BANGKOK, Thailand -- The government clamped a "state of emergency" on
Bangkok and surrounding provinces starting on Wednesday (Jan. 22),
empowering security forces to detain people without charge, ban public
gatherings, impose curfews, tighten media censorship, and establish
no-go zones.
"The government has not yet specified what authorities it will invoke
under the decree," the U.S. Embassy said in an e-mailed "Security
Message for U.S. Citizens" on Tuesday (Jan. 21) hours after the
announcement.
The 60-day-long emergency decree came in response to Bangkok's
worsening political violence in which grenades and gunfire injured 29
people at an anti-government protest on Sunday (Jan. 19), two days
after a grenade killed one protester and injured 36 others.
A total of 10 people on all sides have perished in Bangkok during the
past 11 weeks of anti-government protests.
"The cabinet decided to invoke the emergency decree to take care of
the situation and to enforce the law," Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister
Surapong Tovichakchaikul said on Tuesday (Jan. 21).
"An ill-intentioned group is mobilizing weapons and bombs to stir up
violence and attack its rivals," army spokesman Winthai Suwaree said
on Monday (Jan. 20), after the latest killings.
"How dare this government claim to be legal and announce a state of
emergency," said protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban on Tuesday (Jan. 21)
in a speech to thousands of supporters.
"This is no longer a government. They are just a group of gangsters,"
said Mr. Suthep whose emotional rhetoric delights and invigorates his
mostly middle-class and wealthy supporters who are boosted by
southerners in Mr. Suthep's home region.
Mr. Suthep led hundreds of supporters through Bangkok's streets on
Tuesday (Jan. 21) grinning, shaking hands with cheering crowds, and
coyly posing for photographs.
A court has issued an arrest warrant charging Mr. Suthep with
"insurrection" -- punishable by life imprisonment or lethal injection
-- for leading the protest, but his 40 bodyguards and his supporters
have inhibited authorities from grabbing him on the street.
Mr. Suthep began his rallies on Oct. 31 and, after attracting a peak
of 150,000 supporters, launched an ongoing "shut down Bangkok"
campaign on Jan. 13 to stop a nationwide election scheduled for Feb.
2.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved Parliament's
House of Representatives so the snap election could be held.
Ms. Yingluck wants to prove she has a popular mandate, after Mr.
Suthep and the judicial system alleged that Ms. Yingluck and her
administration were linked to massive corruption in government
subsidies for rice and other schemes.
Security officials fear the confrontation between Mr. Suthep's
supporters and the government will increase before the polls, because
the protesters want to install a committee of appointees to run the
country instead of elected politicians.
To destabilize Ms. Yingluck's government, Mr. Suthep's supporters have
been occupying and looting government offices, blockading Bangkok's
streets and threatening people, while the police and military stand
back, unwilling to risk worse bloodshed and anarchy by confronting the
crowds.
After vigilantes chained the doors to several government offices,
retreating staff set up makeshift bureaus in shopping malls and
convention centers to issue passports, collect taxes, print ballots
and perform other key functions.
Protesters meanwhile stole computers, databases, criminal evidence
against their leaders, and dossiers from government investigators'
offices.
Tough, self-declared protest "guards" have erected roadblocks on
several main streets in Bangkok by stacking automobile tires which are
covered with nylon nets.
The men forcibly search some vehicles or angrily wave others away from
busy, wealthy commercial areas controlled by the protesters.
On Monday, anti-government vigilantes seized Bangkok's central Lumpini
Park, locked its gates, and reinforced fences so only protesters could
congregate in the spacious green area where they camp in tents under
trees alongside ponds.
On Tuesday (Jan. 21), protest leaders shouted speeches from hurriedly
built stages in the park and in the middle of several main
intersections, while the protesters' BlueSky TV broadcast their
activities.
In past years, the police and military have enforced the emergency decree.
But during the current protest, police have been instructed to
passively allow vigilantes to freely roam through Bangkok, instead of
using force which could result in unwanted bloodshed.
The U.S.-trained military meanwhile said it has not ruled out
launching a fresh coup to stabilize this strategic non-NATO ally of
the U.S. in Southeast Asia.
The military's 2006 coup toppled Ms. Yingluck's billionaire elder
brother, then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, causing this
Buddhist-majority country to descend into deadly clashes in 2010
between Mr. Thaksin's supporters and the army.
During that pro-democracy uprising, at least 90 people died -- mostly
supporters of Mr. Thaksin who one year later elected his sister to
become prime minister.
--
Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California, reporting news from Asia since 1978. His websites are:
http://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets
https://gumroad.com/l/RHwa
