Request to have hearing of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk held in Bangkok rejected by the court
On 26 January 2012, Front Line Defenders was informed that the request of human rights defender Mr Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, to have the next session of the court hearing against him heard in Bangkok was rejected by the court.
Somyot Prueksaksemsuk is a prominent labour activist and a magazine editor who is facing a maximum jail term of 30 years on lèse majesté charges. He was the subject of a joint appeal issued by Front Line Defenders and seven other international human rights NGOs on 15 November 2011. Somyot Prueksakasemsuk has been in detention since 30 April 2011. Requests made by his lawyer for his release on bail have been rejected by the court on six occasions.
Following the court's rejection of his recent request, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk will have to travel to Songkla Province, located 950 kilometres from Bangkok (13 hours by bus), for the fourth and last session of the hearing involving Prosecution witnesses which is due to take place on 13 February 2012.
Front Line Defenders is disturbed that Somyot Prueksaksemsuk has had to travel to the provinces of Sa Kaeo, Petchabun, and Nakorn Sawan in a crowded truck to attend previous hearings which were held on 21 November 2011, 19 December 2011, and 16 January 2012 respectively. During these journeys, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk's ankles were chained and he did not have access to rest room facilities. Furthermore, it is reported that he was ill when he was transferred from Petchabun province to Nakorn Sawan Province.
Front Line Defenders calls on the Thai authorities to reverse its decision and to allow the hearing to be held in Bangkok, as well as to take measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk. Front Line Defenders also reiterates its previous calls to the Thai authorities to immediately drop all charges against him or grant him the right to bail in accordance with fair trial standards under domestic and international law.
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Sondhi Limthongkul has an
Sondhi Limthongkul has an answer for all of this...just stop agitating.
Last night on ASTV he cited the United States and farangs specifically as deeming they were being obstructed by the institution of the monarchy as part of their scheme to reform Thailand and get rid of the monarchy - which would allow them to take over all oil rights, etc. He also specified Prachatai as part of the bring-the-monarchy-down network, stating that he could not fathom why the website could not be shut down. Among other major enemies of Thailand named were NED, HRW, George Soros, etc.
The presentation was quite professional - save for lack of facts and continuous innuendo.
If you accept his basic premise as-is, everything else follows. That is, in fact, probably why Prachatai has not been shut down. The basic premise of it being involved in such a dark plot as Sondhi suggests is false, misleading and beyond rationality. Thinking differently is, Chotisak reminds us, not a crime.
Prachatai in their own About
Prachatai in their own About Us section admit to existing solely because of millions of baht year to year 80-90% of their funding - coming from the US government. Now the US government has used lofty ideals such as freedom and democracy to slaughter 4 million people in the Vietnam War, 2 million in Iraq, and tens of thousands in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and now Syria. After they are done - as was the case in Libya, it was not democracy that was left - but a prime minister who was groomed for decades literally in the US and was a senior adviser to the PETROLEUM INSTITUTE.
There is NOTHING wrong with human rights and freedom - there is something wrong with frauds abusing these ideals to advance what is actually corporate fascist agendas - and that is EXACTLY what Prachatai is getting funded to do.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
And Brian, you might want to include some evidence to back up your claim. Anyone can say anything is true or not true. It is much more difficult to provide evidence to back up such claims.
Shades of TC, that
Shades of TC, that Tendentious Collective, that avante-garde of the rearguard of 'elite' privilege.
The Royalist Thai 'elite', who flatter themselves as the world's most adept double-dealers, have in mind exactly the same ends as Thaksin, but would themselves like to act as compradors of BOTH the Chinese regime AND the Western neo-liberals, selling out the Thai land and Thai people, and so are desperate to maintain their traditional role in the face of the interloper, and eager themselves to burn the candle at both ends, mouthing paens to HM the King's 'sufficiency-economy' all the while.
The only difference between Thaksinists - the Shinawatra clan and their hangers' on - and the Traditional Thai 'elite' lies in their respective claims to 'legitimacy'. The Traditional 'elite', ignoring the cognitive dissonance in a nominal constitutional monarchy, claim the Divine Right of Kings, now devolved upon themselves, while Thaksin claims to have earned power the new-fashioned way, via populist bait-and-switch, preserving the facade of elections which the Traditional 'elite' are utterly incapable of competing in, let alone winning.
