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Thailand's anti-government protesters defiant
Sydney Morning Herald - January 22, 2014
"We will defy them... we will step-up our rallies to counter the emergency decree," said firebrand protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban. "We will march on every road. We will use loud speakers, even if they prohibit us from doing so. We will do everything they forbid us to do," he said.
Mr Suthep, a former deputy prime minister, also renewed a warning that protesters could seize the country's air traffic control, a move that could seriously impact flights across South-East Asia. But he also told protesters: "If any of you are afraid of being arrested you should go home."
A 60-day decree that came into force on Wednesday gives security agencies the power to impose curfews, detain suspects without charge, censor media, ban political gatherings of more than five people and declare areas off-limits.
The decree declared after a cabinet meeting suggests the government of besieged prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is preparing to take a tougher stand against protesters who have occupied key ministries and shut down parts of Bangkok, dragging down the country's economy.
The decree coincides with the government putting combative labour minister and former police officer Chalerm Yoobamrung in charge of security. "The government sees the need to announce the emergency decree to keep the situation under control," Mr Chalerm said.
But Ms Yingluck said her government has no intention of confronting the protesters who march each day to blockade government offices from protest sites across the city of 12 million people.
"We will use peaceful negotiations with the protesters in line with international standards... we have told the police to stick with international standards, to be patient with the protesters," she said.
Until now security forces have been ordered not to act against protesters, fearing it could provoke more violence leading to a coup by the military that has intervened often in the past.
Top military commanders opposed the imposition of a state of emergency until two grenade attacks within 48 hours last Friday and Sunday that left one protester dead, injured more than 60 and sent tensions soaring across Bangkok.
Since then the military has cited intelligence that weapons and explosives are being moved into the city and that armed Cambodians have been smuggled across the border and plan to carry out attacks on protesters.
Rifts have also widened between the military and police who will have been given the powers under the decree.
Naval Special Warfare Commander Winai Klom-in criticised the police for not detecting 10 vans carrying Cambodians that he alleged had crossed the border on Monday evening. "I don't understand why the police have neglected their responsibility on this," he said.
Human Rights Watch criticised the decree, saying it allows excessive use of power and possible human rights violations. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it threatens to curb media coverage of the protests.
Protesters are demanding Ms Yingluck and her cabinet ministers resign and call off elections set for February 2, accusing the government of being illegitimate because of corruption and being run from abroad by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The government denies the charges. Mr Thaksin is Ms Yingluck's elder brother who lives in Dubai to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.
The official announcement of the decree said the elections will go ahead as planned despite a boycott by the main opposition Democrat party.
In broad terms the conflict pits two bitterly divided groups of elites against each other, one supported by Bangkok's middle class and opposition supporters from the country's southern provinces and the other supported by mostly poor rural people from the north and north-eastern provinces.
As many as 200,000 people have joined the protests although numbers of protesters has dropped significantly following a surge in violence over the past week.
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