Word: thailand
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Striding into the hastily abandoned headquarters of Thailand's Red Shirt movement in central Bangkok, Colonel Apirat Kongsompong glanced at the detritus of demonstration: stacks of Styrofoam cups, half-empty bottles of fish sauce and whisky, remote controls for televisions once tuned to news channels documenting the street battles between antigovernment forces and the army. On Tuesday, Red Shirt leaders ended the protesters' three-week occupation of central Bangkok, which left at least two dead and more than 100 injured. On a mission to secure the area less than an hour after the Red Shirts had decamped, the commander...
...clashes marked yet another unhappy chapter in Thailand's seemingly endless crisis between two political forces, which each claim the mantle of democratic fervor and populist sentiment as their own. Last year, yellow-shirted antigovernment protesters drawn heavily from the middle classes occupied Thailand's seat of power for months and besieged Bangkok's international airport for a week. The Yellow Shirts' aim? To force the then government to step down because they considered the ruling party to be a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 army coup. In December, the courts dissolved...
...That's bad news for Thailand, whose export-oriented economy has already been battered by the global financial downturn. The continuing political crisis will only exacerbate Thailand's economic woes, as foreign countries issue travel warnings that could dissuade badly needed tourists in an industry that employs more than 3 million people. On April 12, Abhisit declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, the same day the Prime Minister's motorcade was attacked by a red-hued mob wielding sticks and bars. Earlier in the day, one Red Shirt leader, Jatuporn Prompan, had called on his fellow protesters to attack...
...former student leader during the violently crushed demonstrations in 1992, Jatuporn is also calling for the resignation of Prem Tinsulanonda, a close adviser to Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thaksin and Jatuporn allege that Prem was the instigator of the 2006 coup that unseated Thaksin, a charge Prem denies. Thailand's King does not normally comment on political matters, and he has made no public statement about the recent crisis...
...After just a few months of relative calm following an extended period of political turmoil, as many as 100,000 protested on April 8 to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down. Supporters of exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra rallied outside the home of the privy councilor to Thailand's revered monarch. Thaksin blames the adviser for organizing the 2006 coup that ousted...