BANGKOK: The Thai government yesterday said the leader of violent protests aimed at ousting the prime minister should surrender and face charges against him, including insurrection, ruling out further talks until he did so.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister, has dismissed the charges and vowed to press on with the protests after a pause out of respect for the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej today.
The protests are the latest eruption of a conflict that pits the Bangkok-based royalist establishment against mostly poorer Thais loyal to Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile.
Suthep, 64, a silver-haired politician from Thailand’s south who resigned as a lawmaker for the pro-establishment Democrat Party to lead the protests, wants a vaguely defined “people’s council” to replace the government.
Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who is also head of a special internal security panel, said Suthep should give himself up.
“We will not hold further talks with Suthep until he surrenders himself to police,” Surapong said. “It’s time for him to surrender because he broke the law. Anyone who gives him refuge or shelter would be deemed guilty, too.”
The military, which has staged 18 coups in the past 80 years, has tried to mediate in the crisis and brought Yingluck and Suthep together for inconclusive talks on Sunday. But after days of violence in which five people were killed, concern has grown that the military might step in to replace the government, on the pretext of restoring order.
Addressing those fears, navy chief Admiral Narong Pipathanasai said he and the heads of the army and air force met yesterday and had no plans to intervene.
The government took the heat out of the confrontation on Tuesday, telling police to step aside and let protesters into state agencies they had besieged. That restored calm in time for the king’s birthday but Suthep said it was just a pause.
“We will start our fight again on December 6. We will start as dawn is breaking and we will fight every day until we get victory,” he told supporters in a speech late on Tuesday.
A crowd of protesters marched to the national police headquarters yesterday and got into its grounds but failed to get past interior barriers and later dispersed peacefully.
Recalling the fraternisation at state agencies on Tuesday, after exchanges of teargas and petrol bombs the day before, hundreds of female officers replaced riot police at the barricades and waved goodbye to the protesters as both sides chanted “Long live the king!” Reuters
