Army chief:It's soldiers' duty to serve nation, monarchy, people

BANGKOK, April 4 (TNA) - Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha says it is the duty of soldiers to serve the nation, religions and the monarchy, as well as people, calling on all Thais to love one another and to be harmonious. When presiding over a ceremony to present medical equipment to 37 army-run hospitals on Friday morning, General Prayuth also called for people to understand the soldiers' duty, which includes maintaining national sovereignty, unity and the monarchy within the legal framework. According to the army chief, soldiers will continue working hard, bravely and strongly, until peace and order are sustained for the sake of public safety. At the presentation ceremony, held at the Royal Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok, General Prayuth, himself, handed out 97 sets of medical equipment and 14 ambulances, totally worth over 58 million baht, to the 37 army-run hospitals across Thailand, aimed to serve the general public and families' members of soldiers. In an attempt to clarify his recent remarks which were followed by criticisms in the social media and by Sondhi Limthongkul, a core leader of the anti-government yellow-shirt movement, the army chief explained, meanwhile, that he simply gave an example in which he compared operations of each agency, including the media. The army commander-in-chief asked protesters of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) earlier this week to stop requesting the army to oust the caretaker administration of Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, noting that such action would be equivalent to having employees firing the owner of a company. (TNA)