Thai Protests

Yesterday in Thailand, anti-government "red shirt" protesters ended a three-week siege of the prime minister’s office, one day after at least two people were killed in large protests in Bangkok. The protesters decided to leave the government building after Thai troops surrounded them. Earlier, an army spokesman had said troops were ready to move against the protesters, who had been encamped around the prime minister’s office since March 26.

Soldiers armed with assault rifles fought running street battles with anti-government protesters in Bangkok last Monday as unrest spread through a wider swath of the city, and the chief of Thailand’s armed forces vowed to use “every means to end the chaos.”


A summit meeting of Asian nations was also abruptly ended last week after hundreds of the same protesters forced their way past security forces into a convention center where leaders were preparing to discuss the global economic crisis. Thai officials reported about half of the leaders at the meeting were evacuated by helicopter, including those of Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines, while many fled by boat.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the embattled Thai prime minister who has faced a week of large-scale street demonstrations, declared a state of emergency to secure the departure of leaders from Southeast Asia, China, South Korea and Japan. The emergency decree was lifted once the leaders had safely left Pattaya, a resort town about 90 miles southeast of Bangkok.

Thailand's former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, warned that violence will return to the streets of Bangkok if the authorities do take a hard line against protesters - composed mostly his supporters.