But the Traditional 'elite', writing off the entire populace of Thailand as non-players, remain 'mere' double dealers, while Thaksin has 'graduated' to triangulation... playing off not only the twin globalist hegemons but the Thai people as well, each against the other, simultaneously... while everyone ooooo's and ahhhh's at this monstrous sociopath's 'artistry'.
A pox on both 'elite' factions in Thailand!
A pox on both global hegemons!
Have a look at Walden Bello's little essay on exactly this 'globalist' conundrum.
Southeast Asia need not give itself up, once again, to be the battle ground of the 'superpowers', with the people's role reduced to being exploited and delivered up by an 'elite' playing comprador, now to the one, now to the other.
Thais are well-positioned to meet the future as a regional leaders... if they can throw off both pairs of hegemonic twins, both the twinned anti-democratic Royalist 'elite' and pseudo-democratic Thaksinist 'elite' domestically, and with them the twinned Chinese and the US/Western 'elites' globally.
Oh, Thai people save the Thai land for yourselves!
Long winded way of saying -
Long winded way of saying - both sides are wrong - which is something I have been saying for a very long time. How long you ask?
Since 2010.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2010/08/asian-economic-community-by-2015.html
The real answer is as always people becoming self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-determining through pragmatic solutions, not political representation. This is the 21st century, there is nothing on the local and provincial level that cannot be understood and dealt with directly by the people themselves and as technology advances this will only get easier.
Funny, you note all of this JFL in your concession - yet you are still here a supporter of US State Department funded Prachatai, a propagator of this agenda of "selling out the Thai land and Thai people." I applaud you nonetheless on your brief moment of cogent thought and wish you many more in the near future.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
The treatment of Somyot is
The treatment of Somyot is disgusting and clearly subjecting him to punishment for a crime which he has not been found guilty of yet (although given the odds he no doubt will be).
What would it take to get Human Rights Watch and Amnesty to say something about this and begin to retrieve their reputations.
Orders from their masters,
Orders from their masters, they're 'privatized' NGOs. But that's what's been keeping them quiet... unlikely to be forth coming.
Frankly they're so compromised at this point that, like the US State Department, their endorsement has become like the mafia's kiss of death at any rate.
Front Line Defenders is
Front Line Defenders is another fake human rights advocacy group working for corporate-fascist interests - obviously not real human rights.
Their "leadership council" includes the Dali Lama - a fraud in and of himself, and life-long associate of the CIA...
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ehpcws/jcws.2006.8.3.pdf
And their board of trustees are a mix of Soros funded NGO leaders and corporate-financiers.
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/about/board-trustees
It gets worse, funding this den of duplicity is:
1. Ford Foundation
2. US State Department's Freedom House (Thaksin's lobbyist Kenneth Adelman chairs their board of trustees)
3. Soros' Open Society Institute which also funds Prachatai
4. The Sigrid Rausing Trust - involved in despoiling Libya, Syria, and Myanmar. (also funds Prachatai!)
Somyot IS Thaksin's paid propagandist. His publications served as a blueprint for violence that manifested itself in 2010 at the cost of 91 lives. He is a traitor, provoked deadly violence, and belongs in jail, where society is kept safe from him. He is NOT a political prisoner. Clearly when corporate-fascist stooges like Front Line come calling, it is to get a valuable demagogic asset back into the mix - or at least use his plight as political leverage, NOT to serve some human rights agenda.
Of course, Prachatai knows this all very well, and keeps insulting our intelligence and compounding their treason against Thailand and in fact, against free humanity by peddling a foreign, corporate-fascist agenda.
Of course, there is no
Of course, there is no evidence produced that he is paid by Thaksin.
Somyos is a brave political prisoner who has been victimized by a conservative and desperate royalist elite.
Like the Dalai Lama, this royalist elite has long links with the U.S. and the CIA. And that is very well documented in many academic texts that actually do considered research.
The only insult I see to anyone's intelligence is conspiracy theories repeated endlessly by ideologues who consort with racists, extremists and various others on the far right.
There is no evidence Somyot
There is no evidence Somyot was paid by Thaksin? He wrote a magazine called THE VOICE OF THAKSIN!!!! And to be sure, Thaksin wrote frequently (or had someone ghost write for him) in its pages, as well as everyone else in the UDD. His operation was given sanctuary in Cambodia under Hun Sen - who officially hired Thaksin to be an adviser for his government.
Somyot is Thailand's Goebbels, he belongs rotting in jail. He is not a political prisoner, and to call him such defames and endangers all who really are.
