Yingluck chase hits China

The police team responsible for tracking fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s whereabouts will today seek cooperation from the Chinese authorities in locating Yingluck after she appeared in an online photo along with her fugitive brother Thaksin at a market said to be in Beijing.

The team wants to prove whether the pictures of Yingluck and Thaksin were really taken in Beijing as reported, police sources said.

Maj Gen Piyaphong Klinphan, a spokesman for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said they had not received any meaningful information about the pictures of Yingluck and Thaksin so far.

Asked if this means Yingluck can still travel freely internationally as Thaksin does, Maj Gen Piyaphong simply said: “I don’t know”.

Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd declined to comment on the pictures of Yingluck, saying it’s security officials’ responsibility to deal with this matter, not the government’s.

He was responding to a question asking whether the appearance of a fresh photo of the fugitive former prime ministers on the same day as a gathering of the Democracy Restoration Group (DRG) in Thailand was intended as some kind of political message.

Meanwhile, Chawalit Wichayasut, acting secretary-general of the Pheu Thai Party, dismissed speculation that Yingluck and Thaksin’s appearance was intended as a political signal at a time while the NCPO-installed government appears to be rapidly losing its popularity.

It would not be unusual for Yingluck and Thaksin to be there visiting senior figures during the Chinese New Year festival, Mr Chawalit said.