Thousands of anti-coup demonstrators rallied in central Bangkok
Thursday after the country's Constitutional Tribunal ordered the
former ruling party Thai Rak Thai (TRT) to disband in a landmark
verdict Wednesday.
Some 1,000 demonstrators, began to gather after 4:00 PM
(09:00GMT) Thursday around the Royal Plaza, a venue for many state
activities and also a popular demonstration site. By 7:00 PM (12:00
GMT), the number of people who took part in the rally had grown to
at least 6,000. The organizers, from the People's Television (PTV),
a satellite television station set up by some former TRT members,
put the number at 10,000.
The demonstrators were rallying at the outlying area surrounding
the Royal Plaza. They were blocked from entering the Plaza by
barricades set up and guarded by a few hundred policemen.
They were seen waiving and yelling out slogans against the
military-led Council for National Security (CNS), which ousted then
prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, founder of the TRT party, on
Sept. 19 last year in a coup d'etat.
Most of the protestors were wearing yellow headbands, with the
slogan "Get out, CNS" in Thai language on it. Some burned picture
of Privy Council president General Prem Tinsulanonda, whom
anti-coup protesters said were behind the Sept. 19 coup.
Small skirmish occurred during the early hours of the
demonstration between the police and the protestors, when some
protestors tried to remove the barricades.
The small clash ended soon after PTV organizers were seen
calming down the emotional protestors, who retreated back behind
the barricades. No injury was reported.
In the evening, several military trucks arrived near the
demonstration scene with dozens of soldiers.
Police had previously closed traffic around the Royal Plaza to
obstruct possible mass rallies at the site as threatened by
supporters of the TRT, which was ordered to disband in a verdict
handed down by the Constitutional Tribunal late Wednesday
night.
The verdict, which took the judges at the Constitutional
Tribunal about five hours to read Wednesday night, held TRT guilty
of several electoral fraud charges and thus sentenced it to
dissolve.
The party's former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, and 110 present
and former party executives, were also banned from seeking
political posts for five years.
A few hours before TRT's ill fate was announced, the Democrat
Party got acquittal from the Tribunal on all electoral fraud
charges in a separate ruling just as lengthy.
Both TRT's former leader Thaksin, now in exile abroad, and
acting party leader Chaturon Chaisaeng had called on more than 14
million party members and its supporters to keep calm after
receiving the verdict.
However, Chaturon called the verdict "unfair" and
"unacceptable".
Chaturon said Thursday that the disbanded party would ask the
Election Commission on Monday to reserve the old name Thai Rak Thai
for registration for a new party.
Security was tight in Bangkok Wednesday, with over 130,000
soldiers and police were dispatched in and around the capital to
control any possible disturbance.
The CNS chairman Sonthi Boonyarakatlin and Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont had said an emergency rule could be announced in
the capital if situation turned violent in wake of the
verdicts.
However, the lengthy process of reading the two verdicts
involving the Democrat, TRT and several smaller parties, which last
nearly 12 hours from 1:30 PM (06:30 GMT) till midnight, had
virtually prevented any unrest from being staged on the day.
On Thursday, security authorities, remained alert as anti-coup
groups like PTV announced plans to rally in downtown Bangkok from
the afternoon.
Metropolitan police chief Adisorn Nontree called an urgent
meeting of police commanders Thursday to beef up security ahead of
the rally.
PTV executive Aree Krainara was quoted by local media as saying
that he personally thought that the ruling against TRT was unfair
and accused the Council for National Security of having interfered
in the Tribunal's decision.
The demonstration at the Royal Plaza and nearby areas continued
into late night. The organizers have threatened to go on with more
protests if the CNS would not step down.
Sonthi on Thursday warned Chaturon not to incite unrest, as the
CNS chairman ordered the army to closely watch the rally.
(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2007)
