Dozens hurt as Thai police fire tear gas at protestors
Thai riot police today clashed with thousands of protesters who barricaded Parliament and vowed to block the government from leaving.
More than 100 people were wounded, including two protesters who had parts of their legs blown off by what police said were exploding tear gas canisters.
The violence, which began early today when police first cleared the street outside parliament, surged again hours later as the authorities fired countless volleys of tear gas to break through the protesters’ cordon so lawmakers could leave.
Rioting protesters also set fire to parked cars, trucks and vans.
About a mile away from the fighting, an unidentified person was killed when a Jeep exploded near the headquarters of the Chart Thai Party, a member of the six-party coalition government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. Police said they suspected a bomb caused the blast.
Even before the violence escalated, the chaos prompted Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to resign and resulted in new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat sneaking out of the Parliament to avoid being spotted by angry protesters demanding his resignation.
Protesters led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy have occupied the grounds of the prime minister’s office since late August. They expanded their protest overnight by marching to the nearby Parliament, and erected barbed wire and tyre barricades to block Somchai from delivering his first policy speech to lawmakers.
Riot police moved in after sunrise and fired multiple rounds of tear gas canisters to clear a path for the government and lawmakers.
Somchai opened the parliamentary session after a 90-minute delay but as he spoke chaos escalated outside the building. Anti-government protesters regrouped and barricaded all four entrances to the Parliament, saying their goal was to block top officials from leaving the building.
Police fired more tear gas canisters to disperse a group of demonstrators armed with wooden batons and slingshots, who were throwing firecrackers at police. The opposition Democrat Party boycotted the speech.
After the parliamentary session ended, lawmakers said they were too afraid to leave the building.
“We are under siege now,” said Kuthep Saikrajang, a spokesman of the ruling People’s Power Party, speaking by mobile phone from inside Parliament. “But we will have to figure out a way to get out without using force.”
Hundreds of lawmakers waited inside the lobby of the Parliament, monitoring the chaos outside.
It was unclear how Somchai left the building, but he arrived by helicopter later at the Supreme Command Headquarters to meet with army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda and Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niempradit.
Earlier spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the army was “concerned” about the violence against unarmed protesters and that any serious injuries should be investigated. He dismissed speculation of a military intervention to end the unrest in Thailand, where the military has staged 18 coups since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
“Victory is near. We are surrounding the building,” one of the protest leaders Somsak Kosaisuk told a cheering crowd outside Parliament, where protesters had chained one of the gates shut.
The unrest was the latest twist in a political crisis that has gripped Thailand for six weeks and virtually paralysed the government.
Queen Sirikit, the wife of the country’s revered monarch, donated 100,000 baht (£1,400) to Bangkok’s Vachira Hospital to help treat the injured, said hospital director Wanchai Chareonchoktawee.
The protest alliance says Somchai is a proxy for ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 by military leaders who accused him of corruption and who now resides in exile. Somchai is a brother-in-law of Thaksin.
When protesters originally took over the grounds of Government House on August 26, their intention was to oust then-Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej – whom they also accused of being a puppet of Thaksin. They later said they also opposed his successor, Somchai.
Samak was dismissed from office on September 9 by a court decision that found him guilty on a conflict of interest charge. He had accepted pay for hosting a TV show while in office.
The alliance claims Thailand’s rural majority – who gave strong election victories to the ruling People’s Power Party – is too poorly educated to responsibly choose their representatives and says they are susceptible to vote buying.
The protest group wants the country to abandon the system of one-man, one-vote, and instead have a mixed system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups.
