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Thai Army Chief wants end to crisis

— Photo: AP

A funeral procession for anti-government protesters who were killed during clashes with Thai soldiers in Bangkok on Monday.

SINGAPORE: Thailand Army's Commander-in-Chief Anupong Paochinda on Monday suggested “dissolution” of the House of Representatives if the current crisis could not be resolved through “political means”.

The Thai military “want(s) peace,” General Anupong emphasised in televised comments in Bangkok. Noting that he was talking of the issues currently in the political domain, he said questions like constitutional amendment could be resolved through negotiations among those concerned.

General Anupong's guarded comments, widely interpreted as a call for House dissolution, were also seen, in the wider Southeast Asian circles, as a signal to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to sort out the month-long crisis on these lines.

The key demands of the anti-government protesters, loyal to the military-deposed and now-fugitive Thai leader Thaksin Shinawaatra, are the immediate dissolution of the House and a snap general election. Mr. Abhisit, in his televised comments, said there was evidence to indicate that “terrorists” had infiltrated the ranks of the protesters in a bid to hurt Thailand's interests.

There was no immediate response from the Prime Minister to the comments by the Army Chief. On an altogether different track, the Thai poll panel was reported to have determined that certain allegations against Mr. Abhisit's Democrat Party could be investigated and sent to the Constitutional Court if deemed fit.

The crux of these allegations is that the Democrat Party had received “illegal donations” during the 2005 elections.

With the unofficial truce between the security forces and the protesters holding, the anti-government activists, dubbed the Red Shirts after the colour of their attire, took out funeral processions to “honour” their colleagues who were killed in Saturday's clashes with the soldiers.

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