For Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, this week’s appearance at the Asia-Europe Meeting is an opportunity to lay out his roadmap for post-coup Thailand. But the general who led May’s military takeover will be greeted in Italy by groups of protestors hoping to force a detour.
Published: 15/10/2014 at 06:00 PM
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For Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, this week’s appearance at the Asia-Europe Meeting is an opportunity to lay out his roadmap for post-coup Thailand. But the general who led May’s military takeover will be greeted in Italy by groups of protestors hoping to force a detour.
Anti-coup activists will be waiting for the general’s arrival in Milan, where the Asem summit takes place Oct 16-17.
Asienhaus, the International Solidarity Group for Democracy and Human Rights in Thailand, and Action for People’s Democracy in Thailand will engineer protests with young activists mostly based in Italy, said Junya Yimprasert, one of the organisers.
The demonstrations were planned after rights activists urged the European Union to press the junta leader at the summit to protect human rights and restore democracy quickly.
“The EU should use the opportunity to press for the end of rights abuses and concrete reassurances that Thailand will transition back to democracy,” Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch told Reuters Sept 30.
Protest leaders reiterated Wednesday they believe Gen Prayut should not be allowed to attend the summit while European countries are boasting about democratic principles.
Asem summit organisers have given Gen Prayut three minutes to make his case for Thailand’s sustainable growth and economic, trade and investment potential, Gen Prayut said before leaving Wednesday. He also will have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Milan summit, but details have not been unveiled.
The summit will begin Thursday with a focus on how Asia and Europe can foster ties amid the global economic slowdown. But rather than looking ahead, European activists want to remind the public and the general about the past.
Ms Junya said the planned protest was planned to show solidarity with the family of Fabio Polenghi, an Italian photojournalist who was killed during the May 2010 crackdown on red-shirt demonstrators by the Abhsit Vejjajiva government.
“Fabio’s sister passed away earlier this year, otherwise she would have joined us at the protest against the military government whose members were mostly involved in that fatal crackdown,” said Ms Junya, a political exile in Europe.
The groups already issued a statement denouncing the junta for “insulting the long struggle of Thai people for representative, democratic governance and development of civil society throughout Southeast Asia” with the 22 May coup.
The Asem meeting is Gen Prayut’s first appearance on the big international stage since being endorsed by His Majesty the King as premier on Aug 24. His first foreign trip was to Myanmar Oct 9-10.
The prime minister will use his European trip to explain his vision of democracy and political reform in Thailand, Government House said in a statement Wednesday. The premier will emphasise Thailand’s determination to fight global problems, including Ebola, the statement added.
The meeting of European and Asian leaders meeting follows by four days the 10th Asia-Europe People’s Forum. At its conclusion, furom leaders expressed concerns “about human rights violations, arrests and interrogations by the (Thai) military, which are happening on a daily basis, and about increased censorship and intimidation of citizens opposing the military.”
The parallel forum also appealed “to all democratic governments to grant asylum to all citizens who have been put under pressure and have been prosecuted in Thailand.”
Gen Prayut will return to Bangkok on Saturday.