BBC News
Leaders of the months-long street protests trying to bring down the Thai government have surrendered to police.
They have demanded they be released on bail, after insisting treason charges against them be dropped, and they are now expected to be freed.
They face other charges of inciting arrest and illegal assembly.
Protesters continue to occupy the grounds of parliament, after violent clashes with police on Tuesday that left two dead and hundreds injured.
Seven protest leaders with outstanding arrest warrants entered a police station near their protest camp.
They included senior People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul, PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila, social activist Pibhop Dhongchai and Somsak Kosaisuk, a union leader.
Two other top leaders - Chamlong Srimuang and Chaiwat Sinsuwong - were arrested last week but released on Thursday. They were greeted with rapturous cheers on their return to the protest camp.
The nine protest leaders had initially been charged with treason and insurrection, but negotiations led to the dropping of these charges on Thursday.
The remaining charges could still result in prison sentences of three to seven years.
Negotiated peace?
Analysts are uncertain about whether the legal moves offer a way out of political instability.
The shocking injuries suffered by protesters under a police onslaught of teargas earlier this week had shifted some sympathy towards the protest movement.
However, police, journalists and other witnesses say the protesters carried guns, iron bars, machetes, slingshots, firecrackers and bottles in their attacks on the police, 20 of whom were seriously wounded.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who resigned after the violence, has told the Bangkok Post that he believes a military coup is the only way out of the impasse.
The newspaper's editorial points out the failure of the recent military government to heal divisions, and calls for greater efforts to preserve democracy.
Thaksin redux
PAD protesters want an end to any government they see as linked to the former elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who now lives in exile in Britain.
A more activist judiciary has in recent months laid several corruption charges against Mr Thaksin and his wife Pojaman. It has also deposed Mr Thaksin's ally, former prime minister Samak Sundaravej.
His successor, current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, is a brother-in-law of Mr Thaksin and so, despite his calmer demeanour, is distrusted by the protesters.
PAD argues that the largely rural base of support for Mr Thaksin is uneducated and says the voting system should be changed from one-man one-vote, to a more controllable system of professional constituencies.
The BBC's Jonathan Head says that without their most charismatic leaders, the protests at Government House could soon fade.
But he says the basic problem remains: the protesters' loathing for Mr Thaksin and those perceived as his allies.
Mr Thaksin was deposed in a coup in 2006.
They have demanded they be released on bail, after insisting treason charges against them be dropped, and they are now expected to be freed.
They face other charges of inciting arrest and illegal assembly.
Protesters continue to occupy the grounds of parliament, after violent clashes with police on Tuesday that left two dead and hundreds injured.
Seven protest leaders with outstanding arrest warrants entered a police station near their protest camp.
They included senior People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul, PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila, social activist Pibhop Dhongchai and Somsak Kosaisuk, a union leader.
Two other top leaders - Chamlong Srimuang and Chaiwat Sinsuwong - were arrested last week but released on Thursday. They were greeted with rapturous cheers on their return to the protest camp.
The nine protest leaders had initially been charged with treason and insurrection, but negotiations led to the dropping of these charges on Thursday.
The remaining charges could still result in prison sentences of three to seven years.
Negotiated peace?
Analysts are uncertain about whether the legal moves offer a way out of political instability.
The shocking injuries suffered by protesters under a police onslaught of teargas earlier this week had shifted some sympathy towards the protest movement.
However, police, journalists and other witnesses say the protesters carried guns, iron bars, machetes, slingshots, firecrackers and bottles in their attacks on the police, 20 of whom were seriously wounded.
Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who resigned after the violence, has told the Bangkok Post that he believes a military coup is the only way out of the impasse.
The newspaper's editorial points out the failure of the recent military government to heal divisions, and calls for greater efforts to preserve democracy.
Thaksin redux
PAD protesters want an end to any government they see as linked to the former elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who now lives in exile in Britain.
