Thailand probes grenade attack on anti-Thaksin rally

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Thailand probes grenade attack on anti-Thaksin rally

Published: 16/11/2009 at 03:03 PM
Online news: Politics

Thai police said Monday that a grenade was responsible for a blast at a rally by opponents of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, as the number of injured rose to 12.

Demonstrators from Thailand's royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement wave national flags and portraits of Thai King Bhumibol Adulayadej (C) during a rally in Bangkok on November 15, 2009. Thai police said Monday that a grenade was responsible for a blast at a rally by opponents of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, as the number of injured rose to 12.

Organisers said the small explosion at the protest in central Bangkok late Sunday was caused by a firecracker thrown by men on a motorcycle, but police said they now believed it was a more serious attack.

The rally by around 20,000 "Yellow Shirts" was held to condemn Thaksin's visit to neighbouring Cambodia last week and his appointment by Phnom Penh as a an economic adviser to the government.

"This M-79 grenade was likely fired from the side of the venue, where the defence ministry and a court are located," said Lieutenant General Worapong Chewpreecha, chief of Bangkok Metropolitan Police.

"But it was far away so its power was lower and did not cause many injuries," he told reporters, adding that he had ordered the inspection of closed-circuit television cameras in the area.

He said that of the 12 people wounded in the blast three remained in hospital, one of them in intensive care. Two children were among those hurt, he added.

Photographs of the scene showed a small crater in a paving stone and a number of supporters of the yellow-clad People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) suffering from slight cuts.

Yellow Shirt founder Sondhi Limthongkul said Sunday that two men on a motorbike had thrown a large firecracker, which caused the explosion.

The royalist PAD said they were also protesting against comments about the monarchy made by billionaire Thaksin, who was ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006.

The Yellow Shirts held mass rallies in the months before the coup and took to the streets again in 2008, blockading Bangkok's airports to drive out the then pro-Thaksin government.

The group has however also held protests in recent weeks asking the current government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, a bitter foe of Thaksin, to take stronger action against Cambodian territorial claims.

Previous rallies by the Yellow Shirts have been hit by grenade blasts while Sondhi escaped a gun attack on his car in April.

Sondhi was in October voted leader of the movement's new political party, the New Politics Party.

Thaksin's visit to Cambodia sparked a diplomatic crisis between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, with relations already tense after a series of deadly clashes in the past year over disputed land around a temple on the border.

The row erupted again on Monday over consular visits to a Thai man accused of spying.

Thai citizen Siwarak Chothipong, 31, an employee at the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, was arrested Thursday on charges of supplying details of Thaksin's flight schedule to his country's embassy.

Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said a Thai diplomat visited Siwarak on Monday afternoon, but Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said there had been no such meeting.

"Since he was arrested, Thai embassy officials have kept contacting Cambodian officials to seek permission to visit him, but we have not been granted it yet," Kasit told reporters.

The spy allegations prompted Phnom Penh to expel the Thai embassy's first secretary Thursday and Thailand reciprocated hours later.

Separately the Thai foreign ministry said it had passed information to the United Arab Emirates proving that Thaksin is living in Dubai.

Panich Vikitsreth, vice minister at the Thai ministry, said he had "briefly" met UAE ambassador Mohammed Ali Ahmed Omran Al Shamsi on Monday "to discuss information related to Thaksin".

Thaksin has said he spends much of his time in Dubai. Thailand has previously sought the UAE's assistance but the two countries have not signed an extradition treaty.

Relate Search: pad, rally, sondhi, thaksin, grenade, sanam luang, cambodia

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Peter

Discussion 25 : 17/11/2009 at 05:33 PM25
Would this incident have occurred if the Govt. had imposed the ISA, like they habitually do for peaceful UDD rallies? The twisted PAD psyche would suggest the incident was just as likely to have been their own work, intended to inflame ugly nationalist sentiment, as that of their political opponents. Without evidence, it is impossible to know.
Tony

Discussion 24 : 17/11/2009 at 01:58 AM24
Yes so Sondhi ordered his own execution for publicity too?

Thaksin & gang butchered 2,500 people during his drug war. They had opponents kidnapped and slaughtered, they ordered UDD protesters to attack PAD protesters back during Samak's reign, they started the Songkran riots back in April ... why is it so hard to believe he would hire someone to terrorize a peaceful protest? Why???
ricefieldradio

Discussion 23 : 17/11/2009 at 01:01 AM23
Chrisp - I have an international journalist friend who attended both the UDD and PAD rallies. He put the number at the PAD rally at 35,000 and the number in Khao Yai at around 55,000. He has been quite accurate as well as neutral in the past and has covered all the rallies red and yellow from the start.
Chrisp

Discussion 22 : 17/11/2009 at 12:10 AM22
Was there 10000, 15000 or 20000? It seems to be going up by 5000 each time I read a new article!
Mony

Discussion 21 : 17/11/2009 at 12:01 AM21
The PAD are so stupid even let kids to be involved in the stupid movement. Their leaders should be prosecuted if Abisit knows what he is doing.

