At an undisclosed location!
"Thai leader struggles to stay in power; Prime minister tries to ‘stay cool’ as strife worsens" by Todd Pitman | Associated Press, January 19, 2014
BANGKOK — From inside her ‘‘war room’’ in a temporary office at the Defense Ministry, Thailand’s beleaguered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is watching television feeds of flag-waving protesters trying to bring down her government.
The demonstrators have taken over key pockets of central Bangkok, blocking off their territory with sandbag walls guarded by supporters. They refuse to negotiate, and they’re trampling campaign billboards bearing Yingluck’s image amid increasing doubt that the election she called for next month can be held.
Yingluck can’t order a police crackdown for fear of triggering a military coup. And she is now facing a serious legal threat: The country’s anticorruption commission has announced that it will investigate her handling of a controversial rice policy, an investigation that could force her from office if she is found guilty.
What’s the best way to deal with it all?
‘‘Keep calm. And stay cool,’’ Yingluck said, flashing a brief smile as she rode an elevator at the Defense Ministry this past week, headed for a meeting to monitor the crisis and discuss strategy with top advisers.
Thailand has been plagued by sometimes bloody bouts of unrest ever since then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — Yingluck’s older brother — was overthrown by the army in 2006 amid charges of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy, which he denies.
The coup touched off a societal schism that in broad terms pits the majority rural poor who back the Shinawatras against an urban-based elite establishment supported by the army and staunch royalists who see Yingluck’s family as a corrupt threat to the traditional structures of power.
Yingluck’s opponents — a minority that can no longer win at the polls — argue the Shinawatras are using their electoral majority to impose their will and subvert democracy.
That is a distortion and flat-out LIE!
Notice it isn't even Red Shirts vs. Yellow Shirts anymore?
It's like the Thai people are all orange shirts against the government now!
The power struggle has taken place against what analysts also see as a battle for control over a crucial transition period when the country’s 86-year-old monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, passes from the scene. But for much of it, Yingluck had stayed out of the spotlight.
Just three years ago, she was largely unknown — the director of a family real estate business, a political neophyte with no experience in government. Today, she is in the political fight of her life — a prime minister who cannot use her own office and whose government has been displaced to myriad backup offices across Bangkok because demonstrators have surrounded her ministries.
Where are the counter demonstrations by more numerous supporters?
‘‘We’ve had to adapt the way that we work. I have ordered every ministry to adapt,’’ Yingluck said Thursday. ‘‘It’s like we are working by remote.’’
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban — who is wanted by police on charges of insurrection — brazenly vowed to ‘‘capture’’ Yingluck and her Cabinet this past week. The threat is not taken seriously, but Yingluck takes no risks.
‘‘I don’t go to anywhere deemed dangerous,’’ she said, responding to a question about her safety.
So AP got an interview?
Since last Monday, antigovernment demonstrators have tried to keep up the pressure by marching across Bangkok, and seizing parts of the city. The protests have been peaceful, but violence has occurred nearly every night, with shooting attacks at protest venues and small explosives hurled at the homes of top protest supporters, including the city’s governor, a political rival of Yingluck’s.
Government provocateurs trying to make the protests look bad.
On Friday, a grenade was hurled at marching demonstrators, killing one man and wounding dozens of people. Suthep, who was in the procession but was not wounded, quickly blamed the government.
Yingluck urged the police to quickly make arrests, saying she opposed the use of force and was concerned that the situation was becoming increasingly chaotic.
Since assuming the premiership after 2011 elections, Yingluck has struggled to overcome allegations that she is her brother’s puppet. The Pheu Thai party’s landslide victory came largely thanks to Thaksin. The campaign slogan — ‘‘Thaksin Thinks, Pheu Thai Acts’’ — made the party’s political mechanics blatantly clear.
Yingluck’s opponents say she is carrying on the practices of her billionaire brother by using the family fortune and state funds to influence voters and cement her grip on power. But she has widespread support among Thailand’s poor majority because of the populist policies that have brought them things like virtually free health care.
Oh, that's popular? Really? Then why doesn't the AmeriKan government give that to its people? Instead we got corporate-written Obummercare and none of us are happy.
During her first two years in office, Yingluck walked a careful tightrope with the army and her political rivals, managing an unspoken truce that kept the nation calm. But the last few months have badly shaken her grip on power.
Critics say she brought much of it on herself with a badly misjudged attempt to rehabilitate Thaksin in a general amnesty bill that triggered widespread opposition.
But they can't win at the polls?
