Thai protesters launch Bangkok 鈥榮hutdown鈥
Print Edition
Huge crowds of Thai opposition protesters occupied major streets in central Bangkok yesterday in an attempted “shutdown” of the capital, escalating a campaign to unseat the embattled premier.
The demonstrators want Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign to make way for an unelected “people’s council” to oversee reforms to curb the political dominance of her billionaire family and tackle a culture of money politics.
Tens or even hundreds of thousands of protesters massed at key intersections, setting up rally stages along with tents and stalls offering free food.
The well-organized protest movement has vowed to occupy parts of the capital until Yingluck quits, threatening to disrupt a February election which it fears will only return the Shinawatra clan to power.
“Today will be written in Thai history,” firebrand protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told a rally last night.
A hardcore faction has threatened to besiege the stock exchange and air traffic control if Yingluck does not quit.
The government said it would invite all sides to a meeting tomorrow to discuss the election commission’s proposal to postpone the February 2 election, although it looks unlikely to agree to demonstrators’ demands for a delay of a year.
The International Crisis Group think-tank warned yesterday of a “potentially catastrophic” situation if people are denied the chance to vote.
“As anti-government protesters intensify actions, the risk of violence across wide swathes of the country is growing and significant,” it said in a report.
The movement succeeded in bringing widespread disruption to Bangkok’s central retail and hotel districts, large parts of which were taken over by whistle-blowing demonstrators.
Many schools were closed and some residents stockpiled food and water, but the city of 12 million people did not grind to a complete halt.
The city’s subway and skytrain were running as usual, shops and restaurants were open and demonstrators promised to leave a lane unblocked at each major intersection to allow ambulances and buses to pass.
Eight people have been killed and dozens injured in street violence since the protests began over two months ago.
Several shots were fired in a drive-by shooting at the headquarters of the opposition Democrat Party yesterday, while elsewhere a protest security guard was shot and wounded in a quarrel, police said.
The protests are the latest chapter in a years-old political crisis that has gripped Thailand since Yingluck’s older brother, fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by royalist generals in 2006.
The recent rallies were triggered by a failed amnesty bill that could have allowed Thaksin to return without going to jail for a corruption conviction.
The tycoon-turned-politician has strong support in northern Thailand, but he is reviled by many southerners, Bangkok’s middle class and royalists.
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