Thailand censures 'US intervention'
Thailand’s military government has censured remarks by an American official on the country’s persisting martial law as intervention in its internal affairs.
The Thai Foreign Ministry on Wednesday summoned Patrick Murphy, Washington’s charge d'affaires at the US embassy in the capital, Bangkok, to protest Tuesday remarks by visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel calling for the lifting of Thailand’s ongoing martial law, Thai PBS Television Network reported.
Such calls, it said, constituted interference in the country’s internal affairs.
This is while Thailand’s Prime Minister and Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha also dismissed the US diplomat’s remarks on Tuesday, reportedly telling the local press that he had “saved Thai democracy.”
“I am a soldier with a democratic heart. I seized power because I wanted democracy to live on,” said the general.
The development came after Russel called on Thai authorities to lift the martial law and expressed concerns that the charges brought against deposed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra were politically motivated.
“When an elected leader is deposed... then targeted with criminal charges... the international community is left with the impression that these steps could be politically driven,” said Russell while on an official visit to Bangkok.
Russell is the highest ranking US official to visit Thailand since the military took over power in a coup that followed months of political unrest and a disputed election in May 2014.
Shinawatra was impeached late last week and banned from politics for five years. She faces criminal charges over allegations of corruption. She was widely accused of using her political office to facilitate the return of her deposed brother and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
MFB/HJL/HRB
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