Anti-Apec group submits letter to 8 embassies on quelling demonstration

REPRESENTATIVES of the People Stop Apec group submitted a letter to eight embassies today (Nov. 28) on the violence used by government officials in dispersing their protest march on Dinso road on Nov. 18 and urged their leaders to take a stance on this incident, Matichon newspaper said.

The embassies are France, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Indonesia and Chile.

At 10 a.m. the group first arrived at the French embassy where they said they had organised a parallel forum to reflect various problems and on Nov. 18 marched to Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre where the summit was held to follow up on their demands.

However their march was halted and today they had a report on human rights violations to communicate, they said.

“The important point is that the dispersal of the assembly on that day, which as we look at it, does not comply with the Public Assembly Act. The violent dispersal of the gathering was not proportionate with the behaviour of the demonstrators who did not show any signs of violence, or broke the march in anyway, we were going peacefully to communicate (our views). But the use of violence by the officers was beyond necessity.

“Another issue is the firing of rubber bullets whose trajectory is not in keeping with universally accepted standards, they were fired at the head and face. This can be seen in the case of Phayu Daodin, an activist who was shot in the right eye by a rubber bullet. And there was an attack on the media even though they were wearing armbands and informed that they were the media, but they too did not survive. Officials said this is true, and these issues are what we want to communicate.

“We came to the French embassy because we want France, one of the Apec member countries, to be responsible for use of force to disperse the protest by pressing the Thai government to take responsibility for all damages and change the crowd control process. France must end all trade agreements related to the BCG (Bio-Circular-Green) policy because it affects the rights and liberties of the people who are impacted by the grabbing of resources, ” a representative of the People Stop Apec group said at the French embassy.

After that the group went to other embassies as follows:

– 10.54 a.m. – Malaysian embassy;

– 11.24 a.m. – Canadian embassy;

– 11.54 a.m. – Australian embassy;

– 12.03 a.m. – US embassy.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Representatives of the People Stop Apec group handing over their letter to a Canadian embassy representative.

First below: The group submitting their letter to the French embassy.

Second below: The group handing over their letter to a Malaysian embassy representative .

Front Page: The group submitting their letter to the US embassy. All photos: Matichon

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