EU/Thailand — Statement by High Representative Catherine Ashton on the political situation in Thailand

Cather­ine Ash­ton, High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Euro­pean Union for For­eign Affairs and Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy, has today made the fol­low­ing state­ment:
“I have been deeply sad­dened by the loss of life in Bangkok and else­where in Thai­land. May I offer my sin­cere con­do­lences to the bereaved fam­i­lies, both Thai and for­eign. The vio­lence has solved noth­ing, but only harmed Thai­land and its peo­ple, by deep­en­ing divi­sions rather than heal­ing them.

Nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is now an absolute neces­si­ty. An essen­tial part of that must be to find a con­sen­sus among the par­ties on build­ing a more inclu­sive society.

I hope that the Thai nation will look ahead and seek a prag­mat­ic solu­tion. A basis for that could be the five point roadmap pro­posed by PM Abhisit on 3 May.

I call on the author­i­ties to restore pub­lic order in the full respect of human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms. I call on the demon­stra­tors to engage with the Gov­ern­ment in a con­struc­tive man­ner, with­out resort­ing to vio­lence, work­ing togeth­er for the good of the country.

As a friend of Thai­land, the EU can­not remain indif­fer­ent. I stand ready to help in the process of build­ing con­sen­sus towards nation­al reconciliation.” 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union