Thaksin, now living in Dubai, has lived overseas since 2008 to avoid a jail sentence on corruption charges that he says were politically motivated.
If he and his party are so popular why does he have to hide in Dubai(!)?
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Related: Bad Yingluck in Thailand
Just getting worse:
"Blast injures antigovernment protesters in Thailand" by Thomas Fuller | New York Times, January 18, 2014
BANGKOK — An attack on antigovernment protesters, most likely with a grenade, killed one person and injured more than 30 others Friday in Bangkok, intensifying tensions in the city as a dwindling but dedicated core of protesters continues to block access to a number of government buildings and major intersections.
The blast struck central Bangkok as protesters marched down a narrow street, leaving people dazed and bleeding. It remained unclear hours after the attack who was responsible, with the protesters blaming the government but refusing to allow a forensics team to fully investigate the site because, they said, they do not trust the police.
“The use of a war weapon is of particular concern,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in Thailand at Human Rights Watch. “Thailand cannot allow this cycle to spin into something more dangerous.”
Tensions were already escalating after shooting attacks in recent days, as well as small explosions at the homes of two leaders of a political opposition party that supports the protesters. The attack Friday came as protesters continued to try to “shut down” Bangkok, blocking key intersections in the central business district.
The leader of the protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, cried as he addressed his supporters after the blast, seizing on the assault as another reason for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.
Can't have a leader that cries in charge unless it is a crocodile tear over the Sandy Hook hoax.
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"Blasts injure 28 at Thai protest site" Associated Press, January 20, 2014
BANGKOK — Two explosions shook an antigovernment demonstration site in Thailand’s capital on Sunday, wounding at least 28 people in the latest violence to hit Bangkok as the nation’s increasingly bloody political crisis drags on.
And who benefits?
Police said the blasts near Victory Monument, in the north of the city, were caused by fragmentation grenades — the same kind that killed one man and wounded dozens Friday in a similar explosion targeting protest marchers.
The demonstrators, who control several small patches of Bangkok, are vying to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government and derail Feb. 2 elections she called to quell the crisis. The protest movement has refused to negotiate and the rising casualty toll has only deepened the deadlock.
Witnesses said Sunday’s explosions occurred about two minutes apart. The first blast went off about 100 yards from a stage set up by protesters, leaving a small crater beside a small shop. The second went off near a row of vendors selling antigovernment T-shirts in the street, leaving bloody clothes and a ripped white-and-blue plastic tarp scattered across the ground.
Gee, who could have done these things?
Protest leader Thaworn Senniem said the attacker, a man, was aiming at him but the first grenade bounced off a tree and exploded near protesters. He said the suspect ran, threw a second grenade, and was chased down an alley, where he fled on a motorcycle.
Although the vast majority of Bangkok remains calm, political violence nearly every day over the last week has kept the city of 12 million on edge and raised fears that hostilities are just beginning.
In Friday’s grenade attack, demonstrators had been marching in central Bangkok. Then late Saturday, a gunman opened fire on protesters in the capital’s Lad Prao district, seriously wounding a 54-year-old volunteer guard who was shot in the back.
There are conflicting theories about who is behind the unrest.
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"Thailand declares emergency over protests, attacks" Associated Press, January 22, 2014
BANGKOK — Thailand’s government declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas Tuesday to cope with protests that have stirred up violent attacks, adding to the country’s monthslong sense of crisis.
Who benefits here?
Labor Minister Chalerm Yubumrung said the measure will continue for 60 days beginning Wednesday, but did not announce any specific actions.
The decree greatly expands the power of security forces to issue orders and search, arrest, and detain people, with limited judicial and parliamentary oversight. The areas covered had already been placed under tougher-than-normal security under the country’s Internal Security Act.
The state of emergency follows increasing attacks at protest sites for which the government and the protesters blame each other. These include grenades thrown in daylight and drive-by shootings. On Sunday, 28 people were wounded when two grenades were tossed near one of several stages set up by protesters at key Bangkok intersections.
Another grenade attack on a protest march Friday killed one man and wounded dozens. Nine people have been killed and hundreds hurt in violence since the protests began in early November. The protesters escalated their tactics this month with a threat to ‘‘shut down’’ the capital to prevent the government from functioning.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the government, through a newly established Center for Maintaining Peace and Order, ‘‘will take care of the situation according to international practices, which is something we have always said. Primarily, we have to use the principle of negotiation first.’’
