Anti-government protesters gathered in the Thai capital yesterday for their biggest rally yet in a final showdown with the government, while the military deployed soldiers to deter violence.
The protest group, which calls itself the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), hoped more than 100,000 supporters would join them yesterday evening or early this morning.
They were expected to try to march on parliament to disrupt a session of lawmakers today.
‘D-DAY’
“It will be D-Day. This will be our final push to bring down the government,” said protester Chokchuang Chutinaton, 64, as he and fellow protesters gathered at the Government House compound.
Alliance protesters have camped out Government House since August and are demanding that Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat resign.
They accuse him of being a proxy for his brother-in-law, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
ATTACKED
The protesters have been attacked several times by small bombs and grenades, including a blast on Thursday that killed one person and wounded 29, and another on Saturday that injured eight. No one took responsibility for the explosions.
The Thai military said that it was deploying more than 2,000 soldiers yesterday to deter violence. Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Khaewkamnerd said police would be responsible for keeping the situation under control, but that the army would be on standby in case police ask for help.
“We have prepared more than 2,000 soldiers to support them,” Sansern said.
Police said 2,400 police would be stationed outside parliament, which stands about a 1km from Government House, where the protesters were gathering.
CLASHES
The last time the protesters marched on parliament, street battles with police left two dead and hundreds wounded.
Nearly 100,000 protesters were involved in the demonstrations on Oct. 7, the biggest march so far and the country’s worst political violence in more than a decade.
“We expect for more than 100,000 supporters for the rally,” PAD spokesman Parnthep Wongpuapan said yesterday.
Key protest leader Chamlong Srimuang said on Saturday that the upcoming rally would be a final push.
“If we cannot drive out this illegal government then we will give up and let them do whatever they want to the country. Everyone in PAD will go home,” he said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS