New footage 'identifies' CentralWorld arsonists
• Published: 27 Jan 2014 at 21.59
• Online news: Local News
Former Democrat MP Sirichoke Sopha on Monday unveiled three new video clips claiming to show supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) torching the CentralWorld shopping complex during the Abhisit government crackdown on red-shirt protests.
Former Democrat MP Sirichoke Sopha has unveiled new and clear footage of red-shirt supporters torching CentralWorld during the Abhisit government 2010 protest crackdown. Post Today photo
Mr Sirichoke released the clips on the Democrat-operated BlueSky TV channel's Sai Lor Fah or "lightning rod" show while co-hosting the programme with fellow ex-Democrat MP Thepthai Senpong.
Mr Sirichoke claimed he had spent almost three years trying to negotiate with an unnamed person in order to obtain the video clips, which he said clearly show who set fire to the CentralWorld store at Ratchaprasong intersection on May 19, 2010.
He said the clips had never been released in public before and called on people and the media to watch the footage on Youtube.
He said the first clip was filmed near a rally stage while UDD co-leader Natthawut Saikua, now caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister, was addressing the crowd, asking red-shirts to return home.
“But the protesters did not want to leave because they were in furious mood,” Mr Sirichoke said, adding many demonstrators were heard shouting "burn it all down".
“The second and third clip show incidents which confirm no state officials were there while CentralWorld was being torched and the arsonists were the protesters,” he said.
The three pieces of footage were released as part of a 44-minute-long video clip of the Sai Lor Fah programme uploaded on YouTube.
The first clip can be seen between 11.35 and 12.50 minutes into the programme. The two others, which show protesters tossing objects at and setting fire to the shopping mall can be seen between 14.27 and 19.16 minutes into the clip and between 26.05 and 27.17 minutes.
Mr Sirichoke said he has yet to make public all of the footage in his possession, one piece of which shows a protester walking into the mall carrying a cooking-gas cylinder. He said he will show the remaining footage tomorrow, to allow UDD leaders time to react to the first three clips.
"The fooatge will be used in courts to prove who really burned CentralWorld," the Sai Lor Fah co-host added.