Sunday, 6 March 2011

"Yellow-shirts" to collect 20,000 signatures to impeach Thai PM

via CAAI

March 05, 2011

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), or the "yellow-shirt" movement, plans to collect 20,000 signatures in an effort to impeach the prime minister for alleged neglect of duty leading the kingdom to lose territory to Cambodia, a leader said Friday.

PAD's key member Prapan Koonmee said the group would use legal means to put pressure against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his government by collecting 20,000 signatures, as required by the Constitution, to present to the Constitution Court.

He said the premier should be impeached for neglect of duty by not revoking the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Thailand and Cambodia which the PAD claimed was legally ineffective as a tool for negotiation with the Cambodian authorities.

The move had led Thailand to lose territory to Cambodia, he claimed.

The MoU on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary signed by Thailand and Cambodia on June 4, 2000 saw both sides agreeing not to carry out any work resulting in changes to the frontier zone environment.

Meanwhile, Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD core leader, said the PAD would not return the area on Rajdamnoen Nok Avenue to the authorities except if the government uses force to disperse the protest which he believed the government would try to do just that.

Chamlong said that now the PAD would step up its campaign to inform the public that if Thailand loses the 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of overlapped land to Cambodia, the kingdom will lose another 180,000 rai (110 square miles) along the border to Cambodia.

The PAD has staged mass gathering since January 25 in a bid to demand the government to withdraw the membership from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, revoke the MoU on the Thai-Cambodian border signed in 2000, and expel Cambodian people from disputed border areas.

Source: Xinhua

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