BANGKOK (AFP) - Former Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday faced fresh questioning by investigators over a deadly military crackdown on mass opposition protests in Bangkok in 2010. Abhisit, now opposition leader, was summoned to the Justice Ministry’s Dept of Special Investigation  along with his former deputy Suthep Thaugsuban for several hours of questioning about the events, which left about 90 people dead in clashes between demonstrators and armed troops. “I told the truth and DSI investigators don’t have any further questions,” Abhisit told reporters afterwards. Observers believe the pair - who were first questioned by the police as witnesses in Dec 2011 - could face eventual prosecution.
More than 90 people, mostly civilians, were killed and nearly 1,900 were wounded during the April and May 2010 rallies, which drew about 100,000 “Red Shirt” demonstrators at their peak.
Thailand now has a new government allied to the Red Shirts’ hero, fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, whose sister Yingluck is prime minister.
Thaksin was toppled by royalist generals in a 2006 coup that unleashed years of street protests by the pro-Thaksin Red Shirts and the rival Yellow Shirts, who claim allegiance to the throne.
Abhisit’s government invoked emergency rule to deal with the Red Shirt rallies in early 2010, giving broad powers to the military, which deployed thousands of troops in the capital.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has accused the army of using “excessive and unnecessary lethal force” in the crackdown.
Last week the rights watchdog said army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha was trying to intimidate investigators probing the military’s role in the deadly events.