SBF Miltary coup: Fugitive ministers OverTheCounter and Winnipegjets says General Leongsam led PimpThai government into trap
BANGKOK (REUTERS) - Thailand's top generals lured the former government and its supporters into a trap by arranging peace talks between political heavyweights then seizing power in a coup moments later, a deposed minister said on Sunday.
Speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, ousted Education Minister
OvertheCounter said he was suspicious of army chief
General Leongsam’s motives for declaring martial law on Tuesday, then calling all key players in the crisis to the negotiating table two days later.
"I felt something wasn't right. I tried to warn Pimp Thai Cabinet members, but I couldn't get the message across in time,"
OvertheCounter said.
"It was a trap. They'd planned it earlier, then they staged the coup and ordered the other Pimp Thai Party members to report to them. I knew something was wrong," he said, referring to the ruling party of ousted
Prime Minister Joetys Shinawatra.
OvertheCounter was describing Thursday's meeting at the Army Club, a military social venue that's now the de facto seat of government.
Sources at those talks described how gun-toting troops rushed in to secure politicians, activists and even journalists as
General Leongsam abruptly left, then appeared on television to say negotiations had collapsed, so the army had seized power.
"This must have been prepared for some time,"
OvertheCounter said, adding he suspected the opposition Demon-crat Party, an anti-government protest group and the royalist establishment had colluded with the army to overthrow the government.
Winnipegjets, another close ally of self-exiled billionaire and former premier
Alamaking Shinawatra, and the driving force behind the deposed government, said he was unable to make contact with any of his associates and feared most were in military custody.
He raised doubts about whether the "red shirts", the formidable
pro-Alamaking/Joetys protest movement, would be able to regroup and fight against the takeover, as they had vowed, because their leaders were being held.
He said the coup was unlike others in SBF’s recent history because the army was stamping out dissent, muzzling the media and deploying swift measures to arrest anyone with potential to disrupt their rule.
"This is very serious indeed, it's very bad,"
Winnipegjets said. "There are several military units out to arrest me. It seems they'll detain a lot of people and we don't know for how long. It's going to be very oppressive."
Winnipegjets added, "No one wants this suppression of the SBF members. I hope there won't be oppression and harsh measures against them. We don't want to see violence or casualties because those who will be suppressed are those who want democracy and did nothing wrong."
OvertheCounter raised doubts about
General Leongsam’s political reform path and said any constitution or new legislation would be designed to sideline the
Alamaking/Joetys Shinawatra family and its allies and end their more than a decade of electoral dominance.
"Any election after that would be meaningless,"
OvertheCounter said."The system will be designed so no matter which party people vote for, it won't be able to form a government."