Greenpeace is appealing to Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to abstain from signing the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (Jtepa) during his visit to Japan next week, unless the toxic and nuclear waste liberalisation provisions in Jtepa are stricken out. Otherwise the agreement will serve as a vehicle to legitimise and encourage the dumping of Japan's unwanted waste in the Kingdom.

It is unfortunate that despite these lopsided provisions in the treaty, and clear intentions on the part of the Japanese government to export its waste problems to its poorer Asian neighbours, the Thai government still chose to endorse the agreement in its present form.

Greenpeace believes that the country's existing rules and policies are not strong enough to stem the flow of toxic and hazardous wastes that an agreement like Jtepa could set off. Even without Jtepa, Thailand is already at the receiving end of hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste from Japan and other countries. There is no information about how and where these dangerous wastes are dealt with in the country.

Moreover, the country has yet to ratify the Basel Ban, which is intended to prevent these immoral and unjust waste dumping practices from happening. It is likewise shameful for Japan to use its economic might to advance its colonialist waste agenda in the region.

We continue to hope that in the end the government's sense of patriotism and dignity will prevail and move to have the agreement free of the controversial waste provisions. Greenpeace will continue in its campaign to ensure that Thailand does not become a dumping ground for hazardous waste from Japan and other countries.

Tara Buakamsri

Greenpeace Southeast Asia

Bangkok

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Surayud has limited time to put wrongdoers behind bars

Re: "Surayud faced with troubling scenarios from all sides", Opinion, March 30.

Well, with due respect to the Prime Minister, as the date of the election has been announced, he now has only a few more months to go. It is time to escalate the speed of the work for which the September 19 coup took place - put guilty parties behind bars and restore the faith of well-wishers.

Kalyamitta

Bangkok

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Harmony not possible if voices are being suppressed

I give Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont some credit for his decision. On the other hand, it's his only real option and it's a politically calculated move.

Should violence erupt at protests, he will be remembered as the person who allowed the protests to happen. This could actually win him support amongst the pro-democracy crowd, as he will be seen as a defender of free speech. The move could backfire if it gets too ugly, however.

I agree with the argument that if he were to impose a state of emergency, it would only increase the anger of the protesters and help swell their ranks. As for those who say that everything is fine and the government should just be allowed to do what they want, you obviously miss the point of democracy.

Thaksin, for better or for worse, was elected into office. When the military rolled into town and ended his term, they ended democracy. Millions of people voted for Thaksin through the Thai Rak Thai (the majority of the eligible electorate). All of those who voted for and supported him were disenfranchised as a result.

Unity is a myth. It rarely happens in times outside of war and even then there is usually dissent. However, if you want peace, you've got to accept what the people want whether you like it or not. Then, in the next election (not coup), you try to make your argument heard and understood. Until that happens, you're not only going to have disharmony, you're probably going to have violence as well. The only place that I know that has true unity is North Korea. As far as I know there is no disunity there. Anybody want to go?

Fed-Up

Bangkok

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Extra-judicial tactics of prior regime not used by junta

All these people hyperventilating on account of the coup will have bloated themselves needlessly. This coup promised to get rid of Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai cohorts and they have accomplished that (too bad the Democrat Party may also be dissolved along with the Thai Rak Thai - I hope that doesn't happen).

The new constitution will be forthcoming slightly late and it won't be perfect but hopefully it won't be terrible either. And Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont is committed to holding the elections come December.

More importantly there has not been one Thai citizen falsely blacklisted and executed and this junta, even under military rule, has stuck with the observance of the rule of law.

The former regime allegedly dispensed with the rule of law to order the extrajudicial killings of thousands of blacklisted villagers. That demonstrated to the Thai people what the former government was capable of in order to impress the naive and gullible and to indirectly threaten critics. An extrajudicial leader like Thaksin surely would not hesitate to order the arrest or worse of Bangkok protesters, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands. I believe Thanong that Thaksin is capable of declaring emergency rule, or worse, in order to muzzle his critics.

Matty

Bangkok

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Article ignored CNS assaults on freedom of expression

Re: "Stirring up trouble will shut door on Thaksin forever", News, March 30.

While the writer tries to protect the military by claiming that authorities have always allowed the anti-government protesters to hold rallies and permit them to air their views " uninterrupted", he ignores the cases of threats to anti-coup protesters.

There have been numerous incidents where laws were used to prohibit protesters to gather and associate freely and this fact is ignored in the article. There have been incidents in which students holding seminars against the coup were ordered to end the discussion. Protesters were shortly detained by the police and pushed out of the Grand Hyatt Hotel when presenting their views on the flaws in the National Legislative Assembly selection process when the prime minister was present. Members of the White Dove Group were detained by police earlier this month.

Thousands of websites have been closed down by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, as Freedom Against Censorship Thailand has detailed in their research.

The writer also refers to how the protesters are the ones instigating violence, which flies in the face of the historical context of protests. The previous incidents of demonstrations in Thailand - October 14, 1973 and October 6, 1973 - would not have resulted in violence if the protesters' freedom of expression had been respected. Violence occurred during these protests only because the officials of state fired on unarmed or peaceful protesters.

Under international laws, to which Thailand is a signatory, any government, whether it is military-installed or a civilian government, does not have the right to prohibit people from freely and peacefully voicing their concerns.

If one of the most critical newspapers in the country accepts this military government bias, it reflects how the freedom of expression in Thailand is coming to an end.

Pokpong Lawansiri

Bangkok

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'300''s depiction of Persia driven by 'vicious stereotypes'

The Iranian people are outraged by the movie "300", [which is] purportedly about an epic battle fought between the Persian and Greek armies in 480 BC, but which is full of deliberate distortions and derogatory depictions of ancient Persia. It is about the war between the Greek King Leonidas heading an army of 300 Spartans and the Persian Emperor Xerxes commanding an army of one million. It portrays Iranians as monsters rising from the heart of darkness to destroy Greek civilisation.  

This insulting movie is being screened in some of the cinemas of Thailand. We are sure the wise and respectful people of the Kingdom already have found out the message of the movie, which actually is in line with the current concerted efforts by certain Western interest circles to systematically demonise the Iranian nation.

While recognising that this is not a docudrama, and that it is a "fantasy" version of a historical past, it seems judicious to investigate why the film fails to convey a bare minimum of truth about Iranian history and indulges in inventing perverse, demonic images of Persians.

The movie is overtly racist, overflowing with vicious stereotypes of Persians as a dangerous, bestial force fatally threatening the civilised "free" world.

We feel that this movie not only has done a poor job painting the reality of the past, but also it has humiliated the Iranian culture and the reality of what Iran represented during that era.

Iranian history records celebration of life, light and love. Iranian civilisation from the beginning up until now respects all religions and beliefs.

The movie not only is trying to distort Iranian history and civilisation but also is aimed at distorting world history and shaking the foundations of human insight.

The movie is part of a comprehensive effort on the part of the West to launch a psychological war aimed at Iranian culture through Hollywood and other media.

The movie's efforts will be fruitless because values in Iranian culture and the Islamic Revolution are too strongly seated to be damaged by such plans.

Finally the Embassy of the Islamic republic of Iran has no doubt that the Thai people, keeping in mind the long history of more than 400 hundred years of cordial relations with Iran, are aware that the story of the movie is unrealistic and is a birth child of mental fancy of the author and producers.

Akbar Khodaei

Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Bangkok