Bangkok Post : Jatuporn: Military discussing a coup

28.1.11

Bangkok Post : Jatuporn: Military discussing a coup: "A group of high-level military figures held a meeting at a safehouse in Bangkok on Tuesday and discussed the possibility of staging a coup, Jatuporn Prompan claimed on Wednesday.

Mr Jatuporn, a Puea Thai list MP and co-leader of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, made the allegation at a press conference at parliament.

He said that at the meeting the officers evaluated the current situation and agreed that there were four conditions that could be raised for staging a coup:

- divisions of people in the country;
- loss of territory to Cambodia as a result of failed diplomacy of the government;
- unrelenting unrest in the southern border provinces; and,
- military involvement in the crackdowns on red-shirt protests which end with the death of 91 people.

The military figures, Mr Jatuporn said, discussed setting up a national government after the coup and assigning a former top military leader to explain to newspaper columnists why the coup was necessary."