2539, 5th Floor Imperial Ladprao Wangthonglang, Bangkok, THAILAND Tel. 029349481 Fax.

029349467 25 October 2012 Re: The UDDs stance on the TRCTs final report Dear Emissaries, members of the international community, and foreign press corp, With this letter I seek to clarify the UDDs stance on the final report of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) into the events of April-May 2010. It is the view of the UDD, the victims, and the victims families, that the report has failed to provide a pathway to reconciliation in Thailand and has exacerbated the political conflict within Thai society. We believe that the TRCT report seeks to undermine the UDD's peaceful movement for full democracy in Thailand. The hundreds of thousands of protestors who attended the demonstrations in April-May 2010 were only asking for their most basic democratic rights in the shape of fresh elections. The state's violent response to these demands for such basic political rights consisted of deploying 60,000 armed troops, armoured vehicles, and snipers against the protestors. We would like to bring your attention to the following facts which, among others, undermine the credibility of the TRCT report. 1. Partial Inception From the onset, the commissions stated mission of conducting an impartial investigation that would pave the way for national reconciliation was undermined by the fact that its members were selected by the very unelected government that committed the atrocities in question. International norms set by historical precedents of TRC's elsewhere dictate that such commissions should be set up once the administration responsible for the violence has been removed and the people have elected their own government. The head of the commission, Kanit Nakorn, was far from a neutral investigator. He had a well-known dispute with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra which led him to leave Thai Rak Thai party. He was later appointed as chairman of a committee tasked with the investigation into Thaksin's 'war on drugs', during which he published reports stating that Thaksin Shinawatra had committed crimes against humanity. He has since publicly expressed his deep opposition to Thaksin and the Pheu Thai Party, in what can only be described as a highly unprofessional and politicized manner. He has also publicly suggested that Thaksin should stay away from Thailand and never return for the sake of the country.

Furthermore, other members of the TRCT are deeply politicized and severely compromised the commission's supposed objectivity. These members include: Somchai Homlaor, chairman of the fact-finding subcommittee and who supported the 2006 military coup; Meta Mashkao, People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) member; and Chaiwat Treewittaya, PAD chief of security. 2. Flawed methodology The report's flawed methodology highlights the bias of the commission. The report uses unfounded and unverifiable information derived primarily from the military, the CRES, and members of the Democrat party. There is no critical examination of the sources used. In several instances, the report's findings conflict with established facts, such as the Pan Kamgong court ruling. In addition, there is no chronological outline of the events in order to ascertain the context of how they took place. By not employing acceptable means of investigation, the information was selected to suit the commissions pre-conceived conclusions. Instead of drawing their conclusions from facts, the TRCT only included facts that conformed to the Abhisit governments narrative that the UDD led a violent protest that could only be contained by military force. In so doing, the commission consciously excluded an abundance of photo and video evidence that unequivocally proves that snipers and live ammunition were used against unarmed civilians, medical staff, and foreign journalists. Information that shines a negative light on the UDD and Thaksin was favored over information that helps explain the complex process which led the CRES to use deadly military force against Thai civilians. 3. Unsubstantiated claims A significant part of the reports mere 300 pages is dedicated to claims that remain unsubstantiated. For instance, the report focuses excessively on the 'men in black', an armed militia that allegedly emerged on the night of April 10 2010, who were supposedly acting on behalf of the Red Shirts. However, the claim is never substantiated with any evidence or logical reasoning, and contradicts findings of previous police investigations, court verdicts, eye witness accounts, and hard evidence. The report paints an image of 'men in black' with AK47s and M79s on a rampage of death and destruction, in contrast to a court ruling which found the authorities guilty for the death case of Pan Kamgong, a taxi driver who had been killed by soldiers. Furthermore, forensic evidence has proven that deaths of protestors were caused by bullets fired from M16 and M67 hand grenades, both of which are military weapons. Meanwhile, the obvious violence on behalf of the state was intentionally and conveniently ignored. While the TRCT could only offer an unsubstantiated account of the men in black, or Black Shirts, the UDD has repeatedly shown evidence in the form of photographs, video footage, international press reports, and eye witness accounts that contradict the theory that said individuals were acting on behalf of the Red Shirts. However, evidence that indicates a link between the Black Shirts and the Royal Thai Army (RTA) was completely ignored by the TRCT.

4. Double Standards The report is blatantly biased against the Red Shirts. Not once does the report mention the peaceful policies of the movement, its goals of democracy and justice, nor the fact that we gather hundreds of times every year without any violent incidents. The UDD leadership has apologized for mistakes that have been made. We returned all the army's weapons to the police. We forbade weapons in the protest area and searched everyone who sought to enter our camp. We had an open dialogue with traffic police in order to accommodate traffic. We backed down from the Chula hospital. Still, the TRCT has tried to characterise us as violent by taking our statements out of context. Meanwhile, the report failed to be critical of the PAD's incitement to violence which played a significant role in creating Thailand's current conflict. The PAD closed down an airport, took over a television station, and occupied government building for months in order to prevent the Prime Minister from entering his office. PAD members killed a Red Shirt activist, Narongsak Krobtaisong, and have injured many more in clashes across the country. The PAD shot at people in daylight on Vi-pawadee-rangsit road, with photographs clearly showing the shooter's faces. 5. Faulty conclusions The commission's bias is further exemplified in the report's analysis on the root causes of the conflict. Few mentions are made of the judiciary's political overreach that occurred when judges legitimized the actions of the coup-makers. Instead, the report claims that the root cause was Thaksin's financial assets court case in 2001. This fact alone clearly demonstrates that the TRCT was not committed to an impartial or honest analysis of Thailands political divide. In light of these reasons, the UDD, the victims, and the victims' families are convinced that the final report of the TRCT will lead Thailand further into conflict. The condemnation of the report has been echoed by several other groups, including the Peoples Information Centre (PIC) which issued a 1,000+ page report on April-May 2010 earlier this year. Funded exclusively by individual donations, the PIC meticulously documented the human rights abuses committed by the Abhisit government in its report entitled Truth for Justice, which includes much of the raw data that is absent in the TRCTs report. We urge you to read this report and compare the two reports on the criteria of academic rigour, commitment to neutrality, and truth. There can be no reconciliation without justice, and no justice until the truth is brought to light. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss this matter further.

Sincerely,

Tida Tawornseth UDD Chairperson 25 October 2012 E-mail: krootida@hotmail.com