As Thailand’s Thaksin goes free, questions about his political future loom
Bangkok, Thailand – Thailand’s jailed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released on parole after being detained for six months at a police hospital over corruption-related offences. Thaksin’s release, the culmination of a period of reconciliation between his populist movement and the country’s conservative establishment, raises questions about what role the former telecoms tycoon might play in Thai politics going forward. Thaksin, a towering but divisive presence in Thai politics whose populist policies appealed to rural dwellers who felt neglected by the country’s ruling elites, led Thailand between 2001 and 2006, when his government was toppled in a military coup. Even after fleeing the country in 2008 to avoid punishment for abuse of power and other offences while in office, Thaksin, 74, exerted a looming presence over politics in Thailand. Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra served as Thailand’s first female prime minister from 2011 until 2014, under the banner of the Pheu Thai Party, which was born out of the remnants of Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai. Thaksin’s return to Thailand in August following nearly 16 years of self-imposed exile coincided with the Pheu Thai Party’s return to power after it formed a coalition government with the pro-military Palang Pracharath Party and United Thai Nation led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. The Move Forward Party, the winners of elections in May, were blocked by the military-appointed Senate from forming government amid an establishment backlash to proposed reforms to the military and the monarchy, including a pledge to amend Thailand’s controversial lese-majeste law. The timing of Thaksin’s return and his receipt of a royal pardon, which reduced his eight-year sentence to one year, has led to speculation that a secret deal was made to allow him to come home on favourable terms. Move Forward, the leader of the opposition in parliament, said in a statement on Sunday that the circumstances of Thaksin’s release raised questions about whether there are double standards in the justice system. The Pheu Thai Party, which is led by Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn, has denied striking a deal to win the former prime minister leniency. Supporters of Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gathered at his home to celebrate his release [File: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters] For supporters of Thaksin, whose arrival at his home in western Bangkok on Sunday was met by a scrum of media and well-wishers, his release is a small measure of justice for a man unfairly hounded for taking on the establishment. Peemai Sirikul, a Thaksin supporter, said the former leader’s release meant “mission accomplished”. “He shouldn’t have been punished as he did nothing wrong, – it’s because of the coup d’état,” she told Al Jazeera. “Thaksin lost his life unfairly for 17 years.” Others see Thaksin as a recipient of special treatment. Within hours of being sentenced last year, Thaksin complained of health issues and was transferred from prison to Bangkok’s Police General Hospital where he spent the next six months. While the exact conditions of Thaksin’s parole are unclear, local media have reported that he is expected to spend the remainder of his one-year sentence at home. On Sunday, dozens of protesters gathered outside Thailand’s Government House to object to Thaksin’s parole. One activist wore a makeshift sign stating, “Where is Thaksin the prisoner?” Pichit Chaimongkol, the leader of the Students and Peoples Network for Thailand Reform, said he wants to see justice. “Thaksin didn’t go to the right jail. He took a rest and was very comfortable,” he told Al Jazeera. “Against the politics of Thailand and every law, we say he should go to the right jail. We are asking for real justice from the government. Thaksin did some wrong things, so how does he have the right to be very comfortable and not go to jail?” Mark S Cogan, an associate professor of peace and conflict studies at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, said Thaksin’s release sends the wrong message. “Thaksin’s release sends a terrible message to the Thai people, that there are criminal repercussions for violations of draconian laws, which have ensnared many human rights and democratic activists, but rich, connected elites like Thaksin, who were once accused of serious crimes, have an offramp and an escape back into wealth and power,” Cogan told Al Jazeera. Thaksin Shinawatra led Thailand between 2001 and 2006 [File: Sakchai Lalit/AP] Thailand experienced major political unrest in 2020 and 2021 as large street demonstrations called for a change in government and reform of the monarchy. In recent years, hundreds of people have been arrested under Thailand’s lese-majeste law, known as Article 112, which carries lengthy prison terms for defaming, insulting or threatening the monarchy. Cogan said that Thaksin is likely to again get involved in Thai politics following his release. “Now a relatively free man, he will inevitably reinsert himself into national affairs, calling into question the legitimacy of the Srettha government due to his control over the Pheu Thai Party,” he said. But Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said Thaksin may not have the influence he once did. “Thaksin is seen as having sold out by some of the Pheu Thai base by forming government with pro-military parties and cutting a deal with the establishment just to get himself home,” he told Al Jazeera. “His commuted sentence from eight years to one and then to be paroled in six months without a day in jail will reinforce the sense of inequality and injustice. His extraordinary stand-alone treatment is unlikely to boost the Pheu Thai’s popularity.” “Thaksin’s political power is much less than it used to be after all the ups and downs over two decades,” Thitinan added. “His Pheu Thai party is not so dominant now as it lost the election for the first time last May to Move Forward.” Despite his parole, Thaksin is not completely out legal jeopardy. On Monday, the billionaire ex-prime minister met with prosecutors investigating a royal insult complaint stemming from remarks he made in South Korea in 2015. Thailand’s attorney-general’s office
