Thaksin unclear on return to Thailand Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has backtracked from vows to make an imminent return to Thailand, where he faces corruption-related charges, while his supporters in Bangkok battle for legal moves to give him an amnesty. Speaking while at a conference in Jakarta on Tuesday, Mr Thaksin told the FT: "Definitely I'd like to go back but I don't want to go back and create more conflict. I want to go back to help reconciliation ... I don't know how [to go back] yet. In recent months, Mr Thaksin, who lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai but spends most of his time in southeast Asia, has told supporters he would be back "very, very soon." His appearance at the conference came a few days after Thailand's constitutional court delivered a mixed victory for the government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Mr Thaksin's sister, in a battle focused on overhauling the constitution. The court cleared her ruling party of accusations that it was trying to destabilise the monarchy by proposing to rewrite the constitution. But it added that the charter could not be redrawn without a national referendum - an exercise that would be politically fraught and protracted. A prerequisite for Mr Thaksin to return without facing arrest would be constitutional changes to enable the annulment of corruption-related charges against him. Ms Yingluck's Pheu Thai party has been paving the way to rewrite the constitution, drawn up under an interim military government following the 2006 coup that ousted Mr Thaksin. Independent academics have backed their claims that the charter has many "undemocratic features," including empowering the judiciary to dissolve political parties and ban MPs from politics. But opposition leaders have complained that a charter overhaul would destabilise the monarchy. While tensions over the case have been resolved for now, many analysts believe the reprieve is only temporary. A crucial element is the parallel effort by Ms Yingluck's party to push related parliamentary bills on "amnesty and reconciliation," which would absolve all parties to the 2010 violence, when "red shirt" supporters of Mr Thaksin clashed with the military, leaving nearly a hundred dead and hundreds more injured. More importantly, warn opposition Democrats and other critics, the amnesty measures would also facilitate Mr Thaksin's return and his drive to reclaim more than $1.4bn worth of seized assets. In Jakarta on Tuesday, Mr Thaksin reiterated his amnesty calls, saying the proposed bills were "key to reconciliation" and long overdue. "Everyone says the same thing, that reconciliation must include amnesty," he told the forum. If you learn how to forgive, that's the only key, it's the key to reconciliation. I'd like to urge all parties in Thailand to forgive. Meanwhile, some critics questioned Mr Thaksin's starring role at the Jakarta forum on "peace and reconciliation in southeast Asia." The conference, hosted by the Strategic Review group which has close ties to Indonesia's government, was launched by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. As well as Mr Thaksin, José Ramos-Horta, the former Timor-Leste president, and Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian opposition leader and former deputy prime minister, were billed as "Asian statesmen." Korn Chatikavanij, deputy leader of Thailand's opposition Democrat party, questioned the group's inclusion of Mr Thaksin, telling the FT: "I am assuming the other politicians on that panel were not aware of Thaksin's participation, as it doesn't make them look good regarding their own attitudes to corruption; but given that the Thai government is openly controlled by Thaksin ... I can almost excuse the organiser's lapse of judgment. If we ourselves are not committed in our fight against corruption ... then we can't expect others to respect Thailand and its institutions.