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sabang

Thanpuying Viriya Chavakul, the lady-in-waiting to Her Majesty the Queen, has denied being the mastermind behind the attempted assassination of People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul.

Speaking to INN news yesterday, Thanpuying Viriya insisted she had no knowledge of the plot to kill Mr Sondhi. Following the assassination attempt, Mr Sondhi said a certain lady close to the palace was one party among many who had "chipped in" to have him killed. "I'm not worried. Whoever wants to implicate me, let them. The truth is the truth. I'm just a woman without a husband who is incapable of doing anything like that to Mr Sondhi," she said. "The thought [of having Mr Sondhi killed] never crossed my mind."

Thanpuying Viriya admitted she was acquainted with military top brass because of her charity work, which included visiting frontline soldiers, and she now heads a foundation under royal patronage to care for border patrol security officers.

The Sondhi murder bid has opened up speculation that the gunmen were connected to, or part of, the security forces. Bullet casings engraved with the initials of the Royal Thai Army were collected from the shooting scene on April 17.
Thanpuying Viriya said the top brass she is close to are now retired and they are not in any active positions.

"Besides, these people don't love me enough to volunteer any kind of risky service for me," she added.

Thanpuying Viriya said she was being discredited because she had "endorsed" former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's loyalty to the monarchy.

"But this is what I believe to be true [Thaksin being loyal to the monarchy]. Everyone is entitled to their opinion," she said. Thanpuying Viriya also denied Mr Sondhi's suggestion that she skimmed money from the sale of blue shirts, a fund-raising project to honour Her Majesty's birthday.


Bangkok Post : Thanpuying denies plotting to kill Sondhi

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what the dormouse said

Mid

ok , now she who must be obeyed is asking the question

how many Pandora ?

Plan B

I'd like to take this opportunity to deny plotting to kill Sondhi also.

The people also don't love me enough to volunteer any kind of risky service for me. Shame about that.

Mid

third hand reports suggest this is getting a lot more attention on Thai language boards ............

300 million ?????? and blue shirts

good2bhappy

now that is too much
Attempted murder no on loves me enough, but corruption that is beyond the pail

plorf

So she must have done it if I understood her denials correctly.
Did she do it on her own will ?

chitown

The plot is thickening for sure. Funny how people are scrambling and doing crazy things as the day of reckoning is getting closer.

plorf

^Indeed, yes. I thought that too, years of enforced silence and smooth sailing behind the scenes and now such unprecedented publicity.. People must be getting desperate.

DrB0b

Different blue, Queen's blue (see fah, sky blue) not Newin blueshirt blue (see nam ngern, navy blue), Thai has at least six different words for blue, the original story in Thai was quite specific that it was Queen's blue, the writer of the Bangkok Post version is dangerously inaccurate.

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killerbees

*an interesting article, and more mention of the infamous Thanpuying...

LAST MONTH we introduced Thailand’s royal sub-plot here at Inside Story. We suggested that the monarchy has been increasingly caught up in the political turmoil that has convulsed Thailand over the past three years. With some unexpected new action, the royal sub-plot has now thickened.

Early on the morning of 17 April 2009 Thai media tycoon and Yellow Shirt protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul was commuting through the streets of Bangkok. The details of what happened next remain sketchy. A hail of gunfire left his van riddled with holes. Whether this was a comically incompetent assassination bid or a murkier effort to germinate a crisis, Sondhi escaped relatively unscathed but with some unwelcome shrapnel lodged in his skull.

Sondhi has spent recent weeks recuperating and has only just broken his silence on what happened. Ever since he was rushed to hospital there has been intense speculation about who ordered this “hit.”

The immediate targets of scrutiny were the deposed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Red Shirt lieutenants. In the colour-coded street protests that have defined Thailand’s recent history, Thaksin has been pitted against Sondhi’s Yellow Shirts. The two were once business associates but a falling out has left much bad blood between them. It was protests led by Sondhi that culminated in the September 2006 coup against Thaksin.

After the post-coup elections of December 2007, when Thaksin-aligned politicians were once again endorsed by the Thai electorate, Sondhi took his supporters back to the streets of Bangkok. His provocative attacks on the government throughout 2008 culminated in the siege of Bangkok’s international airport and the toppling of prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law. Sondhi has marshalled his significant financial, media and political influence in a rolling campaign to oppose Thaksin and his Red Shirts.

So, Thaksin certainly has a motive. But the credibility of the theory that he was behind the assassination bid was short-lived and within days other, far more provocative, hypothesises emerged.

