State of Emergency in Bangkok

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Wednesday evening declared a state of emergency under the executive degree for administration in emergency situations in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and some districts of Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom and Ayutthaya.

The state of emergency took effect immediately after it was announced.

Mr Abhisit announced the move in a live nationwide television broadcast from the Centre for Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO) at the 11th Infantry Regiment in the presence of the cabinet members.

The prime minister said the decision was reached at a special cabinet meeting this afternoon after a number of the red shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) broke into the parliamentary compound, forcing cabinet members, including himself, and MPs attending a House meeting to flee for safety.

He said the government had tried to control the situation by invoking the Internal Security Act in Bangkok and nearby provinces, but to no avail as the red-shirts had continued to step up their activities and resorted to violence in violation of the law and the constitution.

Their activities had greatly affected people's lives and their work, as well as the national economy and Thailand's image in the eyes of the world community.

Mr Abhisit said a centre for solving the emergency situation had been set up, with Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of security affairs, as director. The centre is empowered to take action under the emergency law and enforce various orders issued under the law.

Other members of the centre include the defence minister, the permanent secretary for defence and the commanders of all the armed forces and the Royal Thai Police Office.

He said the main objectives in imposing the state of emergency were to return the situation to normal as soon as possible, to stop any attempt to disseminate false information in a way to incite division, to more effectively take legal action against the protest leaders, and to enable other measures to be taken more effectively.

The prime minister said the government, in declaring the state of emergency, does not aim to crack down on innocent people, but wants to maintain the sanctity of the law.

He promised that all measures to be taken would be in line with international standards of practice.

The emergency decree allows the armed forces to detain suspects for an initial period of 30 days in informal places of detention without a court order or immediate access to legal counsel, family members or independent monitoring.
It also allows for the declaration of curfews in selected areas and bans on public gatherings of more than five people, prohibits news reports deemed to threaten public order and allows the government to use soldiers to quell unrest.

In response, the UDD called on all of their red-shirt supporters to get together on Friday and try to topple the Democrat-led government.

UDD leader Natthawut Saikua declared that the protesters will not leave their rally sites at Bangkok's Phan Fa bridge and Ratchaprasong intersection.

"I ask all the red-shirts in the city and nearby provinces to join forces at Phan Fa and Ratchaprasong. We'll fight against the guns with our bare hands.

"The red-shirts in other provinces can converge on their respective city halls," Mr Natthawut said.

More red-shirt supporters had gradually travelled to Phan Fa and Ratchaprasong while the group had increased the number guards and raised the security level, he said.



http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/173946/state-of-emergency-declared

This is from April 7th... then take a look at May 13th

BREAKING NEWS: Govt Announces State of Emergency UPDATE : 7 April 2010 Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came on national television at 6 p.m. today to announce a state of emergency for Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and some districts in Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom, and Ayuthaya to control the red-shirt protest.

He said with the rally by the red-shirt group since March 12, the government has tried hard to prevent unrest for the country. However, this endeavor has not been successful. The rally has led to a violation of the law and the Constitution and has caused great inconvenience for the people, the economy, and foreign confidence in Thailand.

The situation has been especially difficult in the past two days. And today, the country saw the invasion of Parliament.

He said, therefore, today's special Cabinet meeting has decided to announce a state of emergency.

The prime minister added that the government wants the situation to return to normal, prevent misleading information that provokes social divide, prosecute rally leaders, and pave the way for effective prevention of acts of violence.

This state of emergency announcement is not intended to prosecute or go after innocent members of the public but is aimed at normalizing the situation.

The government has appointed Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban to oversee the enforcement of the state of emergency.


Thai-ASEAN News Network



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Protests force state of emergency in Bangkok
By Tim Johnston in Hanoi
Published: April 7 2010 08:09 | Last updated: April 7 2010 13:36


Thailand declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok on Wednesday after protesters stormed the grounds of parliament, forcing government ministers to flee by helicopter and raising the pressure for snap elections.

The brief incursion into the parliament – during which Suthep Thaugsuban, the deputy prime minister, and several other ministers scaled a wall in the compound and escaped by military helicopter – was the latest tactic in the campaign by thousands of red-shirted demonstrators to force the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, to resign.

The protesters used a truck to ram the gate before running into the building itself, but left a short while later following an appeal by opposition parliamentarians.

The demonstrators have been turning up the heat on the government, presenting Mr Abhisit with an ever more stark choice of backing down or cracking down.

He has conceded some ground, saying that he is willing to dissolve parliament and call new elections in nine months, but that has proved unacceptable to the opposition, which has stuck to a 15-day deadline.

Mr Abhisit has said repeatedly that he has no intention of using force and his policy of restraint has been widely praised by observers, but there is an impression that he is being boxed in.

On one side, the red-shirt opposition is using ever-more provocative demonstrations, and on the other some of his own supporters are starting to ask at what point restraint begins to look like weakness or indecision.

“He’s been trying to act in a gentlemanly manner, but the red shirts seem to be trying to force them to make a decision to use repression, which could give them an excuse to say how bad this government is or could show divisions between the civilian government and the military,” said Paul Chambers, a political analyst at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

The army, a key and frequently violent player in Thai politics, has surprised many by appearing to want no part in suppressing the protests.

“We can't [use force] since it will cause losses,” the Bangkok Post newspaper quoted General Anupong Paojinda, the head of the army, as saying. “They all are Thais.”

That in turn has fuelled the so-called “watermelon” debate: the argument that the army is green on the outside, a reference to their uniforms, but red on the inside, referring to the perception that their allegiances are with the red shirts.

While the generals supported Mr Abhisit’s accession to power, many of the junior ranks come from a similar background to the demonstrators. Some analysts believe the generals may not be able to rely on their troops to obey if ordered to use potentially lethal force.

“This crisis has shown the weaknesses and limitations of Abhisit and it shows that the military is not always going to do what Abhisit wants,” said Mr Chambers.

The conflict is as much social as it is political. Many of the demonstrators come from the vast rural plains of the north-east and feel that for years they have been excluded from Thailand’s political equation by a Bangkok-based elite who have enjoyed the lion’s share of the benefits from the country’s rapid development.

The protests have been running for a month but, at the end of last week – just as many analysts believed they might be fizzling out – the demonstrators picked up the pace.

On Saturday, they took over one of the most important intersections in Bangkok – the core of the city’s retail district – which has become a base for their operations.

On Monday, they briefly invaded the offices of the Electoral Commission, eliciting a promise that a controversial and long-delayed case that could force the dissolution of Mr Abhisit’s Democrat party would be heard later this month.

On Tuesday, there was a face-off when troops and police blocked the demonstrators from moving.

The Financial Times Limited 2010.
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Dissident Thai General Shot; Army Moves to Face Protesters

By THOMAS FULLER
Published: May 13, 2010

BANGKOK — A renegade Thai general was shot in Bangkok on Thursday as the military prepared to encircle the barricaded encampment of antigovernment protesters.

The general, Khattiya Sawatdiphol, 58, was struck in the head by a bullet during an interview with this reporter about 7 p.m. on the street in central Bangkok, near a park occupied by his hard-line followers. This reporter, who was facing the general and about two feet away, heard a loud bang not unlike a firecracker. The general fell to the ground, with his eyes wide open, and protesters took his apparently lifeless body to the hospital, screaming out his nickname.

“Seh Daeng has been shot! Seh Daeng has been shot!” protesters shouted amid growing panic.

Gunshots were heard in the minutes following, and there were later reports that 20 people had been injured, though whether from gunfire, a stampede, or some other cause was unclear. Within hours, protesters were clashing with security forces in Bangkok’s Lumpini Park.

The general was abhorred by both the government for disloyalty and also by most of the protest leaders for what they suspected was his role in fomenting violence. Still, he had assumed control of security for the protesters, placing his own black-shirted paramilitary fighters at entrances to the makeshift barriers around their encampment, and he claimed the loyalty of a small but intense group of protesters.

When the bullet struck him General Khattiya was inside the barricades, facing a road, overpass and a business district with several tall buildings. Wearing his usual camouflage uniform, he was answering a question about whether the Thai military would be able to penetrate the area.

The government announced earlier on Thursday that armored personnel carriers would be used to cordon off the area in what appeared to be the beginning of an operation to disperse the thousands of protesters who are camped out outside shopping malls and luxury hotels.

General Khattiya’s last words before being shot were, “The military cannot get in here.” Those words were spoken in Thai; he sometimes also spoke in broken English.

The protesters, known as the red shirts, started their mass demonstration two months ago seeking the dissolution of Parliament. But the movement has fractured, and the leaders’ ultimate aims have become less clear. In talks, the government recently agreed to allow early elections, but the breakthrough faltered as some protesters dug in, demanding that someone be held responsible for violence on April 10, when some 25 people were killed.

The general had been called a terrorist by the prime minister, who named him as the chief obstacle to the compromise plan.

Commanding his own paramilitary force of former rangers, General Khattiya was suspended without pay from the armed forces. A special committee was considering whether to strip him of his rank. His involvement with the protest movement underlines fractures within the military and more broadly in Thai society after four years of political turmoil.

In an interview on Sunday, he denied being responsible for any violence. “I deny!” he cried in English, with a laugh, when asked about the dozens of bombings that have set Bangkok on edge and about the mysterious black-shirted killers who escalated the violence on April 10. “No one ever saw me.”

A tentative deal had been reached between the protesters and the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, only to fall apart this week.

A half-hour before he was shot, the General Khattiya was addressing a scrum of reporters at sundown at the barricades. Most peeled away, leaving the general in a conversation with this reporter.

The general commented on his uniform, saying it was the one he had worn when fighting communists three decades ago. He spoke about his role working with the protesters and how this task was different from his previous military missions.

He described himself as leading a “people’s army” that was bracing for a crackdown by the military.

This clash would be “free-form,” he said. “There are no rules.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/asia/14thai.html