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Thai court restricts police action against 'peaceful' protesters
Sydney Morning Herald - February 20, 2014
The ruling has sharply curtailed the powers of Thai security forces to protect key government buildings and disperse protesters occupying parts of Bangkok. There is a long tradition in Thailand of courts overthrowing governments in what are called "judicial coups".
The court found that protests were being carried out "peacefully without weapons" and ordered that the demonstrator's rights and freedoms "be protected according to the Constitution".
It noted that Thailand's Constitutional Court had earlier ruled that the protesters were rallying peacefully and said the government therefore "cannot use force or arms in cracking down" on them.
On Tuesday judges on Thailand's anti-corruption commission announced they would charge prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra with negligence over a controversial subsidy scheme for rice farmers. If found guilty she would be removed from office.
But David Streckfuss, an expert on Thai law who lives in northern Thailand, said the commission appears to have no constitutional power to pursue a charge of negligence or dereliction of duty and points out that as no corruption has yet been proved relating to the scheme "there can be no case against the prime minister".
Video footage obtained by the BBC shows a grenade landing at the foot of a policeman who tried to kick it away as it exploded on Tuesday. His leg was so badly injured it may require amputation, while several others were seriously injured.
Protest leaders initially claimed the grenade was dropped accidentally by police but the video clearly shows it was thrown into the group of police huddled behind riot shields.
While protest leaders have claimed their campaign to topple Ms Yingluck and force her exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra out of Thai politics has been peaceful, violent clashes on Bangkok's streets have left 15 people dead and more than 600 injured since November.
Protest leaders have admitted that men with military training have weapons and are assisting the protesters. A senior army officer denied claims sweeping social media that soldiers shot at police during Tuesday's violent clashes near government offices.
But unidentified men with high powered weapons who were on the side of protesters were involved in a gunfight outside a Bangkok shopping mall on February 1, the day before protesters blocked millions of people casting their ballots in national elections.
Police have displayed crude weapons seized from protesters who have set-up sandbagged security posts at several protest sites. Guards refuse to allow photographs of the posts.
Analysts have criticised the court ruling, saying there appears to be a slow strangulation of Ms Yingluck's hold on to power.
"The noose is tightening around Yingluck and her situation appears untenable," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University told the New York Times.
"It's now a question of what comes afterwards. If it's inclusive and agreement to the main protagonists, Thailand may be able to muddle its way through," he said. "But if not, it will be a recipe for more mayhem."
Verapat Pariyawong, a Harvard-trained lawyer and prominent commentator, said the decision allowed protesters to claim "pseudo-legitimacy to overthrow the government". He said it was "legally illogical for the civil court to disregard the current situation".
Sawat Charoenpol, a lawyer representing the protesters, described the ruling as a victory for the protest movement and said the government was "unable to do anything about the protesters".
The latest tactic by protest leaders is to target businesses owned by the wealthy Shinawatra family, causing a sharp drop in their share prices.
"Wherever she is, wherever she sleeps, we will go after her," protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told supporters, referring to Ms Yingluck. "We must intensify our fight and we will attack Shinawatra businesses and their funding sources," he said.
In broad terms the latest violence is the latest episode in an eight-year conflict that pits two groups of Thai elites fighting for power, one backed by Bangkok's middle class and the other led by Mr Thaksin who is backed by rural masses in north and north-eastern provinces.
Mr Thaksin, who is Ms Yingluck's elder brother, lives in Dubai to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.
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