ICJ to hold hearings on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories
Hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestine are separate from the genocide case brought by South Africa. The United Nations’s highest court is set to open historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of the Palestinian territories. The week-long proceedings, which begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday, come as Israel continues its devastating war on Gaza. The assault has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since October 7. The case is separate from the genocide complaint South Africa filed at the ICJ against Israel for its alleged violations in the ongoing war. It focuses instead on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967. The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state. Palestinian representatives, who speak first on Monday, will argue that the Israeli occupation is illegal because it has violated three key tenets of international law, the Palestinian legal team told reporters on Wednesday. They say Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swathes of occupied land, violated Palestinians’ right to self-determination and imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid. “We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the UN organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. “They’ve had to consider the word genocide in the South Africa case,” he said, referring to the separate case before the court. “Now we want them to consider apartheid.” Awadallah said that an advisory opinion from the court “will give us many tools, using peaceful international law methods and tools, to confront the illegalities of the occupation”. The court will likely take months to make a ruling. After the Palestinians present their arguments, an unprecedented 51 countries and three organisations – the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union – will address the judges in the wood-panelled Great Hall of Justice. Israel will not present an oral argument, although it has sent written observations. The case arrived at the court after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted by a wide margin in December 2022 to ask the 15-judge panel for a non-binding advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation. The request was promoted by Palestinians and opposed vehemently by Israel, which said any potential decision from the court would be “completely illegitimate”. Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967 during a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but still controls the enclave’s borders. In the occupied West Bank, it has built 146 settlements, according to the watchdog group Peace Now, which are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15 percent in the last five years, according to a pro-settler group. Israel also has annexed East Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers to be neighbourhoods of its capital. Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination, making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones. The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites, is not internationally recognised. The case marks the second time the UNGA has asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, for an advisory opinion related to the occupied Palestinian territory. In July 2004, the court found that Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank violated international law and should be dismantled, though it still stands to this day. Adblock test (Why?)
At least 64 killed in ‘largest’ tribal clashes in Papua New Guinea
Police retrieve 64 bodies after fighting breaks out between rival tribes in Papua New Guinea’s northern highlands. At least 64 people have been killed in tribal violence in the northern highlands of Papua New Guinea, according to media reports, with one police officer describing the killings as the “largest” in the Pacific nation’s recent history. The Post-Courier newspaper, citing local police, said the killings began at dawn on Sunday in the Wapenamanda District of the Enga Province. They involved the Ambulin and Sikin tribes as well as their allies, it said. Police told the Post-Courier they retrieved some 64 bodies from the roadside, grasslands and hills of Wapenamanda by Monday morning. Rival factions used “high-powered guns”, such as AK47 and M4 rifles in the battles, the newspaper reported. The death toll is expected to rise, it added. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said the violence involved the same tribes that were responsible for clashes that killed 60 in Enga Province last year. “This is by far the largest [killing] I’ve seen in Enga, maybe in all of Highlands as well, in Papua New Guinea,” said George Kakas, a senior officer in the country’s police force. “We are all devastated, we’re all mentally stressed out,” Kakas told the ABC. “It’s really hard to comprehend.” The AFP news agency said police received graphic videos and photos from the scene, showing stripped and bloodied bodies lying by the side of the road and piled up on the back of a flatbed truck. The agency said the military has deployed about 100 troops to the area but that their impact has been limited, with the security services remaining outnumbered and outgunned. In the capital Port Moresby, opponents of Prime Minister James Mara’s government called for quick action, including the deployment of additional troops to the area. “We call on the government to immediately establish where the guns and bullets are coming from to fuel this senseless violence,” they added in a statement, according to the Post-Courier. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also expressed concern. “That is very disturbing the news that has come out of Papua New Guinea,” he said in a radio interview on Monday. “We’re providing considerable support, particularly for training police officers and for security in Papua New Guinea.” Adblock test (Why?)
Can Benjamin Netanyahu resist the revolt against his leadership?
