Related News
Army chief warning that Thailand faces ‘collapse’
Print Edition
Thailand’s army chief warned yesterday that the country risks “collapse” unless it pulls back from escalating violence, after attacks in recent days left three children dead in the worst unrest since 2010.
Twenty-one people have now been killed and more than 700 wounded in violence linked to almost four months of anti-government demonstrations.
Protesters want to unseat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and lessen the influence on Thai politics of her billionaire brother Thaksin, a former premier who lives in exile to avoid jail in Thailand for corruption.
A six-year-old girl, her four-year-old brother and a 59-year-old woman died after a grenade attack on Sunday afternoon on a busy Bangkok shopping district.
Police said the grenade was fired into the crowd by unknown attackers from an M79 shoulder-held launcher.
They also said that an officer died yesterday, nearly a week after being shot in the head in a gun battle with protesters in Bangkok’s historic heart, in which five others died.
Attacks have mainly been in Bangkok, although a drive-by shooting Saturday on a protest rally in the eastern province of Trat killed a five-year-old girl.
The current unrest is the most severe in the bitterly divided kingdom since protests by Thaksin-allied “Red Shirts” against a previous government in 2010 sparked clashes and a military crackdown that left more than 90 people dead.
“As days go by, there will be more violence until it cannot be controlled,” army chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha warned in a rare televised live speech.
“If losses continue, the country will collapse and nobody will win or lose,” he said.
Prayut urged reconciliation and talks. He said troops are “ready to do their duty” but “do not want to use force and weapons to unnecessarily fight with the Thai people”.
Supporters of Thaksin have accused the demonstrators of trying to incite the military to seize power again, in a country which has seen 18 successful or attempted coups since 1932.
The army chief’s comments are closely scrutinized for signs of possible intervention.
Yingluck spent yesterday inspecting local produce in a province 150 kilometers east of Bangkok, in a move seized on by her opponents as a sign she is on the run.
But a government spokeswoman said she would return to Bangkok by the evening.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who as deputy premier oversaw the 2010 crackdown on the Red Shirts, said the government bore responsibility for the weekend violence.
“We use peaceful tactics,” he told a rally.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
