Supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra demanded yesterday that the coup leaders who drove him out resign, and called for elections to be held immediately.
The demands, delivered in a letter to military headquarters, came a day after several thousand Thaksin supporters gathered at Sanam Luang, an open park near Bangkok's Grand Palace.
Daily rallies by Thaksin supporters have increased the risk of confrontation between them and the military leaders who overthrew him in September for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
"We want the Council for National Security [the coup leaders' official name] members to resign and hold an election immediately," said Weng Tojirakan, one of the nine rally leaders who submitted the demand letter.
A low-ranking official received the document through a chained front gate of the army headquarters.
There was no immediate response from the military-backed government, although coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said last week he will not resign because he has done nothing wrong.
The protest leaders also demanded that elections take place in accordance with the 1997 Constitution that the coup leaders abolished after the takeover in September. A new constitution is being drafted ahead of the elections set for December.
The demands are the latest effort by pro-Thaksin forces to increase pressure on coup leaders -- putting Bangkok on edge as the capital swirls with rumors of more military crackdowns and coup attempts.
On Friday night, thousands of Thaksin's supporters gathered at Sanam Luang to witness him berating the coup leaders in a recorded video message from London, where he has been living in exile since the coup.
Thaksin denounced the government's decision to freeze his and his family's bank accounts, with more than 52 billion baht (US$1.6 billion).
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS