Thai police fire tear gas at protesters as political crisis continues
Violence erupts during anti-government protests in Bangkokas police open fire with water cannon and tear gas to stop demonstrators entering a government compound
PUBLISHED : Friday, 09 May, 2014, 4:11pm
UPDATED : Friday, 09 May, 2014, 6:26pm
Associated Press in Bangkok
Police fire teargas and water cannon at anti-government protesters at a government security compound in Bangkok on Friday. Photo: Reuters
Thai police fired tear gas and water cannons on Friday to push back hundreds of protesters trying to force their way into a government compound, the latest indication that ousting the premier will not solve the country’s tense political crisis.
Four people were reported injured at the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order, the government’s security command centre, where protesters tried to push down barbed wire-topped concrete barriers outside the compound.
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The incident occurred as more than 10,000 protesters marched through the Thai capital to show that the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by a court earlier this week was not enough. A protest leader warned they will retaliate if their demands for the government’s complete removal were not met within three days.
Traffic was snarled around Bangkok as protesters headed to Government House – the prime minister’s main office – and surrounded several public television stations “to ask for co-operation” in stopping broadcasts on government news.
Friday’s marches came two days after Yingluck was removed by the Constitutional Court on grounds that she had illegally transferred a civil servant to another post. Yingluck supporters and many analysts criticised the ruling as politically motivated.
The ruling has emboldened anti-government protesters who are backed by the country’s urban elite and have staged six months of vociferous and sometimes violent demonstrations calling for Yingluck’s removal.
Anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban arrives at Government House in Bangkok on Friday. Photo: AFP
Their leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, demanded that the Supreme Court president, the Senate speaker and the Election Commission, along with other state agencies, jointly work to oust the current government.
“We want the change of government to be smooth. But if you cannot do it smoothly within three days, we the people will do it in our own way,” Suthep said.
Protesters want to install an appointed government to oversee reforms before new elections are held, a concept criticised by many as undemocratic. They oppose polls tentatively scheduled for July, which Yingluck’s allies would be likely to win.
The court rulings have angered Yingluck’s supporters, known as the Red Shirts, who have called for a huge rally on Saturday to show support for the government, which won a landslide victory in 2011 elections.
The competing rallies will be a test of the country’s political volatility. They will be held several kilometres apart but have raised concerns of violence.
Thailand’s long-running political crisis began in 2006 when Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was removed from office by a military coup after protests accused him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Yingluck was criticised as Thaksin’s proxy and protesters say they want to remove all traces of the politically powerful Shinawatras from Thai politics.
Riot police officers, foreground, and soldiers guard the National Broadcasting of Thailand building on Friday. Photo: AP
“Hand power back to the people,” Suthep told a cheering crowd at Bangkok’s Lumpini Park earlier in the day, when he called on protesters to keep the rally peaceful but also urged them to surround police cars. In the past, the protesters seized government offices, stormed television stations and cut electricity to several ministries.
More than 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured since November in sporadic gunbattles, drive-by shootings and grenade attacks.
Suthep called Friday’s rally a “final offensive,” a declaration mocked by some Thai media, which noted this was the 11th time in six months he has summoned supporters for a final protest.
After Wednesday’s ruling that removed Yingluck, the National Anti-Corruption Commission followed up Thursday by indicting her on charges of dereliction of duty for overseeing a widely criticised rice subsidy programme.
That ruling means Yingluck will face an impeachment vote by the Senate, though it is not clear how Yingluck could be impeached from an office she no longer holds.
A consistent string of decisions by the courts and independent agencies such as the anti-graft commission against Yingluck and her political backers has eroded many people’s faith in the rule of law, raising the possibility of heightened civil unrest. Grenades were fired on Thursday night by unknown people at three targets associated with the royalist establishment.
