Former Army Chief Gen Sonthi Boonyarattakalin, leader of the 2006 coup, and Deputy Prime Minister Maj Gen Sanan Kochornprasat faced a protest by a group of students dressed up like ghosts during a public forum on reconciliation and amnesty at Ramkhamhaeng University.

On 11 Oct, Gen Sonthi and Maj Gen Sanan were among speakers on reconciliation and amnesty as a solution to political problems at a forum held by the Faculty of Political Science and the students’ organization of the university.

When Maj Gen Sanan spoke first at the start of the forum, a group of about 5 students came into an adjoining room which was occupied by an audience watching the forum through glass panels.  They wore makeup to look like ghosts and had placards attached to their chests with messages like ‘Pity that the dead have no reconciliation’, ‘I’m a professional soldier. I don’t play politics.’, and ‘Reconciliation? Have you asked the ghosts?’

The organizers quickly moved them away, begging the students to consider the reputation of the university.  Part of the audience applauded the students.  When some reporters took photographs, one of the organizers closed the curtains between the two rooms.

The group of students agreed to leave the room as requested and distributed copies of their open letter to the reporters, despite attempts to obstruct them by students from the co-organizing students’ organization.   

The letter, addressed to Sonthi and Sanan without rank, said that the attempt to seek reconciliation and amnesty was a shame when those who were responsible for the 91 deaths had yet to be identified and punished.  Reconciliation or amnesty was relevant only after the people were informed of the truth and the government which ‘killed the people’ resigned or called a new election.  And it should be carried out by the people themselves, not by politicians, particularly those ‘who staged coups to seize power from the people.’

Therefore, neither Sonthi nor Sanan are suitable or legitimate persons to call for reconciliation or amnesty, said the letter from the group called ‘Ram Prakai Fire’.