi Airport instead of expanding the existing facilities at Don Muang, why are so many people in Thailand still denied the basic necessities of life?

Millions of Thais are still living such a hand-to-mouth existence that they cannot even afford to give their children a basic education at supposedly state-funded schools! But hey, Thailand has the tallest air-traffic control tower in the world ... Is this the government's idea of development? Is this how they invest in the future of Thailand?

The work of any government is to serve the people, nothing more. Since January 2001, Thaksin and company have had to prove they are working to serve more than their own interests. What have they really achieved?

Lewis Gibson

Singapore

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Anand's waffling on issues at root of NRC failure in South

Re: "NRC report needs a govt worthy of it", Editorial, July 21.

Anand Panyarachun has only himself to blame for the failure of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC).

The NRC was created by caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra early last year to find and recommend ways to resolve the age-old conflict in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - which are inhabited almost entirely by Yawi-speaking Malay Muslims. Long-simmering discontent has erupted into violence and claimed many hundreds of lives in two years.

One year prior to the formation of the NRC, Anand was asked by United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan to chair a committee on reforming the UN. The general public dismissed the reform committee as a sop to developing nations and a sham to divert attention away from the incompetence of American government officials in handling acts of terrorism in the US.

Early last year, the Thai Buddhist academic, Prawase Wasi, urged Thaksin to appoint Anand to chair a committee of academics to make recommendations to the government concerning how it should deal with the growing insurgency in the South. Thaksin readily agreed, believing it would make some of his critics happy for a while, but he knew well that such a committee would accomplish nothing.

About this time, General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former Thai prime minister, announced that he favoured granting some form of autonomy to the region. Then the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammad, called for the Thai government to grant the region autonomy. Some time later, Anand said that he favoured granting the region autonomy. All well and good.

But several months later, Prawase declared that he opposed autonomy for the region. Anand then changed his mind and announced that he too opposed autonomy. Then, together with Thaksin, Anand persuaded Mahathir to withdraw his call for autonomy.

Anyone considering Anand's conduct could easily see that Anand was beating about the bush and that nothing would come out of the NRC.

 Thus, even the NRC's recommendation that the Thai government recognise Yawi, a Malay dialect spoken in north-eastern peninsula Malaysia and south-eastern Thailand, as a common everyday working language in the region drew sharp objections from Thaksin and Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda.

Now Anand is feigning indignation over the Thai government's negative response to the NRC's recommendations.

Henry Franklin

Bangkok

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Asean's support of Surakiart at odds with stand on Burma

Re: "Surakiart should shelve UN bid", Editorial, July 27.

Asean castigates the totalitarian regime of Burma for its persistent human rights abuses and repression of democracy but backs its number one stooge in the region, caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, for the position of United Nations secretary-general.

Indeed, at Asean, the right hand does not know what the left land is doing. Or does it?

Juan Riviera

Bangkok

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Cease-fire needs to be the immediate goal in the Mideast

Re: "Excising 'cancer' of Hezbollah necessitates civilian casualties", Letters, July 25.

Terrorism is and always will be a show of inhuman ferocity that, precisely for this reason, will never be able to solve conflicts among human beings. Only reason and love are the valid means of surpassing and resolving disputes between people. No situation of injustice, no feeling of frustration, no philosophy or religion can justify such an aberration.

The recent cycle of blind violence we are witnessing in Lebanon is the result of scandalous injustices and imbalances that create conditions favouring an uncontrollable explosion of the desire for revenge. When fundamental rights are violated, it is easy to fall prey to temptations of hatred and violence. Nonetheless, we must keep in check our base impulses and together work to build a global culture of solidarity that restores hope in the future to the young.

Presently we must raise our prayers for an immediate cease-fire to the fighting in the Middle East, for humanitarian corridors to be opened in order to bring help to the suffering peoples, and for international leadership in new efforts to open negotiations that could lead to a lasting settlement.

In reality, the Lebanese have the right to see the integrity and sovereignty of their country respected, the Israelis the right to live in peace in their State, and the Palestinians have the right to their own free and sovereign homeland.

Paul Kokoski

Hamilton, Canada