PM dodged the draft: Jatuporn

Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Phrompan said the prime minister failed to take part in any annual military draft since he reached the service age of 21.

He also accused Abhisit of using a false military document, wrongly issued by a local recruiting officer in his district, when he applied to become a lecturer at the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy in 1987.

Jatuporn said that Abhisit's service at the military academy and his subsequent appointment as a sub-lieutenant should have been considered void. He said the case should be treated the same as falsified high-school certificates used when applying for higher studies. When found, those graduates were stripped of their degrees.

He said a military committee investigating the matter in 1999 found that Abhisit lacked the qualification to apply for the teaching job because he did not produce the necessary document to show that he passed military conscription.

The politician said Abhisit resigned his teaching job shortly after he was appointed a sub-lieutenant. "It seems he became a lecturer to avoid military service."

Jatuporn, as a leader of the anti-government Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, had repeatedly claimed that Abhisit was a draft dodger during rallies of "red shirts".

The opposition MP also said Election Commission records showed that Abhisit applied to become a member of the Democrat Party after he was elected as an MP in 1992 although at that time the law required an election candidate to be a party member.

The prime minister said in reply that while he was not a conscript, he was exempted from military service by serving as a lecturer in the academy. He said that during that time, he also took part in Territorial Defence training, like many young Thai men do to become exempt from service.

He said he studied overseas until he was 22 and that was why he failed to join the draft after reaching the service age of 21. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Oxford University in mid-1986.

Abhisit said that while teaching at the military academy, he also had a desire to further his studies at Oxford.

He insisted that he used a real military document called Sor Dor 9 when he applied to become a lecturer. The document cited by Jatuporn was the replacement to the original one that he lost later. Abhisit said the document was required as part of his appointment as a commissioned military officer.

In response to Jatuporn's allegation that he became a Democrat member after his election as a party MP in 1992, Abhisit explained that there was a misprint in the EC records. He said that in fact he had applied to be a Democrat member in January 1992, before the general election that year.