THAILAND: Protest leader say they will continue until government resigns

Record ID: 699548

  • Title: THAILAND: Protest leader say they will continue until government resigns
  • Date: 7th September 2008
  • Summary: BABY WEARING PROTESTER'S HEADBAND
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAXK8MQHPHTTQTRQ29872L5CZ2
  • Story Text: Protests against the Thai Prime Minister and his government entered its 12th day of occupying Thailand's top administration office.
    Protests against the Thai Prime Minister and his government entered its 12th day of occupying Thailand's top administration office on Sunday (September 7).
    The protesters -- students, housewives and retirees among them -- have occupied Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's official compound and roads around it, covering about 11 acres (4.5 hectares) in the heart of Thailand's seat of government in Bangkok.
    They have been there for 12 days and say they will leave only when Samak quits.
    Samak is also a graduate from Thammasat University but is reviled by current and former students for his rabble-rousing radio rhetoric that sparked a 1976 crackdown on left-wing students there in which 46 people died, by the official count.
    He has been restrained against the protesters this time, and said on Thursday that they could stay in Government House and campaign in his planned referendum, which could take more than a month to arrange.
    People's Alliance for Democracy leader Chanlong Srimuang told a news conference that they will not quit until they see the Prime minister leave office."Our continuing protest is to have this government and prime minister resign. Because the longer they stay, they will create more damage.
    People of the whole nation know that the government making the situation worse."
    In 2006, protesters established a semi-permanent presence in a parade ground near the royal palace as part of their bid to force out then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was finally removed in a military coup and barred from politics.
    Samak, a Thaksin nominee, won elections last year when the military decided to return to the barracks. He inherited his mentor's popularity in the countryside but also the intense dislike of Bangkok's ruling elite for Thaksin.
    The anti-Samak protest is led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a collection of retired solders, a media mogul, royalists and academics, and someone among them, or a sponsor, has deep pockets.
    The thousands of protesters get free food and water, and an army of tents that has sprung up in the compound of Government House includes first aid centres with saline drips and other equipment to deal with heat stroke.
    Sophisticated sound systems and television monitors have been strung up all around to relay political pep talks from a huge stage and someone has donated a consignment of motorcycle crash helmets for protection in case of a police attack.
    The PAD wants the current one-man, one-vote democracy, which has allowed Thaksin and Samak to take power on the strength of provincial votes, to be replaced by a system of overwhelmingly appointed government.
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