U.S. signals tacit approval of Thai party disbandment

WASHINGTON, May 31 Kyodo

The United States refrained from criticizing the decision by Thailand's Constitutional Tribunal to disband the Thai Rak Thai political party, leaving the issue up to the Thai people and the tribunal.

''Frankly, I think this really is a matter for the constitutional tribunal and the Thai people to work out,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Thursday.

''The tribunal and the laws that were governing this decision were established before the interim government came into effect,'' Casey said at a news conference. ''At this point, our understanding is that the tribunal proceeded in accordance with Thai law.''

''The reaction that we've seen from the Thai political parties themselves is to call on their followers to respect this decision,'' Casey also said.

But Casey took the opportunity to urge Thailand's military-installed interim government ''to remain focused on the most important task at hand here, which is building consensus on a new constitution.''

He also called on the current Thai leaders to fulfill their commitment of holding democratic elections by the end of the year and to fully restore civil liberties.

Thai Rak Thai, which has over 14 million registered members, was the political party founded by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless military coup in September last year and has been living in exile in London.

The tribunal found Thai Rak Thai guilty of election fraud charges in connection with last year's general election. As a result, the court disbanded the party and banned the 111 executive members from all elections for five years.

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