Thailand Travel News

Thousands of anti government protesters took to streets just a day after the emergency was lifted and held the first anti government rally. The prime minister expressed his confidence saying that the rally would not turn violent and ugly. He said that security officials were placed to monitor the demonstration closely, making sure that no untoward incident occurred. The demonstration was led by Somyos Pruksakaseamsuk – one of the leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). Somyos said that the demonstrators were displaying to the government that the divide in the country remains.

Though the emergency was lifted by the government with a view to restore things, reconciliation still seems far off after three years of turmoil in the country following the removal of Thaksin in a coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.

The opposing parties in this crisis are ‘Yellow Shirts’ and ‘Red Shirts’. Yellow Shirts comprise military, Urban and also middle class Thais who back Abhisit. Red Shirts on the other hand consist of millions of rural and urban poor who are drawn to Thaksin due to his populist policies such as health schemes.

In related news, Sondhi Limthongkul was discharged from the hospital under tight security. He was ambushed when he was on his way to work on April 17th by men in a pickup truck firing assault rifles.

On April 24th, Abhisit Vejjajiva – the Prime Minster of Thailand announced that he was lifting the 12-day emergency in Bangkok. He announced this step in a special session of the Parliament in a bid to heal the anger against the government carried out through protests in the streets. Various protests have been carried out by the red shirted supporters of the exiled ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in order to force the government to conduct general elections.

The state of emergency was put in place after a group of anti-government protesters stormed the summit of Asian Leaders in the city of Pattaya. The supporters of the ex-Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra accused the government of using stringent methods to disperse the supporters who forced the summit to be cancelled.

Hundreds were injured during the clashes between anti- government protesters and police. It was only after thousands of troops were sent by the Government, that demonstrations were called off and order restored in the city to an extent.

The prime minister rejected the call for new polls and instead proposed an all party commission to reform the military inspired constitution drafted in 2007. The constitution has been considered a bone of contention for sometime now, with people criticizing it as backward step from ‘People’s charter’ formulated in 1997.