BANGKOK, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Thai deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expressed a strong wish to return to his home country in a meeting via Skype with the ruling Pheu Thai Party on Tuesday, government sources said.
"I want to come home. Tell the Democrat Party not to worry. If I come back, I don't want anything, I won't ask for any positions. [I would] let Prime Minister Yingluck [Shinawatra] continue to run the country."
Thaksin, who was widely believed to the party's de facto leader, said he supported a reconciliation bill proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, according to a Bangkok Post report on Wednesday.
The Chalerm's bill is aimed at clearing the way for bringing Thaksin back home.Chalerm said Tuesday he would ask the people who have proposed different versions of reconciliation and amnesty bills to withdraw them from parliament. The bills would be incorporated into his version to be submitted as a single bill to the House.
According to Pheu Thai Party sources, Thaksin discussed with the deputy prime minister on the reconciliation bill, and urged him to press ahead with the bill.Chalerm said his bill had been vetted by the Council of State and will be considered by Pheu Thai. If the party agrees with it, he will push for three straight readings when parliament reconvenes in August.
The bill seeks amnesty for all those who committed political offences from the beginning of 2006, the year of the coup which ousted Thaksin, until the bill becomes law.
Under the bill, any ongoing judicial and court proceedings against political offenders must be stopped and any convictions and punishments must be annulled, Chalerm said.
The bill seeks to grant amnesty to rank-and-file protesters, protest leaders and state authorities involved in clashes with protesters.
It also covers those who were accused by the now-defunct Asset Scrutiny Committee. Under the bill, they should also be considered political offenders and their convictions and punishments should be annulled.
Eight bills seeking amnesty for political offenders facing charges relating to political violence since the 2006 coup have now been proposed.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra delivered a strongly worded speech at the Ulan Bator democracy forum on Monday. In the speech the Thaksin's younger sister criticized the 2006 coup for derailing democracy in Thailand. She said it overthrew Thaksin, "the rightfully elected prime minister."
Yingluck's speech has aroused strong criticism by her opponents. Yingluck told reporters Tuesday that the much-discussed speech was not aimed at whitewashing her big brother, or widening rifts in the country, but explaining her own opposition to future coups in Thailand.
Different walks of life in China : Labor Day
Feedback
RSS