Calls are growing louder in Israel for the resignation of the Israeli prime minister. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under growing pressure, both from politicians within his own government and from world leaders who are increasingly uneasy at the rising death toll and destruction of Israel’s war on Gaza. The prime minister is facing mounting domestic pressure to secure the release of Israeli hostages seized during the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October that triggered the Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory. Netanyahu has long been a controversial leader. His government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary prompted months of widespread demonstrations last year. On Saturday, thousands rallied across the country to demand elections now. Netanyahu has dismissed the demands for elections to be brought forward from their scheduled date in 2026. Can Netanyahu be toppled? And is he continuing the war in Gaza to try and stay in power? Presenter: Adrian Finighan Guests: Oren Ziv – Journalist and commentator with +972 Magazine Thabet Abu Rass – Co-executive director, Abraham Initiatives Akiva Eldar – Political analyst and journalist Adblock test (Why?)
Palestinians live in scarcity in Rafah as Israeli ground assault looms
Displaced Palestinians crammed into Rafah in southern Gaza are struggling to secure basic necessities as aid agencies and several world leaders have warned that a looming Israeli offensive on the city would have disastrous consequences. More than 1.5 million people, most of whom were displaced from other areas of Gaza, are sheltering in Rafah, where food and other essential supplies are scarce amid severe Israeli restrictions on the transport of food, fuel, water and humanitarian aid into Gaza. Despite the growing external pressure to halt the Rafah assault, Israel says it will press ahead with a ground offensive into the city near the border with Egypt to confront battalions of fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza. The United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine has slammed the planned Israeli ground offensive on the city. “Rafah stands as the last line of Palestinian existence in Gaza, amidst the relentless anguish faced by the people trapped therein,” Francesa Albanese said. Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general and CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has warned that the healthcare situation in Gaza is “beyond critical” and the gap between needs and support available is widening. “Civilian population in Gaza have suffered enough, and healthcare stands as one of the last remaining beacons of hope,” Chapagain wrote on X, warning that many vulnerable people are lacking essential medical services. Israel has repeatedly carried out attacks on hospitals and medical complexes in Gaza since launching its war on the besieged coastal enclave on October 7, crippling health services for the Palestinians living there. According to the latest assessments from the World Health Organization (WHO), only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning – five in the north and six in the south. On Sunday, the WHO chief said that Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in southern Gaza, was “no longer functional” after weeks of deadly Israeli siege and shelling. To compensate for the loss of essential healthcare services, Palestinian workers installed on Sunday a mobile hospital in Rafah. Adblock test (Why?)
Navalny’s widow Yulia will meet EU foreign ministers, Borrell says
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, will meet European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said. The 47-year-old Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent domestic foe, died in a Russian jail on Friday after spending more than three years behind bars, prompting outrage and condemnation from Western leaders and his supporters. “On Monday, I will welcome Yulia Navalnaya at the EU Foreign Affairs Council,” Josep Borrell said late on Sunday on X. “EU Ministers will send a strong message of support to freedom fighters in Russia” and “honour” Navalny’s memory, he said. Earlier on Sunday, Navalnaya shared a post on Instagram that showed a picture of the two together, their heads touching as they watched a performance. “I love you,” she wrote in the post two days after her husband’s death. It brought a personal note to the loss she expressed more formally on a public stage just hours after Navalny’s passing was announced by the Russian prison service. Navalny, 47, fell unconscious and died on Friday after a walk at the “Polar Wolf” penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a three-decade sentence, the prison service said. There are still few details on why he died. On Friday afternoon, Navalnaya appeared before an audience of leaders, diplomats and other officials at the Munich Security Conference, saying she had weighed coming out on stage or immediately leaving to be with the couple’s two children, Daria and Zakhar, deciding her husband would want her to speak. If the news of his death was true, Navalnaya, 47, said, “I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband”. Hundreds arrested Navalny’s sudden death was a crushing blow to many Russians, who had pinned their hopes for the future on Putin’s fiercest foe. Navalny remained vocal in his unrelenting criticism of the Kremlin even after surviving a nerve agent poisoning and receiving multiple prison terms. His death came a month before a presidential election in Russia that is widely expected to give Putin another six years in power. Hundreds of people in dozens of Russian cities streamed to ad-hoc memorials and monuments to victims of political repressions with flowers and candles on Friday and Saturday to pay tribute to the politician. In more than a dozen cities, police detained 366 people by Sunday night, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid. More than 200 arrests were made in St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, the group said. Among those detained there was Grigory Mikhnov-Voitenko, a priest of the Apostolic Orthodox Church – a religious group independent of the Russian Orthodox Church – who announced plans on social media to hold a memorial service for Navalny and was arrested on Saturday morning outside his home. He was charged with organising a rally and placed in a holding cell in a police precinct, but was later hospitalised with a stroke, OVD-Info reported. Courts in St Petersburg have ordered 42 of those detained on Friday to serve from one to six days in jail, while nine others were fined, court officials said late on Saturday. In Moscow, at least six people were ordered to serve 15 days in jail, according to OVD-Info. Questions remain Questions about the cause of death have lingered, and it remains unclear when the authorities may release Navalny’s body. More than 12,000 people have submitted requests to the Russian government asking for the politician’s remains to be handed over to his relatives, OVD-Info said on Sunday. Navalny’s team said Saturday that the politician was “murdered” and accused the authorities of deliberately stalling the release of the body, with Navalny’s mother and lawyers getting contradicting information from various institutions where they went in their quest to retrieve the body. Russian authorities viewed Navalny and his supporters as extremists with links to the CIA intelligence agency in the United States, which they say is seeking to destabilise Russia. Navalny always dismissed accusations that he was a CIA asset. Adblock test (Why?)
