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Archive for December 14th, 2010

Guardian Thailand’s 2006 Coup – Updated
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Source: http://goo.gl/YGCKQ

Guardian 14/12/2010

The Queen of Thailand encouraged the 2006 ousting of former prime minister and Manchester City
owner Thaksin Shinawatra, US dispatches from October 2008 allege.

Queen Sirikit was indirectly “responsible for the 2006 coup d’etat”, according to Samak Sundaravej,
one of Thaksin’s successors as prime minister from January to September 2008, according to US
diplomats. Samak also claimed, the cable writers add, that Sirikit had a hand in the “ongoing turmoil
generated by PAD protests”, a reference to the mass protests by the royalist People’s Alliance for
Democracy which have contributed to the downfall of several Thaksin-associated governments since
2006.

Sirikit is the wife of King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-serving current monarch. As a member of the
royal family she is in theory expected to be politically neutral.

The cable appears to add to rumours of the scale of Sirikit’s political involvement. While the queen had
long been suspected of favouring the PAD, the only significant evidence of her support came when she
attended the October 2008 funeral of a PAD protestor, Angkhana Radappanyawut.

Samak alleged the queen “operated through privy council president Prem Tinsulanonda who, along with
others presenting themselves as royalists, worked with the PAD and other agitators”, according to a
report by US ambassador Eric John, within a cable from October 2008.

There is no mention in the cables of any coup involvement by King Bhumibol himself. But an earlier
dispatch written in the week following the coup states Bhumibol called the leaders of the coup to his
palace for a meeting the evening after Thaksin was ousted and was “happy, smiling throughout”.

A subsequent cable also claims Bhumibol explicitly ordered Anuphong Paochinda, commander-in-chief
of the Thai armed forces, not to launch a coup in November 2008 against the then prime minister
Somchai Wongsawat. Bhumibol also expressed irritation at PAD protests, the cable alleges.

Further reports on Thailand from the leaked cables will be published by the Guardian later in the week.
Patrick Kingsley

Source: Foreign Policy

http://goo.gl/Lb6Vj 14/12/2010

Former Thai prime minister says queen was “responsible” for 2006 coup

Posted By Charles Homans Tuesday, December 14, 2010 – 8:59 AM

In May, Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok temporarily became a war zone, with rural populist “red
shirts” opposed to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva fighting pitched battles in the streets with
government forces. The fighting was the other shoe dropping after the 2006 military coup that deposed
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a politician who was venal and not especially democratic but was
nevertheless immensely popular with Thailand’s rural poor. Thaksin’s ousting was seen as the work of
the urban Bangkok elite, and Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej was widely suspected to have had a hand
in it, or at least given his tacit consent, despite the Thai royal family’s traditional neutrality in the
country’s politics.

That’s the backstory to a series of U.S. State Department cables the Guardian is reporting on (but hasn’t
released) this morning, which allege that Queen Sirikit, Bhumibol’s wife, had a hand in the 2006 coup.
Samak Sundaravej, who briefly served as prime minister during the chaotic post-coup years, tells U.S.
diplomats that Sirikit

was indirectly “responsible for the 2006 coup d’etat.” … Samak also claimed, the cable writers add, that
Sirikit had a hand in the “ongoing turmoil generated by PAD protests”, a reference to the mass protests
by the royalist People’s Alliance for Democracy which have contributed to the downfall of several
Thaksin-associated governments since 2006.

Samak alleged the queen “operated through privy council president Prem Tinsulanonda who, along with
others presenting themselves as royalists, worked with the PAD and other agitators”, according to a
report by US ambassador Eric John, within a cable from October 2008.

The Guardian adds that “there is no mention in the cables of any coup involvement by King Bhumibol
himself,” but that they do report that shortly after the coup, “Bhumibol called the leaders of the coup to
his palace for a meeting the evening after Thaksin was ousted and was ‘happy, smiling throughout.’”

Written by thaicables

December 14, 2010 at 11:33 am

Posted in Coup 2006, Royal Family, Samak Sundaravej, Secret

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