February 10, 2014

 

At 13:00 hrs. Mr.Tharit Pengdit, Director-General, the Department of Special Investigations, briefed the press on the outcome of the meeting of the Center For Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) earlier in the day, gist as follows: 

1. Following the demonstration by rice farmers, the government wishes to state that it is taking action to solve the problems. However, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) has attempted to use this situation for political gain. The fact is that the PDRC's demonstrations led to the dissolution of Parliament, which prevented the government from allocating a budget to solve the problems. As a result, this has slowed the performance of the government, as it has to seek permission from the Election Commission (EC) before being able to seek funding. It should be noted that the PDRC has insulted farmers before, saying that they have less education and should not be counted as the equals of urban dwellers.

 

2. The CMPO urged the Metropolitan Police and the DSI to seek further arrest warrants under the Emergency Decree against 13 members of the PDRC, including Mr.Somkiat Pongpaiboon, Mr.Somsak Kosaisook, Mr.Sakonthee Pattiyakul, Ms.Jittapat Kridakorn, and Dr.Seri Wongmontha. This would bring the number of those who face arrest warrants to 32.

 

3. The CMPO reaffirmed that it has no intention to use force against the protesters in order to limit the damage to those who are not core leaders. However, the CMPO finds it necessary to take action in accordance with national standards against those who have blockaded government premises, which is against the law.

 

4. Following the investigation of the Royal Thai Police into the obstruction of advance and general elections, the police found 119 cases of obstructing elections and 80 cases of election officers failing to perform their duties. The police will proceed with these cases immediately.