Graftbusters against UDD case reopening

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has dismissed a petition by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) asking it to re-investigate the fatal dispersal of UDD protesters in 2010.

NACC secretary-general Worawit Sukboon said that questions the UDD raised in the latest petition are nothing new. The NACC has already examined and made a decision previously, Mr Worawit said at a press conference yesterday.

The NACC had conducted a probe into former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his then deputy Suthep Thaugsuban for alleged malfeasance regarding the deadly crackdown. In December 2015, it voted unanimously to clear them of the charge.

The UDD was petitioning the NACC to revive the probe against the two over their roles in the 2010 crackdown on UDD protesters.

In response to the first point raised in the UDD’s petition, Mr Worawit said the NACC already deliberated and ruled that a decision to allow the use of war weapons and live rounds in the dispersal was justified.

The NACC based its judgement on a court injunction declaring a serious state of emergency as UDD political gatherings weren’t found to be peaceful as a number of people with guns were seen among the protesters, he said.

Mr Worawit said the NACC had found the now-defunct Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) justified in its bid to reclaim areas occupied by the protesters and allow security officials to carry arms in the operation. CRES’s practices conformed to the international standards of peace keeping as ruled by the Civil Court on April 22, 2010 and May 14, 2010.

As for the fact that the operation had led to a number of deaths and injuries, the NACC has already forwarded the matter to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to further investigate and prove in a separate criminal case to find out if CRES security forces should be held responsible for those deaths and injuries, Mr Worawit said.

And in response to the second point in the UDD’s petition, in which the UDD argued that CRES had failed to immediately suspend its operation upon learning about the deaths and injuries, he said that the NACC had already ruled that CRES had adjusted its operation and hadn’t used any force on the protesters.