Crackdown report 'doctored'

Crackdown report 'doctored'

Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has criticised a newspaper for allegedly doctoring a top-secret state document relating to last year's red shirt protests that it reprinted on Saturday.

Khao Sod newspaper received a copy of the classified Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) document, which detailed the protocol for the use of weapons to disperse protesters, through the internet and published an image of it in its Saturday edition.

The document details the CRES order that allowed soldiers to use firearms for self-defence and to protect innocent people while dealing with the anti-government protests that gripped Bangkok between March and May last year.

But the precise date of the order is disputed, with the newspaper claiming it was issued on April 10, the date of the first deadly clashes between the military and the protesters during the red shirt rallies.

However, Mr Suthep, who was in charge of the CRES at the time, said yesterday the order was issued three days later and claimed the newspaper had doctored the image of the document so the printed date was removed.

With no date stamp visible on the reproduction, the newspaper said in an accompanying caption that it had been issued on April 10.

The inference seems to be that armed clashes erupted on the same day as soldiers were authorised to use weapons, while Mr Suthep insists the order was issued on April 13 instead as a response to the April 10 clashes at Khok Wua intersection and Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Avenue.

Twenty six people were killed and around 800 injured as soldiers attempted to move the protesters, but both sides claimed to be unarmed and blamed the violence on unidentified "men in black".

The order stressed that weapons must not be used to take lives.

If it was necessary for soldiers to shoot, they had to aim below the knees and it was prohibited to fire at women or children.

Mr Suthep called into question the motive behind the leaking of the document and said it could lead to misunderstanding of the state authorities' actions.

He said the order was meant to rein in violent incidents following the events of April 10.

Mr Suthep insisted that the CRES's duty was to protect national security during the political unrest.

He said he believed a campaign against him is now under way, seeking revenge for the red shirts who died during the movement to oust the then-Democrat-led government, for which Mr Suthep was deputy prime minister as well as running the CRES.

However, he insisted he was ready to face scrutiny for his role in any investigation of the dispersal operations and their aftermath.