The European Union office here on Thursday issued a statement expressing concerns over the situation in Thailand, urging conflicting parties to seek negotiations to resolve the problem after the anti-government Red Shirts petitioned the EU seeking help to prevent human rights violation in Thailand.
Five Red Shirt representatives submitted a letter of UDD chairman Veera Musikapong to the EU Ambassador to Thailand David Lipman.Mr Veeras letter said the UDD has been campaigning for democracy, but it has been threatened by the government through the use of security forces and arms. The letter also urged the EU to condemn the Thai government and stop its crackdown on innocent people.
via EU urges negotiation to resolve Thailand’s political crisis.
The immediate crisis had been escalating since mid-March 2010, when tens of thousands of members of the increasingly heterogeneous UDD began their takeover of the streets of Bangkok. The red-bedecked activists from all over Thailand carried their tents, sleeping-mats and food supplies into the area around the high-rent shopping-district of the Rajprasong intersection. The red-shirts’ political representatives held intermittent talks with the government of Thailand’s prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva; but these broke down in the first days of April, and the protestors then vowed to stay in place until the parliament was dissolved and new elections announced.
The state’s use of violence to repress the red shirts has not succeeded; they remain in key locations throughout Bangkok, defying Abhisit Vejjajiva’s demand that they evacuate the city’s streets. The red shirts continue to call for the immediate resignation of the prime minister, the dissolution of parliament, and plans for new elections. Moreover, the official attempts to constrain independent media – which long predate the state of emergency – have themselves been widely reported through a host of new-media outlets; and scholars and activists raise their voices in favour of renewed efforts to broker peace.
