Thai police fire tear gas at Bangkok anti-government rally
24 November BBC
Police have used tear gas against thousands of protesters calling for
the overthrow of the prime minister in the Thai capital, Bangkok.At
least 10,000 protesters gathered, demonstrating against the government
of Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of the deposed former prime minister.
The rally was organised by a group who accuse Ms Yingluck of being a
puppet of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. At least seven police
officers were reported wounded in clashes. Anti-riot police carrying
plastic shields fired tear gas at protesters who tried to climb over
concrete and barbed wire barriers blocking entry to the rally site,
Bangkok's Royal Plaza, near the parliament. The rally was not banned but
police blocked demonstrators from accessing some streets near government
buildings, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok.
"We used tear gas because protesters were blocking police and did not
comply with the security measures we put in place," police spokesman
Piya Uthaya told a local TV station, according to Reuters. Police said
they had seized various weapons, including knives and bullets, as
protesters arrived. The demonstration, which has now ended, was
organised by a new group calling itself Pitak Siam or Protect Thailand.
Led by a retired army general, the group accuses Ms Yingluck's
administration of corruption and ignoring insults to the revered
monarchy. "I promise that Pitak Siam will succeed in driving this
government out," former Gen Boonlert Kaewprasit said in his address to
the rally. "The world will see this corrupted and cruel government. The
world can see the government under a puppet," he said later.The group
has attracted the support of various royalist groups including "yellow
shirt" members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who helped
destabilise governments either led or backed by Thaksin Shinawatra in
2006 and 2008.
He remains a deeply divisive figure in Thailand. Ousted in a 2006
military-backed coup, he fled the country in 2008 shortly before being
found guilty of abuse of power. Earlier this week, Ms Yingluck, who was
democratically elected in 2011 with a large majority, ordered nearly
17,000 police to be deployed during the rally and invoked a special
security law.
"They [the government] like to claim they got 15 million votes. I'm
here to show I was not one of them. So don't count me in. I didn't
choose you," one unnamed protester told the Associated Press.
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