4 killed in Bangkok violence
Print Edition
Police in Thailand fought off mobs of rock-throwing protesters armed with petrol bombs who tried to battle their way into the government’s heavily fortified headquarters yesterday.
Gunshots rang out in Bangkok and the prime minister fled a police complex during the sharpest escalation yet of the country’s latest crisis.
The protests, aimed at toppling Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration, have renewed fears of prolonged instability in one of Southeast Asia’s biggest economies. Yesterday was the first time police had used force since demonstrations began in earnest a week ago — a risky strategy that many fear could trigger more bloodshed.
At least four people have been killed and 103 injured in skirmishes so far, according to police and the state’s emergency medical services. The deaths occurred at a Bangkok stadium where shooting was heard for the second day and the body of one protester shot in the chest lay face-up on the ground.
Yingluck spent the morning in meetings at a Bangkok police complex but evacuated to an undisclosed location and canceled an interview with reporters after more than 100 protesters attempted to break into the compound, according to her secretary, Wim Rungwattanajinda.
Several demonstrators, however, were unaware Yingluck was inside. Those who made it a few steps into the vast complex stayed only a few minutes, and Wim said they did not get anywhere near the heavily protected building where Yingluck was.
The unrest forced several of Bangkok’s biggest and glitziest shopping malls to close in the heart of the city and snarled traffic. Mobs also besieged at least three television stations demanding they broadcast protesters’ views and not the government’s. One of those TV stations is government run, the other is owned by the military and the third is independent.
With skirmishes around Yingluck’s office at Government House continuing as darkness fell, the government advised Bangkok residents to stay indoors overnight for their safety.
Political instability has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, in a 2006 coup. Two years later, anti-Thaksin demonstrators occupied Bangkok’s two airports for a week after taking over the prime minister’s office for three months, and in 2010 pro-Thaksin protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for weeks in a standoff that ended with parts of the city in flames and more than 90 dead.
The latest unrest began last month after an attempt by Yingluck’s ruling Pheu Thai party to push an amnesty law through Parliament that would have allowed the return of her brother who lives in Dubai to avoid a two-year jail term for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.
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