By Kocha Olarn, CNN
November 26, 2013 -- Updated 1440 GMT (2240 HKT)
Bangkok (CNN) -- Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces a no-confidence motion in parliament Tuesday, as mass demonstrations ratcheted up tensions in the country to the highest level since the deadly unrest three years ago.
The lawmakers will debate the motion for two days, ahead of a scheduled vote Thursday. It's a motion the opposition put forward as it tries to unseat Yingluck's government through legal means.
Outside, anti-government protesters continued to occupy the finance ministry building, which they stormed a day earlier and turned into their secondary command center, said Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut.
For a time Monday and Tuesday, protesters also surrounded the foreign ministry as well as the agriculture and interior ministries.
Earlier Tuesday, Yingluck told reporters that authorities would "absolutely not use violence" to disperse the demonstrators. Later in the day, Thai police issued an arrest warrant against protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban.
Protesters are calling for an end to the government of Yingluck, sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecommunications tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Critics of the Thai prime minister accuse her of being a puppet of her older brother Thaksin, a deeply polarizing figure who was removed from power by the military while in New York in 2006. He has since lived in exile, except for a brief return in 2008, and was convicted by Thai courts for corruption and sentenced in absentia to two years in jail later that year.
"The accusations against me are too severe and unjust," Yingluck said in a televised speech Tuesday.
More than three weeks of anti-government protests led by the opposition Democrat Party rose to a crescendo Sunday as about 100,000 demonstrators turned out in Bangkok, and escalated Monday as leaders vowed to extend their rallies to government offices, TV networks and military installations.
Yingluck responded by extending the areas around Bangkok where police are enforcing an internal security law that restricts gatherings by demonstrators.
"What has been going on now is affecting people's livelihoods and orderliness, as well as disrupting services at government offices," she said Monday. "Therefore it is necessary for the government to enforce the law."
The government had imposed the security measures in central Bangkok several weeks ago. But the law hasn't so far been strictly enforced.
The current protests have reanimated the tensions along Thailand's political faultlines -- Thaksin Shinawatra's mostly rural support base on one side, the Bangkok-based elite and middle classes on the other -- that left the country wracked with turbulence for four years after the 2006 coup, culminating in a 2010 army crackdown on Thaksin supporters that left more than 90 dead.
An estimated 40,000 pro-government "red shirts" -- many from the rural areas -- gathered in a Bangkok stadium Sunday in a show of support for the embattled prime minister, who came to power in a 2011 election.
The current round of protests was triggered in response to a government-backed amnesty bill that could have extended a pardon to Thaksin Shinawatra and opened the door for his return to Thailand.
The Thai senate rejected the amnesty bill on November 11, but since then demonstrations have only grown, with the opposition calling for the current government to be replaced by a new administration.
More than a dozen countries have issued travel warnings for citizens to avoid areas near protests in Bangkok.
Link:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/26/world/asia/thailand-government-protests/index.html?hpt=ias_c1
Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra faces no-confidence motion
November 26, 2013 -- Updated 1440 GMT (2240 HKT)
Bangkok (CNN) -- Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces a no-confidence motion in parliament Tuesday, as mass demonstrations ratcheted up tensions in the country to the highest level since the deadly unrest three years ago.
The lawmakers will debate the motion for two days, ahead of a scheduled vote Thursday. It's a motion the opposition put forward as it tries to unseat Yingluck's government through legal means.
Outside, anti-government protesters continued to occupy the finance ministry building, which they stormed a day earlier and turned into their secondary command center, said Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut.
For a time Monday and Tuesday, protesters also surrounded the foreign ministry as well as the agriculture and interior ministries.
Earlier Tuesday, Yingluck told reporters that authorities would "absolutely not use violence" to disperse the demonstrators. Later in the day, Thai police issued an arrest warrant against protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban.
Protesters are calling for an end to the government of Yingluck, sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecommunications tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Critics of the Thai prime minister accuse her of being a puppet of her older brother Thaksin, a deeply polarizing figure who was removed from power by the military while in New York in 2006. He has since lived in exile, except for a brief return in 2008, and was convicted by Thai courts for corruption and sentenced in absentia to two years in jail later that year.
"The accusations against me are too severe and unjust," Yingluck said in a televised speech Tuesday.
More than three weeks of anti-government protests led by the opposition Democrat Party rose to a crescendo Sunday as about 100,000 demonstrators turned out in Bangkok, and escalated Monday as leaders vowed to extend their rallies to government offices, TV networks and military installations.
Yingluck responded by extending the areas around Bangkok where police are enforcing an internal security law that restricts gatherings by demonstrators.
"What has been going on now is affecting people's livelihoods and orderliness, as well as disrupting services at government offices," she said Monday. "Therefore it is necessary for the government to enforce the law."
The government had imposed the security measures in central Bangkok several weeks ago. But the law hasn't so far been strictly enforced.
The current protests have reanimated the tensions along Thailand's political faultlines -- Thaksin Shinawatra's mostly rural support base on one side, the Bangkok-based elite and middle classes on the other -- that left the country wracked with turbulence for four years after the 2006 coup, culminating in a 2010 army crackdown on Thaksin supporters that left more than 90 dead.
An estimated 40,000 pro-government "red shirts" -- many from the rural areas -- gathered in a Bangkok stadium Sunday in a show of support for the embattled prime minister, who came to power in a 2011 election.
The current round of protests was triggered in response to a government-backed amnesty bill that could have extended a pardon to Thaksin Shinawatra and opened the door for his return to Thailand.
The Thai senate rejected the amnesty bill on November 11, but since then demonstrations have only grown, with the opposition calling for the current government to be replaced by a new administration.
More than a dozen countries have issued travel warnings for citizens to avoid areas near protests in Bangkok.
Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/26/world/asia/thailand-government-protests/index.html?hpt=ias_c1