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Thai protestors besiege Parliament complex, Parliament session called off
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by Sanjay Jha | November 24, 2008 at 12:13 am
68 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments
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Today's Parliament session was called off in Thailand following thousands of anti-government protestors led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) began the besiege of the Parliament complex and other establishments in a showdown effort to bring the "Thaksin-proxy" government down. The PAD besiege was aimed at, as declared, blocking the government led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from starting the legislative procedures to amend the Constitution 2007 in what the PAD describe as efforts to bring former Prime Minister Thaksin and his allies back to power.
The protesters have been occupying the government compound in the capital, Bangkok, for months.
The protests are led by the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which claims the government is corrupt and hostile to the monarchy.
The rallies forced the day's parliamentary session to be cancelled.
The current Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat, who has been attending the Asia Pacific Ecocomic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Peru, has said he has no intention of resigning.
Violence fears
Police said around 18,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets, blocking roads leading to parliament. Some groups had marched on the police headquarters and the finance ministry.
The protesters were dressed in yellow shirts and headbands and carried national flags and portraits of the revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 18:58 on November 24th, 2008
The troops in the photographs were practising for a Trooping the Colour parade on the following Sunday.
They were NOT part of the demonstration, but added to a "carnival" atmosphere on the Sunday afternoon.
at 19:15 on November 24th, 2008
PAD threatened this as the final action to topple the government. It has once again been discredited. I think ordinary people in Thailand are getting bored and fed up with their antics. I went down there yesterday and someone is clearly spending a lot of money on the encampment: it is like a small town, with its hospital unit there now. At least they have to protect themselves against flying missiles: the place looks like a war, although the PAD has no idea how to conduct a campaign to bring about a win! The government is weak but the army has been diplomatic in avoiding any nasty confrontation. What strikes is that PAD hasn't read the miltary classics on strategy! Or they would have achieve a decent goal by now, if they had a realistic one!