The nature of things requires that the army should never act but as an instrument.

In this way, the army acted as the natural force of assimilation.

If the army does not act first, students and other dissidents might.

"No undefeated army ever acted on the back of a series of demands to do certain things," he said.

Believe me, had the army not acted, there would have been civil war.

When the army finally acted on 19 May, some of the main red-shirt leaders told their followers to give up the protest and go home.

"The army must act as the civil authorities order it to act," he said.

"You usually don't see the police and the army acting with such sensitivity," he said.

He said the army was "acting in a totally unjustified fashion."

The army acted "in response to a public clamor" for a hard line against political subversives, the statement said.