THE THAI government has once again set about picking up the pieces after a damaging period of unrest, introducing measures to revive the economy and revoking the passport of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, alleging that he masterminded the unrest that caused an Asian summit to be cancelled.
As Bangkok resumes its normal activities, celebrating Thai new year, with an obvious sense of relief on the streets that the protests have ended, police have issued an arrest warrant for Mr Thaksin and started a manhunt for 10 leaders of the anti-government movement, a day after troops intervened to end violent demonstrations.
Diplomatic sources say Mr Thaksin, who was ousted by a coup in 2006, had four Thai passports, two of them diplomatic, and all have now been revoked.
He is believed to be travelling on a Nicaraguan passport, although he may also be using a passport from an African country.
His current whereabouts are unclear, although he has made televised speeches from Dubai. Local media have speculated that his situation in the United Arab Emirates could become awkward if he has no valid passport.
Other sources say he may be closer to home than people think, possibly in a neighbouring country not governed by extradition agreements, such as Burma or Cambodia.
Redshirted anti-government protesters loyal to Mr Thaksin occupied the area around Government House for three weeks, burning buses and fighting pitched battles with the police. But the intervention of heavily armed combat troops forced demonstrators to back down, and the prospect of serious bloodshed was averted.
“This is not a victory or a loss of any particular group,” prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in an address broadcast yesterday. “If it is victory, it is victory of society that peace and order has returned.”
Finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said Thailand was planning to expand its stimulus package and increase borrowing to boost the economy and offset the damage to the tourism industry.
As well as relief, there was a sense of surprise that the conflict that left two people dead and 123 injured had been resolved so quickly.
Few Thais, however, expect the stand-down will be the end of the struggle by the predominantly rural-based movement that managed to mobilise 100,000 protesters on the streets of Bangkok and caused serious embarrassment to Mr Abhisit, an Oxford-educated politician whom many regard as too weak to handle crises.
The tensions between the rural poor, who form Mr Thaksin’s core support, and the urban elite, who back the government, remain unresolved.
The state of emergency remains in place, and the new year holiday has been extended by two days while the government secures the capital and cleans up the mess from three weeks of unrest.
The peaceful resolution has boosted Mr Abhisit, while Mr Thaksin has suffered for his calls on supporters for a “revolution” and an “uprising”.
Mr Thaksin has lived largely overseas since being toppled by a military coup in 2006 for alleged corruption.
The arrest warrants accuse the protest leaders of creating a public disturbance and engaging in illegal assembly, offences which carry prison terms of up to seven and three years, respectively.
Editorials in Thai newspapers were largely supportive of Mr Abhisit, and praised the way he rescued the debacle of the cancelled summit and cleared the “red” protesters without huge violence.
Mass protests by “yellow” supporters last year snarled Bangkok and closed the airport for a week.
Parliamentary wranglings after that crisis led to the appointment of Mr Abhisit, which outraged Mr Thaksin’s supporters, who sensed the involvement of the army in the way some parliamentary groups switched sides.
Three of the protest leaders are in police custody, a police spokesman said, and the Bangkok criminal court has issued arrest warrants for 11 others, including Mr Thaksin, who fled into exile last year before a court convicted him of violating a conflict-of-interest law.