I'm tired of Shinawatra shit.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, in speeches afterward to followers, vowed to continue demonstrating and questioned whether the declaration was justified, saying the protesters had been peaceful. ‘‘Come and get us!’’ he cried.
More crying from this guy?
The protesters have been demanding Yingluck’s resignation to make way for an appointed government to implement reforms to fight corruption. Yingluck called elections for Feb. 2 but the protesters are insisting they not be held. The opposition Democrat Party, closely aligned with the protesters, is boycotting the polls. The announcement of the emergency decree said the elections would proceed as planned.
The protesters charge that Yingluck’s government is carrying on the practices of Thaksin Shinawatra, her billionaire brother who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, by using the family fortune and state funds to cement its power. Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after protests accused him of corruption and abuse of power. He fled into exile in 2008.
Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said ‘‘the protesters have constantly violated the law, especially in closing down government offices and banks and harassment against civil servants to prevent them from working.’’
He added that Suthep’s group ‘‘had gone overboard, and attacks were carried out by ill-intentioned people, causing people to be injured and killed, affecting the country’s stability.’’
Human Rights Watch criticized the emergency decree for allowing excessive use of power and possible human rights violations.
There are fears the current protesters are trying to incite violence to prompt the military to intervene.
Or is it that the "government would use an incidence of violence as a pretext to clear the otherwise largely peaceful protest movement?"
Depends on the approval of the agenda-pushing press I guess.
The powerful army commander, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, has repeatedly said he does not want his forces drawn into the conflict, but has also refused to rule out the possibility of another coup.
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"Thai protesters march as state of emergency begins" by Thanyarat Doksone and Grant Peck | Associated Press, January 23, 2014
BANGKOK — As a state of emergency came into effect Wednesday in the Thai capital, defiant protesters marched on government offices and defaced the wall outside national police headquarters, while a prominent government supporter in the country’s northeast was the target of a shooting attack.
The government said it enacted the emergency decree to improve security and ensure that Feb. 2 elections, opposed by the protesters, are held without disruption. Officials declared there will be no crackdown on the demonstrators, who have seized several patches of the capital, and life continued as normal with tourist sites unaffected and no major deployment of security forces.
The government announced the state of emergency late Tuesday in the wake of a string of attacks that have mostly been aimed at demonstrators protesting peacefully in Bangkok. Grenade assaults on Friday and Sunday killed one man and wounded more than 60 people, bringing the casualty toll since November to at least nine dead and more than 550 hurt.
Gunmen wounded a top leader of a progovernment movement in northeastern Thailand Wednesday, in what many fear is a portent of increased violence if no solution is found to the political crisis.
Kwanchai Praipana was shot twice after gunmen in a pickup truck sprayed gunfire at his home in Udon Thani, according to Jatuporn Promphan, of the Red Shirt group. The attackers have not been identified.
The emergency decree, in effect for 60 days, gives police expanded powers to make arrests, conduct searches, and seize suspicious materials. The government imposed the measure in part to secure the city and because protesters have tried to shut down government offices.
Even as life continued as normal, huh?
‘‘The caretaker government’s enactment of the emergency decree today indicates its growing desperation,’’ said the antigovernment People’s Democratic Reform Committee, which has been leading the protests. The group and its sympathizers say the decree is illegal.
Yup!
Thailand’s conservative court system is widely seen as biased against the government, with the possibility that it could carry out a ‘‘judicial coup’’ to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Readers, this agenda-pushing slop is really reaching its limit.
The protesters have blocked streets and marched on government offices in a bid to shut down the capital and force Yingluck’s resignation to make way for an appointed government to implement reforms to fight corruption, which they say must be implemented before any vote. The opposition Democrat Party, closely aligned with the protesters, is boycotting the polls.
That's the only time rulers ever listen.
The protesters charge that Yingluck’s government is carrying on the practices of Thaksin Shinawatra, her billionaire brother who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, by using the family fortune and state funds to influence voters and cement its power.
Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after protests accused him of corruption and abuse of power. He fled into exile in 2008 to avoid a two-year prison sentence.
The country’s army commander, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, said ‘‘we will have to see’’ whether the emergency decree helps ease the violence.
The protesters have refused to negotiate with Yingluck, but Prayuth urged both sides to talk, saying, ‘‘we must stop this conflict to let the country move forward.’’
‘‘No one takes all or loses all. No one wins all or loses all, so we have to find a way,’’ he said. ‘‘Whenever the conflict has gone to the point that it is not fixable, the soldiers have to fix it.’’
Do what you have to do, General.
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