People Jailed For Political Crimes 'United'

BANGKOK: -- PROTESTERS detained for their involvement in political demonstrations have placed their hopes in the reconciliation reform committee, says Phayaw Akkahad, a key member of the committee and someone who claims to have witnessed unity among detainees of conflicting political colours.

In an attempt to bring about reconciliation, Anek Laothamatas, chairman of the National Reform Council (NRC), last week led committee members on a visit to inmates incarcerated as a result of the political unrest to discuss reconciliation and to try to serve them with better justice.

"The political prisoners wish that we could possibly help them get back to their normal lives," Phayaw told The Nation.

She said the detainees could talk to and understand one another without seeing someone as a People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) member or someone else as a United Front for Democracy (UDD) against Dictatorship member.

Phayaw, whose daughter was killed during a UDD protest in 2010, became an activist who seeks to find the truth in political cases including seeking for justice for the protesters.

"If you have a chance to talk to them [the protesters in prison] you would understand that they are neither bad people nor deserve to be in jail like society views them, rather they are citizens of this country like everyone else," she said.

Phayaw said most of the people imprisoned for years were sincere in saying they would live good, normal life if given a second chance.

"If they were given another opportunity to regain their freedom, or another chance to start a new life, I believe these people will be the main force for driving society to realise that peaceful protest is their right and not a crime at all," she said.

The first thing the committee needed to do was focus on the prisoners because they were victims of Thai politics, she said, adding that reconciliation and unity must be done with actions more than words, something the committee realised.

She doubted that a single political leader or a leader of a group involved political protests had visited a prisoner.

Phayaw supports the idea of granting a pardon to the wrongdoers who admit their guilt, reasoning that a pardon would be the first big step towards reconciliation and unity in the society.

The charter drafters agreed to create a national reconciliation committee under the new constitution that would have the authority to request a pardon for wrongdoers.

"I am sure that even if we point a gun to their heads and threaten them, or force them to reconcile under any law, reconciliation will never be achieved," she said.

"But if people understand them and give them another chance to have a normal life, then conflicting parties would see the sincerity of Thai people and unity can happen again in our society."

Society should view them as citizens and not convicts, she said.

Another committee member, Boonlert Kachayudadej, said the committee was helping prisoner Anek Singkhunpob, who set off a bomb at the Bhumjaithai Party's headquarters on Phahonyothin Road in 2010, as he had lost an eye and was in danger of going blind.

"Anek must be treated quick because he will be totally blind without efficient medical care. He must be brought to a physician who can have a close look at his eye," Boonlert, also an NRC member said. He said he visited inmates jailed over the UDD protests in 2010 and the PDRC protests in late 2013 and early 2014.

Like Phayaw, he said prisoners from different political camps were living peacefully together in the same prison, and that unity could happen even in prison.

He said some prisoners had asked the Ministry of Justice to provide them with financial support to fight for justice in court.

"They want temporary bail in order to fight in court, asking for the justice. They also want to return to their families," he said.