- Title: THAILAND: Anti-government party marks political crackdown anniversary
- Date: 19th May 2013
- Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (MAY 19, 2013) (REUTERS) RED SHIRTS MEMBERS GATHERING OUTSIDE WAT PATHUMWANARAM WHERE 6 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN THE 2010 CRACKDOWN VARIOUS OF RED SHIRTS HOLDING PHOTOS OF THEIR DEAD COLLEAGUES VARIOUS OF LEADERS PLACING WREATHS OUTSIDE TEMPLE WALL MORE OF RED SHIRT MEMBERS AT THE WREATH LAYING RED SHIRTS GATHERING IN RATCHAPRASONG DISTRICT RED SHIRTS PRAYING BUDDHIST MONKS LEADING PRAYERS ON STAGE LEADERS AT THE CEREMONY VARIOUS OF BUDDHIST MONKS PRAYING PHOTOS OF DEAD RED SHIRT MEMBERS MEMBERS HOLDING PHOTOS OF THE DEAD HUGE CROWD OF RED SHIRTS CLAPPING (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) RED SHIRTS' CHAIRWOMAN, THIDA THAVORNSETH, SAYING: "We believe the people voted for this party (Puea Thai Party) to become government because they want the constitution to be changed. Since we are their allies, we will continue to support them and give them time to fulfill their promise. But if they take too long to do this, there will be a problem." VARIOUS OF HUGE RED SHIRT CROWD CLAPPING LEADERS POSING FOR PHOTOS WITH THE CROWD
- Embargoed: 3rd June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Thailand
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA7VCFL6QEVMD5HMQHL9M7Y4CIC
- Story Text: Several thousand members of Thailand's United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), known as "Red Shirts", gathered in Bangkok on Sunday (May 19) to commemorate the third anniversary of a political crackdown.
The "red shirt" protests in 2010 paralysed Bangkok and sparked a bloody military crackdown that ended with 91 people killed and hundreds of activists arrested.
The mostly low-income red shirts broadly support ousted populist premier Thaksin Shinawatra in a five-year political conflict against the traditional Bangkok elite that includes top generals, royal advisers, middle-class bureaucrats, business leaders and old-money families who back the ruling Democrat Party.
Thaksin, a graft-convicted telecoms tycoon, remains a powerful and popular political force from his home in self-exile in Dubai.
His sister is Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who who has presided over a period of calm since winning the 2011 election after years of upheaval that began with the ousting of Thaksin by the military in 2006.
The red shirts gathered in the major shopping district of Ratchaprasong where the protesters, as well as six soldiers and two journalists, died in April and May 2010.
The commemoration began when the group's leaders laid wreaths in memory of the six people who were killed in Pathumwanaram temple.
On a stage set up nearby ten Buddhist monks prayed for those who killed in other violent incidents which took place around Bangkok during the protests.
The military launched its final crackdown against the Red Shirts on May 19, 2010, to end their three-month occupation of the shopping area which had forced many businesses to shut down.
The occupiers were demanding the resignation of the government of Abhisit Vejajiva and also changes to the constitution, which they said supported the military rather than democracy.
After the crackdown, Vejajiva and his Democrat party continued to run the country, until they lost a general election in September 2011 to an ally of the Red Shirts, the Puea Thai party.
"We believe the people voted for this party (Puea Thai Party) to become government because they want the constitution to be changed. Since we are their allies, we will continue to support them and give them time to fulfill their promise. But if they take too long to do this, there will be a problem," said the group's chairwoman Thida Thavornseth.
The constitution was drafted in 2007, a year after the military overthrew Shinawatra and seized power.
The red shirts want Thaksin to return to Thailand and be pardoned from his prison sentence of two years handed down by the Supreme Court which ruled him guilty of corruption while he was in power. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
