BANGKOK,
Thailand (AP) - The army general who led a coup
against former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said
Wednesday he supports a new elected government led by the ousted
leader’s ally and described his relationship with Thaksin as
"brotherly."Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, who was army commander
at the time of the September 2006 coup, accused Thaksin of
corruption and abuse of power, as well as of insulting King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is revered by most Thais.
"I want to offer support to the new government and want
everyone, including the opposition, to give them support,"
Sonthi said at a news conference a day after pro-Thaksin
stalwart Samak Sundaravej became the country’s new prime
minister.
Sonthi said he has spoken to Thaksin twice over the phone
since Samak’s party won elections last month, but that they had
not discussed the prospect of the former leader’s return to
Thailand.
"I have spoken to him once before his wife returned to
Thailand and once before the new coalition government was
formed," Sonthi said. "It was a brotherly chat and there was no
political condition."
Thaksin, who has lived in self-imposed exile in England since
the coup, faces an array of corruption charges, and hundreds of
millions of dollars (euros) of his family’s assets were frozen
by the interim military-installed government.
Pojaman Shinawatra, Thaksin’s wife, said after she returned
to Thailand earlier this month that her husband will come back
in May to face corruption charges.
Sonthi said his telephone conversations with Thaksin were
arranged by unspecified people who were concerned about the
country’s deep political divisions.
"We still love each other and our brotherhood remains,"
Sonthi said at the news conference, which followed his return
from a trip to the Middle East. The trip sparked rumors that he
was seeking political asylum in another country after Samak’s
People’s Power Party won the elections in December.
Some fear the six-party coalition government led by Samak and
other Thaksin loyalists could seek revenge against the coup
leaders, including Sonthi, who retired as army chief in
September to take a post as deputy prime minister in the
outgoing military-installed government.
PPP leaders repeatedly said that if they were elected they
would bring back Thaksin, seek revenge against the generals who
were behind the coup and make Thaksin an economic adviser to the
government.
The military tried without success after the coup to lessen
the former prime minister’s extensive influence.