And if the Dali Lama is such a conniving piece of garbage as you say he is, why is Prachatai humoring an organization upon which he sits as an adviser (Front Line Defenders)??? Again, nothing you say adds up, unless of course Prachatai are conniving pieces of garbage as well.
The CIA and US Military were indeed dug into Thailand during the Vietnam War - but since then, where is the evidence that they still are? And while I can show you without a shadow of a doubt that the US State Department is working directly with the UDD and Prachatai - backing them, and in Prachatai's case funding them millions of baht every year - where are the ties between the US and the "royalist elite?"
Demonstrate for us that the US is CURRENTLY funding, and executing an agenda through the "royalist elite" with documented evidence. You say it is "well documented" so you should have no trouble doing this.
And I wonder, if it was so well documented, why have you and Prachatai/Co. been resorting to juvenile insults instead of balking my argument with evidence and rational debate?
Again - Albert, you attack me
Again - Albert, you attack me because you cannot defend yourself intellectually.
Somyot is a UDD propagandists who authored the "Voice of Thaksin" which literally featured columns written by Thaksin and his political clique. He is not a political prisoner, he is a criminal and he is exactly where he belong - rotting in jail.
You claim the Dali Lama is a CIA asset - well he's part of Front Line Defenders calling Somyot a "political prisoner" and appealing on his behalf!!! Rarely can one fit BOTH feet in their mouth, but you've managed it effortlessly.
Notice how Front Line doesn't say what magazine he is the editor of ... of course that would be the give away, and it seems the fake NGO's with CIA assets polluting their advisory boards have the same idea you do - separate Somyot from Thaksin at all costs.
And then you call me a racist and an extremist - but you forgot poopie-head. All lies, all irrelevant, all diversions from your floundering argument.
It was the Voice of Taksin,
It was the Voice of Taksin, but let's not allow that to bother us.
The propagandist is TC/Tony. There is no point to debate with a blind ideologue of extremist views.
He is an extremist conspiracy theorist shouting to an audience of one (here) and a bunch of crazies in the U.S. and perhaps a few Russian skinheads. Disgusting.
BTW, I was simply repeating your claim about the dalai lama.
Voice of Taksin - with
Voice of Taksin - with columns written by Thaksin Shinawatra and his whole UDD TRT PPP PTP combine.
Somyot is a propagandist - supported by foreign corporate-fascist interests - the same ones funding Prachatai and consorting with the UDD on record.
Again you whimper and withdraw from talking facts and depend entirely on insults and juvenile remarks.
Ah! The conspiricist who
Ah! The conspiricist who bleats whenever anyone says they're bored with his repetitive rants now thinks some others should be silenced.
Let's take a look at some of
Let's take a look at some of the garbage Somyot wrote ...
http://2bangkok.com/voice-of-thaksin-editor-arrested.html
http://2bangkok.com/09-RedPublications0909.shtml
http://2bangkok.com/10-RedPublications1002.shtml
http://2bangkok.com/10-RedPublications1004a.shtml
Let's be honest - this man is not a hero. In any civilized country he would have been in jail days after publishing ANY of this. Freedom of speech doesn't protect those conspiring to commit a crime - especially when the crime is then carried out.
And this last one isn't Voice of Thaksin, but it shows what a creepy Kim Jong Ill cult is being built in reality where we are told "democratic reform" is being promoted. This is not the sort of human exploitation any civilized, progressive human being should promote, endorse, or feel no need to speak out against.
http://2bangkok.com/mahaprachachon-december-16-22-2011.html
Somyot is a political
Somyot is a political prisoner who has been attacked by a royalist elite who now seem allied to mad conspiracy theorists allied to political extremists in the U.S.
Let's take TC at his word and look "at the garbage" Somyot wrote (of course, Tony can't read Thai, so he guesses that Somyot wrote every word in each issue. The truth is he doesn't know. But lets look at the first example of "garbage": first there is a cover that implies the decline of the aristocrats (Prem etc.) and then a page with a similar headline juxtaposing the coup and the decline of the aristocrats. Finally there's a quote from Thaksin calling for an election. The latter was also published in the mainstream media.
Hardly seems anything out of the ordinary or deserving of the epithet "garbage." My guess is that the extremist TC is simply reacting against the idea of an election. His extremist buddies don't like them because they repeatedly get rejected. There seems little point to going on about this. He's wrong, as usual.
I challenge everyone to go
I challenge everyone to go read the Red Shirt publications themselves and see who is telling the truth. Somyot is a paid-peddler for a billionaire mass murdering autocrat. He is as much a hero as Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
http://2bangkok.com/category/thai-politics/red-shirt-publications
Albert, you continue to drag through the mud all political prisoners when you lump criminals like Somyot into their unfortunate lot.
