47 Facts About Surayud Chulanont

Surayud Chulanont was the Prime Minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's interim government between 2006 and 2008.

Surayud Chulanont is a former supreme commander of the Royal Thai Army and is currently Privy Councilor to King Vajiralongkorn.

Surayud came from a military family, but his father defected from the Royal Thai Army to the Communist Party of Thailand when Surayud was a boy.

Surayud Chulanont joined the Thai Army and rose to power as an aide to General Prem Tinsulanonda.

Surayud Chulanont commanded troops during Bloody May, the violent 1992 crackdown on anti-government protesters, but he denied giving his men the order to shoot protesters.

Surayud Chulanont was promoted to army commander during the government of Chuan Leekpai and was promoted to supreme commander in 2003, under the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Sonthi overthrew the government of Shinawatra in a coup on 19 September 2006 and implored Surayud Chulanont to be the head of interim government.

However, Surayud Chulanont was praised for apologising for atrocities committed by the Thai military fighting the South Thailand insurgency, although the apology was accompanied by a sharp escalation in violence.

Surayud Chulanont has been accused of forest reserve encroachment and of illegally acquiring train carriages for display in his forest home.

Surayud Chulanont is married to Chitravadi Santhadwet Chulanont and has three sons namely Captain Non, Khao and Nam.

Surayud Chulanont completed his early education at Saint Gabriel's College and Suankularb Wittayalai School in Bangkok.

Surayud Chulanont graduated from the inaugural class of Armed Forces Preparatory Academy.

Surayud Chulanont entered Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and graduated from Class 12.

Surayud Chulanont was conferred honorary doctor of philosophy degrees in: 1.

Surayud Chulanont currently serves as a chancellor of the council of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang and Phetchaburi Rajabhat University.

Early in his army career, Surayud Chulanont served in several army divisions including a light artillery unit and a paratrooper unit.

Surayud Chulanont conducted operations against the Communist Party of Thailand while his father was a leader of the CPT.

Surayud Chulanont was an aide to General Prem Tinsulanonda when Prem was appointed army commander and later Prime Minister of Thailand.

Surayud Chulanont was appointed Commander of the Special Warfare Command in 1992, where he was the commanding officer of Sonthi Boonratklin.

Surayud Chulanont later claimed that he never gave orders for his soldiers to shoot.

At the time, his promotion was controversial, as Surayud Chulanont had been politically "shelved" at a staff position.

Surayud Chulanont ended a policy of deporting Burmese refugees, especially ethnic Karens, back to Burma.

In 2003, after over four years as Army Commander, Surayud Chulanont was promoted to the position of supreme commander, a loftier, but less influential, post, during the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Surayud Chulanont was replaced as army commander by Somthad Attanan.

Surayud Chulanont was contradicted by Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang, who noted that he couldn't think of any news about the conflict in the South that could or should not be reported by the media.

In January 2008, not long after Surayud Chulanont ended his term as prime minister, he was again reappointed to King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Privy Council.

In 2020 Surayud Chulanont stood in for Vajiralongkorn in the Royal Ploughing Ceremony of rice, directing the planting of Dok Mali 105, Pathum Than 1, Kor Khor 43, Kor Khor 6, and Kor Khor 79.

Surayud Chulanont was chairman of the Khao Yai National Park Protection Foundation.

Surayud Chulanont vowed to resign and return the land if found guilty.

Surayud Chulanont was already considered a strong candidate for appointment as civilian prime minister premiership immediately after General Sonthi overthrew the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Surayud Chulanont launched a weekly talk show called "Poed Baan Phitsanulok" so as to share views and progress of interim government's aim.

Somchai Siripreechakul, Dean of Law at Chiang Mai University, urged Surayud Chulanont to call a general election as soon as possible and hand the task of drafting a charter to an elected parliament.

General Boonrawd Somtas, a former CDRMA classmate and longtime friend of Surayud Chulanont, was appointed defense minister.

Surayud Chulanont's resignation shocked the political world as well as the business community.

Surayud Chulanont ordered the reopening Don Muang Airport for domestic and international flights.

Surayud Chulanont warned deposed Premier Thaksin Shinawatra several times against returning to Thailand, calling his return "a threat".

Surayud Chulanont later denied Thaksin the opportunity to return to Thailand to contest in eventual elections, and said that the appropriate time for him to return would be "after a year," when a newly elected government was already in place.

The Surayud Chulanont government allowed the Council for National Security to interfere with many government responsibilities, including the transfer of civil servants.

Surayud Chulanont authorised the removal of police chief Kowit Wattana from his position in early February 2007.

Besides being heavily criticised for gaining power through the 2006 coup and his subsequent actions as Premier, Surayud Chulanont has been accused of forest encroachment and corruption.

Surayud Chulanont was accused of breaching the Forestry Act and the National Forest Reserves Act by illegally owning forest reserve land in Yaithiang Mountain of Nakhon Ratchasima province.

When Surayud Chulanont was Commander of the 2nd Army Region, he was sold the plot of land for 50,000 baht.

Surayud Chulanont later transferred ownership of the plot to his wife.

Surayud Chulanont vowed to resign and return the land if found guilty.

In February 2010 after demonstrations by the "Red Shirts" at Khao Yaithiang Mountain, Surayud Chulanont returned the land to the Royal Forestry Department, without any removals of structures or plants, weeks before a formal notice from the department was issued.

Surayud Chulanont claimed that he had more than 4 compartments, but they were all in his residence in Bangkok and were all models driven by household class electricity of 220V.

Surayud Chulanont has received the following royal decorations in the Honours System of Thailand:.