US signals it will block proposed Gaza ceasefire resolution at UN
US says it would veto an Algerian draft resolution at the UN Security Council urging ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’. The United States has said it will block another resolution that will soon be presented at the United Nations urging a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. Algeria has proposed a new resolution be put to a vote on Tuesday at the UN Security Council (UNSC) that seeks an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, while also demanding an “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. “Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield in a statement on Saturday. The envoy said the resolution could “run counter” to the goals that Washington says can be achieved through diplomacy in talks between Israel and Hamas that Qatar and Egypt are also mediating. A potential agreement, which has been under discussion for weeks, proposes a weekslong truce, during which Israeli captives held in Gaza can be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and more humanitarian aid can enter the besieged Gaza Strip. The talks appeared to suffer a setback last week when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Hamas’s demands “ludicrous”, and mediator Qatar has said the discussions have not been promising. “The Council has the obligation to ensure that any action we take in the coming days increases pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal on the table,” Thomas-Greenfield said. The US has used its veto power to support Israel at the Security Council on dozens of occasions. It has done so several times since the start of the war on October 7, most recently in early December when it vetoed a ceasefire resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates. A UNSC resolution was passed in late December, but it was roundly criticised by human rights organisations and others for being a “watered down” version of the original proposal. The Algerian proposal for a vote on a new resolution comes amid growing fears that Israel is planning a ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, home to around 1.4 million Palestinians displaced from other parts of the territory since October. Aid agencies and the UN have warned that a ground assault on Rafah could be catastrophic. Adblock test (Why?)
Week in pictures: From elections in Indonesia to a film festival in Germany
[unable to retrieve full-text content] A roundup of some of last week’s events.
Brazil’s Lula compares Israel’s war on Gaza with the Holocaust
Israeli foreign minister says he will summon Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand over the remarks which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as ‘disgraceful’. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and compared its war on Gaza with Adolf Hitler’s campaign to exterminate Jewish people. “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip isn’t a war, it’s a genocide,” Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa where he was attending an African Union summit on Sunday. “It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” added the Brazilian president. “What’s happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn’t happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” Led by Hitler, the Nazis systematically killed six million Jews during World War II. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he would summon Brazil’s ambassador for a reprimand over the remarks. “No one will compromise Israel’s right to defend itself,” Katz said on X, adding that the envoy would be summoned on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the comments as “disgraceful and grave”. “This is a trivialisation of the Holocaust and an attempt to attack the Jewish people and the right of Israel to self-defence. Drawing comparisons between Israel and the Nazis and Hitler is to cross a red line,” Netanyahu said in a statement. Lula, 78, had condemned the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel as a “terrorist” act the day it happened. But he has since grown vocally critical of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza. At least 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an Al Jazeera tally of Israeli official figures. Hamas members also took about 250 people captive, 130 of whom are still in Gaza, including 30 who are presumed dead, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. Lula criticised Western countries’ recent decisions to halt aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused some of its employees of involvement in the Hamas-led attack. Lula, who met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, has said Brazil will increase its own contribution to the agency and urged other countries to do the same. “When I see the rich world announce that it’s halting its contributions to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, I just imagine how big these people’s political awareness is and how big the spirit of solidarity in their hearts is,” Lula said. “We need to stop being small when we need to be big.” He reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestine “definitively recognised as a full and sovereign state”. Adblock test (Why?)
How bleak is the outlook for Israel’s economy?
Moody’s has lowered Israel’s credit rating for the first time and forecast a negative outlook for the economy. Massive military spending and a drop in revenues. Israel is borrowing heavily to fund its war on Gaza. And it is now on track to run one of its widest budget deficits this century. Worried about the fiscal and political risks, Moody’s has lowered Israel’s credit rating for the first time. The agency has also forecast a negative outlook for the economy. Israel’s finance minister has slammed the decision as a “political manifesto”. But is it? Commercial real estate in the United States is faltering, and banks as far away as Germany are feeling the pain. Plus, the four-day workweek. Adblock test (Why?)