Says group of five to seven detained illegally for a year

The National Reconciliation Commission has asked Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya to release five to seven students who have been illegally detained for a year, NRC chairman Anand Panyarachun said yesterday.

Anand was speaking after an NRC meeting attended by Chidchai, who is also justice minister.

Anand said the commission asked Chidchai to uphold the welfare of all suspects, especially those who are disabled or ill.

“There has been a detention of five to seven students who have been held for a year,’’ Anand said, refusing to elaborate on the whereabouts or identity of the suspects.

Addressing a separate incident, Chidchai said the government had used the powers granted to it under the State of Emergency Decree to detain seven suspects at Yala Provincial Police School for questioning.

Chidchai said he had invited acquitted former terror suspect Dr Waehamadi Wae-dao to inspect the living conditions of the seven suspects. The doctor, Chidchai said, found that they are housed in good accommodations and are well fed. Their relatives are able to visit them, he said. The doctor was one of four people accused of belonging to terror group Jemaah Islamiyah who were acquitted of charges of plotting to bomb foreign embassies in Bangkok and tourism spots throughout the Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Thai Rak Thai Party looks likely to face another rebellion from its Wang Nam Yen faction when the House debates the State of Emergency Decree on August 24.

The faction with 30 MPs in its fold, headed by Snoh Thienthong, brushed aside the party’s threat to take tough action against MPs who attack the State of Emergency Decree during the House debate.

Suthin Klangsaeng, TRT deputy spokesman, said the party drafted the decree in the national interest and with the support of people in the deep South. The TRT resolved that all MPs must toe the party line and any MPs who violate the rules will face tough measures from the party.

“The Wang Nam Yen faction or other groups should behave themselves and conform to the party’s rules and regulations,’’ he said.

Pramuan Ruchanaseree, a Thai Rak Thai party-list MP, insisted that he would exercise his right as an MP to criticise the government for issuing the decree.

“This decree is significant to the Parliament because its objectives are to solve the ongoing violence in the deep South. The government must be very careful and should not ban anyone from voicing their opinion,’’ he said. A party source said Snoh would hold a press conference to explain his faction’s stance on the decree, which he says violates the Constitution.

The Democrat Party’s Thaworn Senneam criticised Thai Rak Thai’s ban on dissent from its MPs, saying the party leader is resorting to a parliamentary dictatorship by ordering its MPs to ignore their duty.