BANGKOK — The leader of a Redshirt security unit has disputed an allegation that he was behind the deadly grenade attack on rival anti-government protesters in Bangkok earlier this year.

The police recently arrested four men in the connection with the 23 February attack, in which unknown assailants launched a grenade at the rally site of the anti-government People's Committee for Absolute Democracy With the King As Head of State (PCAD) at Ratchaprasong Intersection.

The attack killed two children and one 59-year-old woman.

One of the arrested suspects, Chatchawan Prapbumrung, reportedly told police that he and the other suspects belonged to a militant unit allied to the Redshirt political group, the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD). The UDD supported the government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that was recently toppled in a military coup on 22 May. 

According to police, Mr. Chatchawan claimed during the interrogation that Arie Krainara, the leader of the UDD’s security unit, masterminded the group's operation and engineered many attacks on the PCAD protesters during their six-month campaign to oust Ms. Yingluck.

The remark was reported on a number of pro-PCAD newspapers, including Naew Na and Thai Post.

Yesterday, Mr. Arie and his lawyer met with the Crime Suppression Division to file a libel charge against Mr. Chatchawan over the accusation.

He also charged the newspapers that carried Mr. Chatchawan's allegation with violating the Computer Crime Act, which outlaws spreading false information on computer systems.

Mr. Arie told police that the accusation was false and that he never knew Mr. Chatchawan or any of the other suspects. 

"UDD lawyers have concluded that it is best to pursue legal action against the man who accused me and the news agencies that published the story, because it damages my reputation," Mr. Arie said. "I have to defend my rights and ask for fairness."

The police say Mr. Arie's case has been accepted.

A total of seven arrest warrants were issued in connection to the 23 February attack. Three more suspects remain at large, police say.

According to police reports, Mr. Chatchawan said  the group arrived at the bridge over Pratunam intersection in three separate vehicles. After parking their vehicles, one of the suspects reportedly lowered the window and fired a grenade at the protesters, after which the group quickly fled the scene.

The suspects have been charged with premeditated murder, causing explosions with intention to harm other people, carrying and using explosive devices without a permit, possessing firearms and ammunition without a permit, carrying weapons into residential areas without due cause, firing explosives in residential area without due cause, and violating the Internal Security Act, which was imposed over Bangkok at the time. 

Almost 30 people were killed in shootouts and grenade attacks on PCAD protest sites during the group’s campaign against the former government, which ended in a military coup on 22 May. 

A number of Redshirt activists have privately acknowledged that armed militants allied to the UDD were behind some of the  attacks, although the UDD has officially denied its involvement in any of the incidents. 

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By Cod Satrusayang and Siraphob Thanthong-Knight

BANGKOK (DPA) —  Thailand's military junta lifted its travel ban on former premier Yingluck Shinawatra Thursday, clearing the way for her to visit Europe later this month. 

The former prime minister submitted a letter to General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the head of the junta – known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – asking for permission to leave the country for a holiday with her son.

"Yingluck has been complying with the order from NCPO, so there is no reason to not grant her permission to travel," army spokesman Colonel Winthai Suwaree told reporters at a press conference.

Yingluck was banned from any political affiliations and from any travel abroad after the military coup in May, he said.

Her brother and former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has been in exile since 2006 after being overthrown in a previous coup.

Yingluck is expected to attend her brother's birthday celebrations in France on July 26.

The Thai corruption commission also found the former prime minister guilty of negligence late Thursday. 

The National Anti Corruption Commission, in a unanimous decision, found Yingluck guilty of negligence in the management of a rice subsidy scheme which led to widespread corruption.

They will now forward the case to prosecutors for indictment and trial.

The rice subsidy scheme had been a major talking point for Yingluck's opponent as they sought to topple her government. 

"It is just a coincidence that the two cases happened on the same day. The lifting of the travel ban will probably not be affected," a political insider told dpa. 

"She is not yet a criminal, the case now goes to prosecutors and she has promised to return to fight the charges."

BANGKOK — Thailand’s military regime has suspended local elections and announced plans to replace elected officials with bureaucrats in a move that further centralises its power over the country's provinces.

In a televised announcement issued on Tuesday night, the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said members of local administrations in Bangkok and other provinces will be replaced by selected officials after the terms of the current officials expire. According to the order, the changes will only affect local administrative agencies where half of their members' terms are set to expire by the end of the year.

Two hundred and fifty-five local administrative agencies will be effected by the new ruling, Election Commission (EC) officials say.  

The new local officials will be appointed by the EC and two-thirds of them are required to be current or former bureaucrats with the "senior" rank of C-8. According to the order, the selection process "should also consider the behaviour, morality, honesty, and political neutrality of the selected individuals."

Although all provincial governors in Thailand are already appointed by the central government in Bangkok rather than elected locally, citizens normally elect the members of their Provincial Administrative Organisations and Subdistrict Administrative Organisations. Bangkok's district councilors are also elected. 

The announcement effectively abolished the last remaining resemblance of democratic institutions in Thailand, as the NCPO already deposed the elected government on 22 May and liquidated the Senate and the 2007 Constitution shortly thereafter. 

Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn welcomed the new ruling, calling it a "temporary solution" for the country. He also said the NCPO is ensuring that only "able" bureaucrats are appointed to oversee the country's local administrations. 

"It took a long time for these bureaucrats to reach where they are right now," Mr. Somchai said. 

Nevertheless, Mr. Somchai admitted that handing administrative power to bureaucrats may come with a price: a "bureaucratic mentality," in which officials are wedded to existing rules and formats, may lead the new administrators to lose touch with the citizens in their areas. Veteran politicians, on the other hand, are sometimes better at identifying with constituents and understanding their needs, Mr. Somchai said.

The NCPO’s announcement has alarmed those concerned to see the unraveling of Thailand's decentralised provincial system, which has been steadily gaining ground for two decades.

The replacement of elected politicians with full-time bureaucrats has also raised concerns that the NCPO may bring back the so-called "Bureaucratic State” of the 1980s in which a weak parliament was dominated by a heavy presence of bureaucratic and military rule.

According to sources inside the EC, the NCPO is bent on preventing the former ruling Pheu Thai Party from regaining its influence in the countryside; Pheu Thai Party and its predecessor, Thai Rak Thai Party, have garnered widespread support in the rural northern and northeastern Thailand and won every national election since 2001.

"When it's time to organise a national and provincial election, it will be very difficult for the big old party to return to power," a source said, referring to the Pheu Thai Party. 

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