Are cracks emerging in Thailand’s military?

Far from celebrating Songkran, the Thai New Year, Thailand’s top generals and politicians are locked in dissension – trying to explain the failure and high cost of Saturday’s crackdown on the red-shirted opposition, and trying to work out what should happen next. The relatively dove-like commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Gen Anupong Paojinda, seemed in no doubt.

“The best solution of this is to dissolve the House. I don’t want to intervene in politics but I guess the end will be a House dissolution. “Political problems must be solved by political means. House dissolution is a solution but that must be done after a clear time-frame is set.”

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, by contrast, insisted his government, the army, the police and his coalition partners were united and doing “good co-operative work”. He said his government was investigating the causes of the killings on Saturday night – the latest toll is 21 dead and almost 900 people injured. He also put forward the idea that among the peaceful demonstrations was a hard core of “terrorists” who had to be distinguished from the “innocents”.

Read more: BBC News – Are cracks emerging in Thailand’s military?

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