Thai DPM meets new US top envoy, UNHCR staff

BANGKOK, November 23 (TNA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan has met new US Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies and staff of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Bangkok. Before his meeting with the new US top envoy, General Prawit told journalists on Monday morning at the Ministry of Defence that he was ready to answer all questions from the United States, especially those concerning security affairs. General Prawit said the United States wants democracy to be restored in Thailand soon, while the Thai government has made progress in its national reform roadmap. Regarding his meeting with UNHCR staff last Friday after Thailand’s repatriation of two Chinese people in response to the request of the Chinese government, the deputy prime minister and defence minister said he has already informed UNHCR that if such the persons were detained in the future, the Thai government would check with UNHCR first to find out whether they were refugees. According to the deputy prime minister and defence minister, immigration police have been unaware of the refugee status of the two wanted Chinese persons and the repatriation resulted from the fact that they were prosecuted for human trafficking. Media identified the two wanted Chinese persons as Jiang Yefei and Don Guangping. The Amnesty International (AI) reported that Jiang was apprehended and tortured in China in 2008 after his negative remarks on the Chinese government’s responses to an earthquake in Sichuan Province in the same year, while Dong was held in detention after joining a peaceful activity to commemorate Beijing's crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989. (TNA)