Children's rights activists and a human-rights commissioner jointly yesterday condemned red-shirt leaders for not preventing the use of children as human shields.
The condemnation arose after the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) displayed photographs of a small boy being held up above a bunker-like structure formed by anti-government protesters, who were preparing to battle it out with soldiers.
"The leaders shouldn't let children come near the bunker. It is too dangerous. Anything could happen to them. I've been protecting children's rights for a long time and I'm worried. One of the leaders has just had a baby. What if someone put his child in the bunkers like this, I wonder how he would feel," children's rights activist Wallop Tangkhananurak said.
However, red-shirt leader Dr weng Tochirakarn brushed aside any blame.
"It's the parents' decision to bring their children along," weng said, adding that though he did not agree with such a decision he suggested that maybe some parents wanted to entertain their children in this manner.
Meanwhile, Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights Foundation director Sappasit Khumprapan urged parents to send their children back home.
"The new semester has already started in the provinces, and if children don't go to school now, they might fail to meet the minimum attendance required and lose the right to sit for exams," he said.
Asked about the child at the bunker, Sappasit responded: "How can the parents be so sure that nothing would happen to their children? If something does happen, who is going to take responsibility?"
Pol Lt-General Wanchai Srinualnad, a national human-rights commissioner, said the use of children as human shields was a violation of law, and offenders could be prosecuted.
"Such action also violates children's rights and their dignity," he said, urging protesters to move their children out of the rally site.
"We need to pressure the red-shirt leaders to stop using children as protection. One organisation alone doesn't have enough power to do this. Everyone in society should condemn them," he added.
Dr Tul Sithisomwong, a leader of the multicoloured shirts group, said his faction's official statement to the red-shirt movement included a demand that children be removed from the frontline.