Voice of Taksin and the other rags published by Thaksin's political machine are rank with overt calls for violence, death threats, insidious innuendos, and fraudulent lies - pretty much everything you hear on a red shirt rally stage, only in print.
Somyot is where he belongs, rotting in a prison cell. That Wall Street funded outfits like "Front Line" are on his side speaks volumes to what he is really all about.
I challenge Tony the
I challenge Tony the conspiricist extremist to go to the Voice of Taksin and read it. He can't because they are in Thai and he can't read it. He even gets the title wrong. All he does is links to pictures of covers and draws conclusions based on his own constructed view of Thai politics.
He's a fraud but we all know that.
Somyot's violent, extremist,
Somyot's violent, extremist, and criminal propaganda which served as a blueprint for the violence that consumed Bangkok in 2010 can be clearly seen in the archives at 2Bangkok.com...
http://2bangkok.com/category/thai-politics/red-shirt-publications
There are translations and honest appraisals of the material provided on the website - anyone can go there and verify it.
If you are calling me a liar, that means you are also calling Ron Morris a liar - who is probably the most impartial expat commentator on Thailand around - puts Prachatai's foreign-funded propaganda to absolute shame.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
You should note, that he is so impartial that politically motivated propagandists on both sides use his work as a reference including Thaksin's hired lobbyist Robert Amsterdam.
If you had a third foot, it would be in your mouth by now, Albert.
Rant on conspiricist for you
Rant on conspiricist for you keep linking to the same stuff and it is not what you say it is.
I challenged Tony (The Extremist) to go to the Voice of Taksin and read it. He can't and he won't because it is in Thai and he can't read it. He even gets the title of the Voice of Taksin wrong. You'd think he'd have one friend who'd do some translation for him, but apparently not.
All he does is link to pictures of covers and draws conclusions based on his own constructed view of Thai politics.
He's a fraud, a bully and boorish, and we all know it. And, he's as boring as can be.
You resort to name calling
You resort to name calling because you are incapable of defending yourself intellectually. I am not going to cherry pick like you do - instead I provide the links with reliable translations of Somyot's violent propaganda furnished on behalf of Thaksin for readers to decide for themselves.
Here is the link again - clearly Somyot is not a hero and is exactly where he belongs, rotting in jail.
http://2bangkok.com/category/thai-politics/red-shirt-publications
Those rushing to this shameless propagandist's aid expose themselves and their true agenda. Clearly Front Line - Wall Street funded from top to bottom, is just such a fraudulent advocate seeking Somyot's release.
You've got nothing to tell us
You've got nothing to tell us Tony. You bleat about translations but there are none apart from covers and headlines. There's no translations. That would seem pretty simple and a great intellect like yourself should be able to grasp that simple point.
Tony's been quiet on the
Tony's been quiet on the following info
Thailand Twitter Censorship
No surprise that the person who introduced and welcomed this is
= Knight Grand Cross(First Class) of The Most Exalted Order of The White Elephant
Neither is it a surprise that
= His Majesty the King has signed a Royal Command to appoint Ms. Jirawan Boonperm as ... Director-General of National Statistical Office ; Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in 1st October 2009.
Neither is it a surprise that Tony Cartalucci blames the rise of tyranny in Thailand on Red Shirts who protest such actions.
Gerrad aka Robin Carvell -
Gerrad aka Robin Carvell - you accused me of being an operative for US interests while you are here on US State Department funded Prachatai not only commenting, but having your baseless hit pieces published by them.
Your last comment is unintelligible, I have read it several times and have no idea what you are trying to say except in the final sentence you mention the red shirts are fighting the rise of tyranny.
Thaksin was a mass murdering tyrant openly working for Wall Street, the red shirts are his street front. To this day red shirt mobs as seen in the Nitirat conference still adorn their bodies with pictures of Thaksin and now his sister in a cult-like Kim Jong Ill manner. They are part of the tyranny.
Finally, someone got a medal? What does that mean? Guess how many Thaksin, who is trying to overthrow the Monarchy, has?
Member (Fifth Class) of The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Companion (Fourth Class) of The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Companion (Fourth Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, Commander (Third Class) of The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of The Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant, Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn, and Knight Grand Commander (Second Class, higher grade) of the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao.
But please, Robin, do go on - you damage your own cause more than I ever could.