The PAD are a commuinist or terroist to
Thailand.
just leave them

Discussion 20 : 16/11/2009 at 11:51 PM20
I am starting to realise they are all as bad as each other and not even worth the effort!

For those foreigners who still bother to try to impart some sense of common sense to the locals, I suggest giving it up...

Thais are like children, end of. From the top down, they know it all and never listen yet they love something to fill in the empty spaces between the next soap opera!

What better than a real life soap opera...
ricefieldradio

Discussion 19 : 16/11/2009 at 11:31 PM19
No one ever knows about the bomb blasts at every PAD rally the only thing that is a certainty is that PAD gets front page coverage for a few days. If shot from a grenade launcher why has the stage never been hit anyone with a little training could get a M79 round in a small radius, one would have to think the stage was not the target ever.

So just, ask yourself who does this benefit the most. It's sure not the Reds, the police or the Military.
eEconomist

Discussion 18 : 16/11/2009 at 09:38 PM18
Reply to #7, "Bangkok Post is supposed to be neutral"... Well yes it is as neutral as the "Light of Myanmar"!!
Sceptic

Discussion 17 : 16/11/2009 at 08:45 PM17
Come off it, Tony! Firing a grenade BEHIND the stage counts as Thaksinites "making war"? If that was really the case surely you would think they would use a more effective tactic. Oh, of course, you think they are very stupid. The fact is neither you nor I have the first idea yet who did it - either a red shirt fringe idiot or, just as likely, some PAD twerp, bent on creating publicity and sympathy for his cause while trying to tar the other side.
Mr.Do

Discussion 16 : 16/11/2009 at 08:42 PM16
Dont serve politic.
Politic man no die, who serve politic can die.
Thai and khmer peaple must stay in peace and frendli, let politicman atak.
Frome Mr do, phnom penh

1 2 3 Next Last

Peter

Discussion 25 : 17/11/2009 at 05:33 PM25

Would this incident have occurred if the Govt. had imposed the ISA, like they habitually do for peaceful UDD rallies? The twisted PAD psyche would suggest the incident was just as likely to have been their own work, intended to inflame ugly nationalist sentiment, as that of their political opponents. Without evidence, it is impossible to know.

Tony

Discussion 24 : 17/11/2009 at 01:58 AM24

Yes so Sondhi ordered his own execution for publicity too?

Thaksin & gang butchered 2,500 people during his drug war. They had opponents kidnapped and slaughtered, they ordered UDD protesters to attack PAD protesters back during Samak's reign, they started the Songkran riots back in April ... why is it so hard to believe he would hire someone to terrorize a peaceful protest? Why???

ricefieldradio

Discussion 23 : 17/11/2009 at 01:01 AM23

Chrisp - I have an international journalist friend who attended both the UDD and PAD rallies. He put the number at the PAD rally at 35,000 and the number in Khao Yai at around 55,000. He has been quite accurate as well as neutral in the past and has covered all the rallies red and yellow from the start.

Chrisp

Discussion 22 : 17/11/2009 at 12:10 AM22

Was there 10000, 15000 or 20000? It seems to be going up by 5000 each time I read a new article!

Mony

Discussion 21 : 17/11/2009 at 12:01 AM21

The PAD are so stupid even let kids to be involved in the stupid movement. Their leaders should be prosecuted if Abisit knows what he is doing.

The PAD are a commuinist or terroist to
Thailand.

just leave them

Discussion 20 : 16/11/2009 at 11:51 PM20

I am starting to realise they are all as bad as each other and not even worth the effort!

For those foreigners who still bother to try to impart some sense of common sense to the locals, I suggest giving it up...

Thais are like children, end of. From the top down, they know it all and never listen yet they love something to fill in the empty spaces between the next soap opera!

What better than a real life soap opera...

Discussion 19 : 16/11/2009 at 11:31 PM19

No one ever knows about the bomb blasts at every PAD rally the only thing that is a certainty is that PAD gets front page coverage for a few days. If shot from a grenade launcher why has the stage never been hit anyone with a little training could get a M79 round in a small radius, one would have to think the stage was not the target ever.

So just, ask yourself who does this benefit the most. It's sure not the Reds, the police or the Military.

eEconomist

Discussion 18 : 16/11/2009 at 09:38 PM18

Reply to #7, "Bangkok Post is supposed to be neutral"... Well yes it is as neutral as the "Light of Myanmar"!!

Sceptic

Discussion 17 : 16/11/2009 at 08:45 PM17

Come off it, Tony! Firing a grenade BEHIND the stage counts as Thaksinites "making war"? If that was really the case surely you would think they would use a more effective tactic. Oh, of course, you think they are very stupid. The fact is neither you nor I have the first idea yet who did it - either a red shirt fringe idiot or, just as likely, some PAD twerp, bent on creating publicity and sympathy for his cause while trying to tar the other side.

Mr.Do

Discussion 16 : 16/11/2009 at 08:42 PM16

Dont serve politic.
Politic man no die, who serve politic can die.
Thai and khmer peaple must stay in peace and frendli, let politicman atak.
Frome Mr do, phnom penh

Thailand probes grenade attack on anti-Thaksin rally