Authority:Thaksin’s movements won’t obstruct national reconciliation

BANGKOK, April 16 (TNA) - Defence Minister Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat said on Monday that visits to neighbouring Laos and Cambodia by exiled-ex Thai prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during the Songkran Festival this week should not pose any problem for building national reconciliation in Thailand, where social divisiveness has been widened following a bloodless coup in September 2006 which ousted Thaksin from power. Touching on remarks made by Thaksin that national reconciliation in Thailand are to be started from justice procedures and court cases against him are to be started anew, Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol shared his view that it is up to the thinking of each person while he personally believes that opinions are to be listened by every party, especially by those involved. On concerns expressed by some academics that Thaksin’s movements, especially in the neighbouring countries, could torpedo the government’s plan on national reconciliation, Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol insisted that Thaksin has full rights to move any where he likes. Thaksin is now reportedly staying at a deluxe hotel in Cambodian Siem Reap Province, where tens of thousands members of the National United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship, widely known as the red-shirt people, who are loyal to him crossed the border and visited him over the past couple of days. (TNA)