Thousands of Thai troops firing automatic weapons and tear gas forced anti-government protesters rampaging across Bangkok to retreat yesterday to their main encampment ringing the seat of government. The demonstrators said they were prepared for a “final stand.”
In a major escalation of Thailand’s ongoing turmoil, protesters and combat troops were locked in a series of tense confrontations and cat-and-mouse chases for 12 hours. At least 79 people were reported injured. The army spokesman said troops fired blank bullets into the crowds and live shots overhead.
As evening fell, some of the 6,000 troops deployed in Bangkok began moving toward Government House, where the protesters have been holding out since March 26. An estimated 5,000 of the demonstrators were gathered in the Government House area.
“This will be our final stand. I beg that you return here and face them together,” protest leader Jatuporn Phromphan shouted from a platform near the seat of government. “We will use peaceful means and stay right here to end their violence.”
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said troops were narrowing the area of unrest.
“It’s going to take time and we are trying to cause as little loss as possible,” he said.
Hundreds of soldiers and police assembled at the Royal Plaza, about 1.6km from Government House, confronting about 100 female protesters who knelt down and screamed: “Please stop, brothers.”
Some hugged the soldiers.
“I don’t mind dying right here if it means we become a real democracy. You can kill me right here. I am not here to cause trouble. I just want my rights,” said Tanyawalai Wongsuriyaneth, 46, a female protester returning to join the rally at Government House.
The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, saying his four-month-old government came to power illegally.
Earlier, the protesters were stationed at a half-dozen points in Bangkok, defying government-imposed state-of-emergency measures that ban gatherings of more than five people.
Protesters commandeered public buses to block several key intersections, set tires and vehicles on fire and sent two unmanned buses, one of them burning, hurtling toward lines of soldiers. The bus swerved and then ricocheted off trees on the side of the road before coming to a halt, with no one injured. The other bus also crashed without injuring anyone.
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra accused the government of lying to cover up deaths in an army crackdown on protesters yesterday.
Speaking to CNN from an undisclosed location, the fugitive tycoon said soldiers who were seen earlier firing rounds into the air to disperse his rioting supporters in Bangkok had killed “many.”
“They trapped the people … Many people died … They even take the dead bodies up on the truck and take them away. They’re trying to confuse everything,” Thaksin told the channel.
“You try to lie to the whole world, you try to lie to the people, but … it’s impossible,” he added.
Later last night, a security guard said that a building in the education ministry complex was ablaze after being hit by petrol bombs.
Protesters also seized seven buses and set them on fire in front of the nearby UN building, sending flames shooting high into the sky.
“There were several bomb blasts at 5pm and suddenly the fire broke out,” education ministry security guard Pradap Wongdara said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats