Time to leave?

[mcmurphy]

US to evacuate embassy families
Published: 16/05/2010 at 08:59 PM
Online news: Breakingnews

The US State Department has authorised families of its embassy staff to leave Thailand and avoid the bloody confrontation between the government and protesters, now in a second month.

The Department of State has issued a statement that if any family members of embassy staff need to leave the country they would be subsidised by Washington, while employees would still stay in place.

The US Embassy will be closed to the public at least through Tuesday. Enquires about visa services and American citizens services could be access to embassy Facebook, its spokesman said.

Other embassies including Australia would also be closed to visitors on Monday. All United Nations affiliate offices in Bangkok would also be closed on Monday.

Ambassador Eric John will also host a Town Hall meeting for the American community on Tuesday, the second in two weeks.

Meanwhile some 30 activists and youth handed over a petition to the UN office this morning calling for the UN to pressure Thai government to cease all the hostility and violent actions toward the protestors, and to denounce the usage of heavy weaponry to suppress unarmed protestors.

The open letter said “due to the lack of independent and impartial judgement of human rights organisations in Thailand, we urge the United Nations to closely observe the Special Subcommittee appointed by National Human Rights Committee for investigation on the military crackdown on the 10th April 2010.”

They also suggested that since Thailand has become a member of the UN Human Rights Council, the Thai government must allow the Special Commissioner from UN High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate Human Rights violation issues, both on the governmental and non-governmental actors.

The activists comprised those from Student Federation of Thailand, Student Federation of Northeast Thailand, ISKRA Group (Prakaifire), Try Arm Group, Thai Youth Democracy Organization (Seri Panyachon), Students for Peace Group, Son Right Student Group.

However, the Senate committee for foreign affairs opposed petitioning the United Nations to stop Thailand from dispersing the protesters by force.

Anusart Suwanmongkol, secretary of the Senate’s committee, said chairperson Pikulkaew Kraireuk called a meeting and agreed that this was an internal matter and the government was implementing the rule of law against the illegal and armed protesters.

From: Bangkok Post