this conclusion seems surprising however it seems their methodology and independence is credible so we should accept their findings and thank therm for their work

just to note that I have not seen any satisfactory investigation or charges arising from the two redshirts whose bodies were found in the Chaopraya

Haven't see u here for a long while. How are u doing, Alex?:-) Joy

And in this case MSMs are right in not taking the group's claim so seriously. At least they have some common sense as reporter.

Somsak, it wasn't the SFT that came up with the "60 dead theory". If I remember well, it was the UDD/DAAD. SFT only said that there was a number of people still missing, after the riots. It's been a good idea to open a centre, and their credibility is confirmed by the contents of their statement provided upon the centre's closure. If they had an agenda, they would simply leave the centre open and silently dismantle it, leaving people with the idea that actually someone died and no one was allowed to say it publicly. The Shakespearean "much ado about nothing" theory should not be applied when it comes to human rights and extra-judicial executions. In that case much ado is always welcome, especially when it's useful to verify the nature of what really happened.
Joy, I know, I've been quite lazy to write comments here lately, but I keep reading the articles and everyone's postings. I am happy that many people are active in this website, and that it's hard to find stupid and arrogant comments (which are rife in very popular websites such as the Bangkok Post's, for example). I will be back, though, at some point.

Another quote:

The first salvo has been fired by the Student Federation of Thailand (SFT), a network of over 10 universities in Thailand that has history of activism in the country’s political movements going back many decades.

The SFT is supporting the call by the red shirts for the Abhisit government to resign and hold fresh elections so that the country gets a "people’s government." It also wants the emergency laws repealed.

"Until now the student movement had been silent and did not come out in support of the red shirts. But that silence has ended because the government used emergency laws to send in soldiers to crack down on the protesters," says Suluck Lamubol, a member of the SFT’s executive committee and an undergraduate studying history. "The government must be held accountable for what happened."

The quote ends

It's clear that they are the red supporters, and for me, their political bias is clear. That's why I wrote that "their credability was dubious from the beginning." I know the most important information about a political group sometimes comes from their enemy, but it does not mean that the organization's information is always "credable" since it includes a lot of propaganada elements. We should be cautious about their information, even though it we cannot rule them out.(bacause, as I said it includes very serious informaton sometimes. )

SFT had a role to justify the red claim that the government killed peple and tried to "fire up" the potential red supporters but they failed to do so. That is my understanding of what this "students" group did. And I have a lot of doubts about how much the leadership of this "student group" represent the ordinary students. If they had a real influence over other students or the decision of supporting the red had been made by the students themselves, the red riot would not have failed in such a miserable way.

Somsak - I basically agree, although given the past form of the military, I think the SFT had a right to be suspicious in the first place.

In the absence of any other evidence, I think we just have to accept the conclusions.

Somsak: I agree again (about the 'lies, exaggerations, half-truths etc), but I still think they perform a valuable duty - I just wish they were more truthful in pushing their agenda, but I also can understand their 'desperation' considering the forces they are up against.