Letter to the Secretary-General United Nation by Conor David Purcell

October 25 at 5:11pm

Dear Respected Secretary-General

I have been asked to express my personal experience. It is nowhere as important or vicious as

the deplorable experience of thousands of Thais. It is obvious I was protected by international
media attention, and my status as an Australian and European citizen. Ordinary Thai people know
they have no such protection.

The importance of my experience is to highlight the determination of Suthep as head of the

CRES, Abhisit as head of the present government, and allied persons, to willfully ignore all
International Legal Obligations Thailand has agreed to. It represents a vicious endeavor to
completely retard and reverse all gains in Rule of Law, and Human Rights earned so painfully by
Thai people as encapsulated in The Bangkok Declaration (1993).

Previous to coming to Thailand I had worked in Busan, Ulsan and Samseong-dong Seoul. I
worked in various capacities including interactions with the SK Chaebol, with a National
University, and interactions with police and military. I was massively impressed with the strength
of civil society, robust expectations against corruption, and accountability of use of all state
power against their own people. These enhanced the business climate, government and business
working together, education feeding into opportunity, certainty into growth. My experience in
Korea has informed my actions in Thailand.

To briefly state my case. A German national was paid to pose as a man from Human Rights
Watch looking for evidence to meet me at a restaurant. There police arrested me, without
accusation or arrest/ search warrant. I was held without charge, beaten and denied medical
treatment in prison. At every hearing I mentioned International Law and Thai Law (at which the
first judge laughed when I was immobile and in absolute agony). I demanded they state what
law had I broken or what evidence they could present to the court of any illegality. Every time I
pressed the police representative until he admitted he had no charge, accusation or evidence.
Detention without accusation in a small cell with 31 men was extended each time. The judge
refused my right to medical treatment, bail denied without reason.

Finally, the only charge they could find was that in a city of millions, a demonstration of hundreds
of thousands, I had been in a group of five or more people. This was in reference to speeches I
made after witnessing massive breaches of rules of engagement on April 10th. The speeches
were a witness statement, statement of rules of engagement. The politicized second speech
asked for international mediators and monitors, elections to create a solution. They were an
incitement to rule of law, and a reminder to soldiers of their liability, moral, spiritual and legal.

Abhisit stated my treatment was because he was showing how foreigners shouldn’t interfere in
Thai politics. Abhsit also stated he couldn’t have elections until he had established the rule of law,
just before he sent in a full scale military assault into a crowd that had threatened no persons or
property. We refer to UN Congress Basic Principles On The Use of Force and Firearms (1990).
Photo and video evidence proves conclusively and irrefutably that government forces murdered
unarmed people, and used overwhelmingly disproportionate force.

The UNHRC must show it is real and relevant. The urgent end of this Emergency Decree under
appropriate pressure from this body will provide this proof. Led by the US, 63 nations signed on
to this body’s 30th September Resolution in favor of freedom of assembly. In President Obama’s
speech to the General Assembly 26th September, he addressed the example of Korea and went
on to say America will support a free and open internet. North Korea has the most restrictive
internet on Earth according to America.

In Thailand over 100,000 websites have been blocked. My best friend in jail was a Thai with a 10
year old son he is sole parent of. He is accused of assisting with the graphics for US websites
critical of the Thai government, based primarily in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The line,
“if the military kills people asking for an election, it is the king’s fault, because he is Commander
in Chief” was found on a webpage. He is facing 18 years in jail. I beg you to ask for his release.
His name is Thanthawnthi Thaweewarodomkul.

American supplied weapons were used to kill by American trained units. Dear respected
Secretary-General, with apologizes we would like to remind American policy members of the
damage done to their credibility in Korea by a similar tragedy and agony in Gwangju. This is an
opportunity to make amends, by President Obama proving his words are not just rhetoric. We
request temporary suspension of Thailand’s Major Non-NATO Ally Status, as a measure of
American resolve. All pressure must be brought to end the Emergency Decree, in practicality
indistinguishable from the Reichstag Fire Decree (1934).

Conor David Purcell