Sondhi himself has denied that Thaksin was involved and has pointed the finger at “influential soldiers.” In his first press conference since the assassination attempt, Sondhi identified a post-Thaksin political vacuum that “somebody” hopes to fill. In this new stage of political strife, existing alliances are apparently being called into question. “If I was killed, then this means [prime minister] Abhisit [Vejjajiva] can also be the next target. In this country men with guns can do anything without thinking how Thailand will survive.”

Nobody assumes that these “men with guns” work independently. There is an insinuation that they have high-level backing. Sondhi has made his position clear: “I suspect a powerful figure might be involved as an accomplice.”

There is much speculative and hushed whispering about exactly who that could be. Incredibly, the palace itself has been caught up in the rumour mill. Last week it was widely reported in the Thai and English language media that a close confidante of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit, Viraya Javakul, had denied involvement in the attack on Sondhi. One newspaper described her as a “lady-in-waiting.” The publicity given to her denial will only serve to generate further gossip, especially now that she has suggested that another unnamed courtier may be the actual target of the whispering campaign. The palace has tried to extricate itself from the damaging publicity by insisting that Viraya has no position in the royal household.

Since the coup that toppled Thaksin’s government, other palace insiders have been caught up in Thailand’s increasingly fractious political strife. In the past month Generals Prem Tinsulanonda and Surayud Chulanont, both powerbrokers on the King’s Privy Council, have been drawn into the public political fray. For a long time they have been aligned, in more than rumour, with Sondhi’s Yellow Shirt movement. Queen Sirikit has also been a prominent supporter of the Yellows, but it is now unclear whether they retain her favour.

The past successes of Sondhi Limthongkul and his Yellow Shirts have been widely attributed to the high-level backing provided to his political movement. The strength of that backing now has to be rethought in the light of Sondhi’s close shave. If diehard Yellow Shirts like Sondhi have found themselves vulnerable, and can no longer rely on their old friends, then the more dangerous plotting has probably only just begun. •

Nicholas Farrelly and Andrew Walker are Southeast Asia specialists in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. In 2006 they co-founded New Mandala, a website on mainland Southeast Asian affairs.

Thailand’s royal sub-plot thickens | Inside Story

watterinja

An inside track ties Prescilla closely to the removal of Thaksin.

Beginning to wonder if the whole 'democracy experiment' is being deemed a huge mistake. Perhaps the post-Elvis lanscape will be rather different?

good2bhappy

why would someone of this ladies ilk wish to assasinate a loyalist activist?

DrB0b

I've got no idea whether Veriya's involved or not but Sondhi's served his purpose and knows too much, he's also notoriously loose-lipped. The fact that the PAD are setting up their own political party (and also cutting down on the anti-red rhetoric, Sondhi mentioning that the reds have legitimate grievances and aren't in essence all that different from the yellows) also makes me think that they too are starting to be seen as insufficiently loyal and may end up themselves being a threat to the established order, disrupting the long-laid plans for the future structure of Thai Governance.

Sondhi himself has very little money, the PAD demonstrations and media were/are hugely expensive to run. The Thanphuying, apparently a close friend of well-known PAD supporters, deals with enormous amounts of money in the form of charitable donations and activities, I wonder how well-audited they are? Just a thought.

killerbees

And an interesting thought at that. So what will happen if/when this whole thing blows open? If Sondhi and a few others get taken out I think people will be able to connect the dots. If they were hoping he'd keep his mouth shut, it seems like they were mistaken.

The "long-laid plans for the future structure of Thai Governance" has quite an ominous ring to it...

Plan B

Indeed, is it the mothers that are planning to bask in the glory of their suns?

sabang

I find it difficult to feel any sympathy for Sondhi, basically one of Thailands most high profile business crooks turned 'anti-corruption' campaigner because of a business and political fallout with Thaksin. The bloke should be in jail for corruption, not cynically campaigning against it to serve his own interests and revenge motive.

But, as I've said before, Sondhi was only ever a dispensable mouthpiece, in a cynical alliance. Never a safe position. They say he's a scared man, as well he might be. I wonder if the 'Yellow shirts' are coming to the realisation yet that they have been used?

TizMe

Sondhi organised the "plot to kill Sondhi" himself.

He was unlucky to be hit by a ricocheting bullet.

The PAD have been made to believe in the bad things happen to bad people, but good things happen to good people.

His miraculous survival is being used to reinforce his status with his flock.

Rural Surin

Expect it for sure...

Mid

aka , pic's of a pitious man praying ....................