POLITICS / INTERNET ATTACK ON PREM, POLITICAL ACTIVITIES, SHAPING THE CONSTITUTION

Seripisuth orders website probe

Police chief: Abort move against Prem

POST REPORTERS

Acting national police chief Seripisuth Temiyavej has ordered an investigation into a website which is trying to gather signatures to petition for the removal of Gen Prem Tinsulanonda as president of the Privy Council.

The acting police chief said Gen Prem cannot be removed by such a petition as his post was not political in nature and he was installed in that position by His Majesty the King.

Opponents of the Sept 19 coup d'etat, who accuse Gen Prem of masterminding the putsch that toppled Thaksin Shinawatra from power, are trying to collect 100,000 signatures to petition for his removal. The signature collection campaign began on Friday during a protest outside City Hall led by a group of former Thai Rak Thai politicians wanting to establish the satellite-based PTV television station.

Pol Gen Seripisuth has assigned Special Branch police to browse through www.saturdaynews.org for any statements that might be considered to be lese majeste.

Special Branch police chief Theeradet Rodphothong said yesterday that the website's content, as far as he knew, does not contain any statements deemed lese majeste. However, such a signature campaign is not appropriate as it may sow divisions in society, he said.

Songkhla Mayor Uthit Choochuai, a leading supporter of Gen Prem in the province, said he and his big group of supporters are not planning to travel to Bangkok to show support to the statesman, a native of Songkhla, because they do not want to plunge the country into deeper chaos.

However, if the coup opponents continue to show disrespect to Gen Prem, the southerners could have a change of heart, Mr Uthit said.

He said people in the Northeast, particularly in Khon Kaen, had also expressed their dissatisfaction with the anti-coup demonstrators for demanding that Gen Prem step down.
Sonthiya Sawasdi and Prachak Satsue, Prachakorn Thai party executives, yesterday lodged a police complaint with the Crime Suppression Bureau against the rally participants and the signature campaign seeking Gen Prem's removal.

In a related development, Council for National Security (CNS) chief Sonthi Boonyaratkalin admitted yesterday that it would be difficult to find the needed evidence to take legal action against those providing financial backing to the organisers of the ongoing rallies.

He also dismissed talk that he has locked horns with the prime minister.

CNS deputy chief Chalit Phukphasuk is not the least bit worried by the rallies against the CNS and the government.

"It was natural for rally organisers to try to gain voter sympathy before the elections," ACM Chalit Phukphasuk said.

He brushed aside concern that the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD)'s plan to go back to staging rallies would disrupt public order and create the kind of situation that prevailed before the Sept 19 coup. The CNS will meet today to discuss measures to deal with the demonstrations, he said.

Meanwhile, PTV executives Chatuporn Prompan and Jakrapob Penkair yesterday filed a police complaint accusing Sondhi Limthongkul, the Manager website and Alongkorn Ponlabutr, Democrat party's deputy leader, of defaming them by linking their names to the signature campaign against Gen Prem.

Mr Chatuporn said the PTV operators will hold another anti-coup rally at Sanam Luang this Sunday.

Bangkok Post
Tuesday April 03, 2007