A more activist judiciary has in recent months laid several corruption charges against Mr Thaksin and his wife Pojaman. It has also deposed Mr Thaksin's ally, former prime minister Samak Sundaravej.
His successor, current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, is a brother-in-law of Mr Thaksin and so, despite his calmer demeanour, is distrusted by the protesters.
PAD argues that the largely rural base of support for Mr Thaksin is uneducated and says the voting system should be changed from one-man one-vote, to a more controllable system of professional constituencies.
The BBC's Jonathan Head says that without their most charismatic leaders, the protests at Government House could soon fade.
But he says the basic problem remains: the protesters' loathing for Mr Thaksin and those perceived as his allies.
Mr Thaksin was deposed in a coup in 2006.
7 comments:
It is quite a very exciting long series.
More is coming soon.
STAY TUNED ALL Siamese!
Kong Kark Karb
PAD is the Klu Klux Klans of Thailand
thia politic is now in the dangerous stage. wish the civil war happen to you soon na siams.
see now they start to kill themselve.
Sreak
people i can't stand most are arrogant bastards who think their higher standard of living gives them a right to shut up the poor and small middle and lower class families from voting according to their conscious to exercise their rights.
the "professional" constituents. These Thai urban are some arrogant bastards. They looked down this much on their own citizen people, there is no wonder they treat the Khmers and the rest of their neighbors with no respect.
They are born to to ill-mannered and corrupt values. Khmer must not accept any conditions laid down by these condescending people when it comes to our national, cultural and historical interest.
"PAD argues that the largely rural base of support for Mr Thaksin is uneducated and says the voting system should be changed from one-man one-vote, to a more controllable system of professional constituencies."
=The PAD is saying that the poor should remain poor! The uneducated should remain uneducated! And the Prime Minister of Thailand should vote himself or by military coup into office! This mean only one thing and it is the King of Thailand who can do such a thing!
PAD = the King of Thailand
PAD= People Alliance Demo-CRAZY
However bless all these people in the Demo-Crazy group so that they destroy their own country and kill their own Siamese race.
PAD is stand for 'people alliance for democracy'. It means that a group of people who hold the democratic principles as their fundamental guideline. However, I cannot see if they respect that principle at all. The current government is established through democratic election; and it becomes the elected government. It is nothing derailing from the principle.
PAD was entirely unhappy with Takshin (can be even personally) from the outset. The group orchestrated the demonstration protesting Takshin's government. Takshin has dissoved the Parliament and called for election. Takshin won and PAD loose. Takshin formed a new government, while PAD continued to protest Takshin, claiming the election is not fair. Fearing the issue escalated, the military engaged the coup to depose Takshin's government and announced new election. Takshin and others in the party were ruled by the court, banning from politics for five years. Takshin lived in exile, while his alliances remain in action and popular in the countryside and among the lower classes.
The new election has gone through. Again, Takshin's alliance won, and PAD lose. PAD resumes its protest against Samak - a new elected PM, obviously personally, claiming Samak is Takshin's proxy. Nothing else can be done to remove Samak from the top job, the court manipulated the TV cooking show, in which Samak was a cook, as a charge against him, and ruled that PM was against the constitution. PAD was cheerful with that removal.
Samak's succesor has assumed office. PAD remains unhappy, claiming that the new PM is also Takshin's proxy, not publicly speaking up, but sounded implicating the relationship with Takshin, who is PM's brother in law. Importantly, PAD has publicly demonstrated that votes pro Takshin's alliances made by rural population who considered as uneducated. Obviously, it sounds like vote from uneducated should not be counted. This is completely not a democracy. So how can PAD brand themselves as a democrat, if it does not follow the principle.
Even though, I sometimes feel sympathy with the government in the sense of fairness, according to the democracy, my conscience remains clear and crystal on Khmer's as seeing our rival is weakened even gradually. This is the rare chance for Khmer to resurrect itself to be comparable with others surrounding nations.
Long live Khmer!
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