The protests, by disgruntled supporters of self-exiled
Thaksin, descended into Thailand's worst political violence in living memory
when troops moved in to disperse them on May 19.
The government has launched a reconciliation plan aimed at
healing divisions between Thaksin's rural and urban poor supporters and the
military and royalist-linked establishment.
But it has also blamed Thaksin and allies for instigating
the violence and filed charges of terrorism against them.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) — Thailand's
equivalent of the US FBI — said 69 individuals and 14 companies made unusually
large and frequent financial transactions beginning in September 2009 and
running through two months of protests that troops forcibly ended last month.
"This is not an arrest or an indictment," Tharit
Pengdith, the director general of the DSI, told reporters, referring to a list
of people the authorities want to question, which includes Thaksin, his former
wife, their two children, and many allies.
Authorities will summon these individuals to explain their
transactions by July 31, Tharit said. He offered no evidence of how the
transactions may have been linked to the unrest.
"We have no evidence beyond the fact that the
transactions were unusually large and frequent, so we are asking these
individuals to explain what the transactions were for, to establish whether
they were linked to the protest," he said.
Thaksin, a telecoms tycoon turned populist politician, was
ousted in a 2006 military coup and later convicted of graft.
He is widely believed to have funded anti-government
protests in recent years but has denied such accusations, including the funding
of groups the government has called "shadowy militants,” some of whom were
armed with rifles and grenades and battled security forces during the most
recent protest in Bangkok.
The violence, in which 90 people were killed and about 2,000
wounded, scared off tourists and hurt growth, although recent data showed
Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy remained buoyant.
The stock market has recovered from losses suffered during
the turmoil, although foreign investors remain cautious.
In an example of the sort of financial transactions
investigators were looking into, the DSI said 4.23 billion baht ($130 million)
was withdrawn from the bank accounts of Thaksin's son, Panthongtae Shinawatra,
over the period in question.
The authorities did not say who the money was transferred
to. Transactions by others on the list were much smaller.
Critics said the government was harassing its opponents,
many of whom have had their financial dealings restricted.
"This is nothing more than political persecution,"
said Karun Hosakul, a member of Parliament allied with the "red
shirt" protesters and among those suspected of unusual transactions.
"The government is constantly sticking a knife into us
every chance they have." Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has defended the
move to restrict the transactions of suspects as necessary for national
security, adding that legitimate requests to make financial transactions from
these restricted accounts have been allowed.
