Thai police move to defuse tensions with anti-government protesters

Police in Bangkok moved to defuse tensions with anti-government protesters stationed outside their headquarters, a sign that authorities are seeking to deflate a month-long effort to oust prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Police removed barriers at the facility and allowed people in, said Aswin Kwanmuang, deputy governor of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

“The police have put down their tear gas, shields and all weapons,” Mr Aswin told the Bluesky Television network, which is affiliated with Thailand’s opposition Democrat party.

Protesters announced plans to seize the police headquarters today after failing to secure the facility yesterday, as protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister with the Democrat party, called for police and civil servants to support the demonstrators.

Rallies that began more than a month ago against a proposed amnesty for most political offenses stretching back to a 2006 coup that toppled Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, from power have morphed into a wider push to replace what Suthep has called the “Thaksin system” of political dominance.

The protests peaked November 24th when more than 100,000 people took to Bangkok’s streets, and the number of demonstrators has declined.

“Can he still be hoping that violence there will lead to some sort of intervention?,” said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

“There has been no sign of where that intervention would come from.”

Protesters couched the latest developments as a victory.

“Everybody nationwide should come out and celebrate,” another protest leader Satit Wonghnongtaey, told supporters.

“We entered the Metropolitan Police Bureau and we breached the Government House’s compound and the police have retreated. This is the hard-fought victory.”

The protesters have called on the military to choose a side, although so far army chief Army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha has simply offered to act as a mediator to ease tensions.

Ms Yingluck yesterday said a demand to replace the government with an unelected council was “unimaginable” under the constitution, and called for talks to end a dispute that is damaging Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.

Bloomberg