Army chief : the door for military coup is locked

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda insisted yesterday soldiers would not stage a military coup. He said Parliament was the best forum to solve the crisis.

"In my view, it must be the duty of the Parliament to end the crisis. It's impossible to allow people's groups who have totally different ideas to resolve the problem. They are not ready to compromise," he said.

"I insist that Parliament should take more responsibility. The inter¬national community will not accept military intervention," he said.

"A military coup would create more problems. The door for a coup d'etat is locked," he told a press conference at the Supreme Command office, after being appointed chief enforcer of the emergency decree in Bangkok and overseeing a meeting of senior officers.

Anupong stressed several times during the conference that parlia¬mentary mechanisms and political means should be used to solve the crisis.

The Army chief vowed to rely on negotiation and peaceful means in enforcing emergency measures to restore the situation to normal.

He said the panel would solve the unrest democratically and prevent people from clashing and doing damage. The panel would build understanding among people in the country and use talks to solve the crisis.

Military would not use guns when dealing with protesters, he said. Soldiers would be armed only with shields, batons, tear gas and water sprayers.

Asked if the military would pre¬fer to use force with people or ask¬ing the PM to stand down, Anupong said he wanted to be neutral. He said the Parliament and political institu¬tions should be the way to solve the crisis.

"If the military has to take any action we will choose to side with the people and won't use force or violence against people," he said.

Answering a reporter's question, Anupong said the military would try its best to protect the people. He said the police would do the same.

He said the emergency committee would not block people from the provinces from coming to Bangkok but would try their best to negotiate and convince them not to make the situation worse.

"We will negotiate with both sides not to use force with each other, but negotiating to achieve the ultimate goal under a certain timeframe might not be possible," he said.

No curfew would be imposed, he said.