Thai PM accused of human rights abuses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Thai PM accused of human rights abuses - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)





Thailand's prime minister has been accused of violating the human rights of anti-government Red Shirt protesters.

The accusation was made during a heated parliamentary no-confidence debate.

The Thai opposition says prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva violated the rights of protesters when he ordered the military to disperse them from their protest site.

The opposition also says the army's approach was not in line with international standards.

Violence associated with the two-month rally and its dispersal killed 88 people.

But the prime minister says the army was defending itself against armed militants.

He says the government only ever planned to surround the rally site to block access to supplies.

Lawyers for Red Shirt figurehead, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have hired an international war crimes expert to investigate the allegations.

Meanwhile, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay called for an independent probe into the violence in Thailand.

She called for those responsible for rights violations to be held to account.

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