Protesters demanding Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s resignation vowed yesterday to target the government’s water supply and cause more disruption to travelers to force him from office after an emergency parliamentary debate failed to resolve Thailand’s political crisis.
Samak canceled an official three-day trip to Japan starting today, the Foreign Ministry said, as thousands of protesters remained camped out at the grounds of his official compound for a sixth day. They have refused to budge until Samak steps down — an outcome he has repeatedly ruled out.
Samak called a special joint session of parliament that lasted 11 hours and ended early yesterday without a solution.
“We are very disappointed that parliament’s special session ended with nothing new,” said Somsak Kosaisuk, a leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, which is organizing the protests. “We have no choice now but to put more pressure on the government.”
Allies of the anti-government protesters from labor unions at utility companies have threatened to switch off water and electricity to certain state offices and were meeting yesterday to plot their strategy.
“The tap water at the national police headquarters and at provincial administration offices will be cut off starting Monday,” said Somchai Srinewest, head of the union at Thailand’s Waterworks Authority, ahead of the meeting.
Hundreds of employees from the State Railways of Thailand continued a strike that halted service yesterday on 93 train lines, cutting off most long-distance service between Bangkok and the far-northern and southern parts of the country, said spokesman Phairath Rojjaroenngam. More than half of the 76 cargo trains scheduled yesterday were also not running.
There was no schedule for restoring service, which has been disrupted since the strike started on Friday.
Embarrassed by the strike and their inability to control it, the rail authority’s seven-member board of directors resigned yesterday, saying they saw no other way to take responsibility for the difficulties the strike has caused to the public, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, a small bomb exploded in a central Bangkok police booth yesterday. The blast, which occurred shortly after 1am, shattered nearby windows but caused no injuries.
Police blamed it on agitators trying to depict them as incapable of maintaining order in the face of a three-month drive to oust the elected government.
“They want to show that the government and the police are too weak to protect the people,” said national police spokesman Surapol Thuanthong. “It is something we expected would have happened.”
The bomb detonated shortly after the end of a joint parliament session initiated by Samak to seek a way out of the turmoil that has raised fears of bloodshed and damage to already stuttering economic growth.
Also yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a fourth case against former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, accusing the exiled leader of amending tax policy to enrich his business empire.
Thaksin fled to the UK with his family last month, claiming he would not get a fair trial on the corruption charges mounting against him, but prosecutors have forged ahead with the cases.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese