Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated
Sunday that no protestors were killed last week in a crackdown on a
violent anti-government demonstration in the streets of Bangkok.
On his Sunday morning television broadcast, Abhisit insisted that
authorities tried to avoid bloodshed in suppressing the United Front
for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), whose followers went on a
rampage Monday, blocking streets, burning buses and threatening to
blow up gas trucks.
Two people died in the mayhem, both reportedly the victims of the
UDD rioters. Another 123 people, including protestors and security
personnel, were injured.
The Puea Thai opposition party, which openly supports the UDD
movement, has alleged that authorities killed at least two protestors
and that six others were missing and believed dead.
Abhisit acknowledged that soldiers had fired bullets into the air
to suppress the rioters.
An opinion poll of 1,439 households in 17 of Thailand's 76
provinces conducted by Assumption University's Abac Poll revealed
that 74.9 per cent of the respondents believed the government was
transparent in its attempt to disperse the protesters last week.
The prime minister placed Pattaya, Bangkok and adjoining provinces
under emergency law after the rioters disrupted a regional summit on
April 11 at Pattaya seaside resort, 100 kilometres south-east of
Bangkok, forcing the government to cancel the event.
The protestors, supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin
Shinawatra, attacked cars carrying Abhisit in both Pattaya and
Bangkok on two occasions, but failed to catch him.
The 44-year-old, Oxford-educated prime minister, leader of the
Democrat Party, emerged from the incident with his reputation intact,
largely because of his handling of the restrained crackdown on the
UDD, whose leaders surrendered Tuesday.
Some 34 UDD leaders and activists are currently under arrest,
according to government sources, and warrants have been issued for
others including Thaksin, Thailand's prime minister between 2001-06,
whose popular but increasingly dictatorial rule was ended by a coup.
The government cancelled Thaksin's Thai passport on Monday.
Thaksin, who was in Dubai encouraging a 'people's revolution' during
the UDD protests, reportedly flew to Nicaragua over the weekend where
he has been granted a 'diplomatic' passport.
Although peace returned to the streets, officials acknowledge that
the deep discontent fueling the UDD protests has yet to be addressed
and political situation remains fragile.
'Thailand still stands at a precarious juncture,' Democrat Party
spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks said Friday.
Thaksin, a former billionaire telecommunications tycoon who used
populist policies to secure himself a mass following among some of
Thailand's rural and urban poor, has been discredited by the UDD's
turn to violence and his unsupported claims in interviews abroad with
the foreign media that the army killed many of his supporters.
Facing a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power, he has been
living in self-exile since August 2008. His role in stirring up the
protests is suspected to be partly motivated by court cases that
could seize 2 billion dollars worth of family assets in Thai banks.
But analysts warn that Abhisit and his government need to address
the core issues that have turned Thaksin into such a powerful
challenge to Thailand's traditional status quo: the pro-monarchy
aristocracy, the military and the bureaucracy.
'Abhisit and his backers still seem reluctant to recognize the red
shirts' grievances. This is a mistake. Thailand, a constitutional
monarchy, must find a path to real democracy,' political analyst
Thitinan Pongsudhirak wrote in an analysis titled 'Why Thais Are
Angry,' which is scheduled to be published in the New York Times
Monday edition.
'Elections are held, but if the establishment doesn't like the
winning party, the government is dissolved. Unable to rely on the
ballot box, people take to the streets,' he said.
Abhisit has called for a joint session of the upper and lower
houses on Wednesday and Thursday to debate means of addressing
Thailand's deep political divide through the parliamentary process.
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