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Thai crisis deepens – protest leader demands PM Yingluck Shinawatra step down
Sydney Morning Herald - December 1, 2013
Suthep Thaugsuban told Ms Yingluck she must hand-over power to a so-called "people's assembly" in a late Sunday night meeting that was co-ordinated by Thailand's army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha.
"I told Yingluck that this meeting, which will the first and last one, is not for any discussion or negotiation but it's a meeting to tell her that the people want power back and people will manage the power by themselves," Mr Suthep later told supporters.
Mr Suthep said he told Ms Yingluck that a people's assembly would create a new electoral system and then call fresh elections.
But Ms Yingluck, Thailand's first woman prime minister, did not respond to the ultimatum, he said. The government has yet to comment on the meeting.
Earlier Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok branded Mr Suthep, a former prime minister in the previous Democrat government that was defeated in 2011 elections, a rebel facing charges that carry the death penalty.
As the crisis has worsened over the past week Ms Yingluck has repeatedly offered to hold talks with Ms Suthep but insisted she would not stand down or call fresh elections.
Thursday is the 86 th birthday of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, an important and sensitive day in Thailand.
Leaders of Thailand's anti-government protest movement have urged a nation-wide strike starting on Monday after violent street clashes across the Thai capital that left at least four people dead and scores injured.
Thai security forces have been unable to put down a so-called "people's coup" of protesters agitating to overthrow the government of Ms Yingluck. The prime minister was forced to flee a sand-bagged police compound on Sunday.
The government remains partly crippled by the protests and Ms Yingluck is under increasing pressure to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections in an attempt to restore calm.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban called for all public and private sector workers to stop work from Monday until the government is removed. He also demanded that all television stations only broadcast news about the protest movement until further notice.
Earlier about 250 black-clad protesters waving flags and tooting whistles had taken control of the state broadcaster PBS.
Government officials said state agencies would open as usual on Monday although many schools and universities announced they would be closed.
Although there was no announcement of a curfew Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok suggested that people stay indoors between 10pm and 5am Bangkok time.
"We ask people not to leave their homes for their safety so they will not become victims of provocateurs," he said in a televised address.
Ms Yingluck, 46, insisted she would not stand down. "I will not flee anywhere. I may be a woman but I have the courage to face all possible scenarios," she said.
But protest leaders have declared they will not stop until the government is ousted and replaced by a so-called "people's assembly" that would effectively suspend Thailand's system of democracy.
If the situation continues to worsen the country's powerful armed forces could intervene days ahead of Thursday's 86th birthday of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a sensitive day in Thailand.
Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha on Sunday urged Ms Yingluck and Mr Suthep to hold talks and called on police to stop using tear gas on demonstrators. The military has staged 18 coups of attempted coups since the 1930s.
Thailand appeared to have entered a volatile and dangerous phase early Monday with no obvious end in sight to the impasse.
The downfall of the government would provoke the red shirts mass movement and could see unrest spread from Bangkok to provincial regions in the country of 62 million people.
Red shirt leaders told their supporters to go home to defuse tensions on Sunday after a night of violence around a suburban stadium where about 70,000 of them had gathered to show their support for Ms Yingluck.
Rival groups used knives and guns in running street battles in the area near Ramkhamhaeng University. Tensions escalated further on Sunday across Bangkok as protesters converged on at least eight locations.
In at least three of them police used tear gas and water canons as protesters hurled stones and petrol bombs. The protests paralysed parts of the city and forced the closure of glitzy shopping malls.
The most violent clashes were outside Government House that houses the prime minister's offices where thousands of protesters skirmished with riot police who were forced to retreat on several occasions. Tear gas was also fired towards protesters outside Metropolitan police headquarters.
Ms Yingluck was taken to an undisclosed location from a building where she had planned to give media interviews after protesters entered the area.
Despite the attacks Paradorn Patttanathabutr, the country's national security chief, said the protesters failed to seize any government buildings on Sunday. Earlier Mr Suthep claimed protesters had "occupied" 12 government buildings "peacefully and without weapons".
More than 3,000 troops were deployed across Bangkok to help police protect key government offices.
Most of the protesters are middle class Bangkok residents and people brought in from opposition Democrat party strongholds in the south of the country.
The protests were organised after government MPs tried to pass an amnesty bill in parliament that would have allowed Ms Yingluck's billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra to avoid a two year jail sentence for corruption.
Thaksin, a former prime minister who has been living in Dubai, has strong support from the country's rural majority which benefited from his popular policies. But he is despised by many others who accuse him of being corrupt and running the country from abroad.
A further deterioration of the situation is likely to scare away investors as well as tourists who come to Thailand by the millions and contribute 10 per cent of the US$602 billion economy.
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