People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) anti-government leader Suthep Thaugsuban announced he will mobilise protesters from all rally stages to evict caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from her temporary office at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence at Muang Thong Thani today.
Mr Suthep said he would escalate the anti-government protest and hunt down Ms Yingluck every day and throw her out of all the different locations she works at because she had ordered the raid on protesters at the Phan Fah rally site.
Anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban sits down among supporters on a road near an entrance to Government House. Mr Suthep led demonstrators from the main rally site at Pathumwan intersection to reinforce the one at Government House. PATIPAT JANTHONG
The dispersal operation led to the deaths of four people, one police officer and three civilians, while scores were injured.
The PDRC will also seek a Civil Court injunction to protect anti-government protesters’ right to demonstrate, which it says were abused yesterday by the police attempts to reclaim rally sites.
The PDRC’s move came after the caretaker government mobilised thousands of policemen to disperse anti-government protesters at several sites across the city.
PDRC lawyer Samnuan Praphin yesterday said the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) had acted against a Civil Court ruling on Feb 1 when it ordered the police to evict the demonstrators.
The Civil Court was asked by PDRC co-leader Thaworn Senneam on Feb 1 to grant an injunction to prohibit the government from enforcing the emergency decree.
The court rejected the request. However, while it is considering the legality of this special law before handing down a verdict today, the court ruled that the government is allowed to exercise its power to keep order as long as its actions do not affect the demonstrators’ constitutional rights.
In the view of the anti-government group, the CMPO’s latest actions raised doubts over whether the agency has overstepped the legal line.
The centre has retaken rally sites at the Energy Ministry and part of the rally venue near the government complex on Chaeng Watthana road, which is led by monk Luang Pu Buddha Issara.
At the area in Chaeng Watthana, CMPO director Chalerm Yubamrung told police that "all roads" must be reopened without condition and the monk must return to his temple or "face legal action".
Also yesterday, police arrested two PDRC co-leaders Rawi Matchamadon and Thotsaphon Kaeothima along with guards and supporters totalling 145 people at the Energy Ministry on charges of violating the emergency decree, according to CMPO member Tarit Pengdith.
Police are trying to reclaim another three rally sites — areas near Government House, the Interior Ministry and Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue, where Dhamma Army and People’s Democratic Force to Overthrow Thaksinism demonstrators have encamped.
Although the authorities managed to remove some obstacles from the avenue yesterday, their operation led to a clash between officers and the protesters.
As for the rally venues near Government House and at the Interior Ministry, police officers are holding talks with protest co-leaders to reclaim them.
Mr Chalerm vowed the operation to retake these areas will continue until all of them are free of demonstrators.
The CMPO will not resort to violence, Mr Tarit said, but it will negotiate with the protesters and, if this method fails, it will put pressure on the demonstrators without dispersing them.
“We will keep on implementing these measures during the day, every day,” he said.