"Police charge 14 Thai protest leaders; Antigovernment movement ends demonstrations" by Tini Tran, Associated Press | April 15, 2009
BANGKOK - Police issued arrest warrants yesterday for 14 leaders of an antigovernment movement, including ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as protesters abruptly ended violent demonstrations in Thailand's capital.
A day after red-shirted protesters burned buses and seized intersections in clashes with police and soldiers that left two people dead and 123 injured, their leaders called it quits, urging a group of 2,000 diehard demonstrators to go home.
That's it? Papers made it seem like the whole country was in the streets.
The swift and unexpected resolution headed off the possibility of a confrontation with heavily armed troops massing around the demonstrators' encampment near the seat of government. Dispirited protesters quietly boarded government buses watched over by soldiers.
But few expected it was the end of a rural-based movement that has shown the ability to mobilize 100,000 protesters and cause the cancellation of a regional summit in its campaign seeking to force out a government....
Charnvit Kasetsiri, one of Thailand's most prominent historians, said ".... this is not going to be the last riot." Many protesters looked broken, almost in shock that their dreams of revolution unraveled so quickly. Their leaders called off the demonstrations yesterday morning following warnings that the army was ready to move against them.
But just because the coup is off does not mean the CIA and its agents are not still active:
"Leader of Thai protests wounded" by Associated Press | April 18, 2009
BANGKOK - A brazen attack by gunmen yesterday wounded the protest leader who helped topple Thailand's government in 2006 and paralyzed the capital last year, reheating political temperatures that had started to cool after several days of rioting by opposing forces.
Sondhi Limthongkul, an outspoken media tycoon and founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy, was ambushed on his way to work. At least two men in a pickup truck opened fire on his car with M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles, police spokesman Suporn Pansua said.
Bangkok remained under a state of emergency and security was tightened around Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who said the shooting should not be used as an excuse for more political conflict. "We are concerned by the shooting obviously. We've got to restore order," he said. "We do not want this to be used to create a wider conflict."
And who would, readers?
