Police crack down on protesters
Tear fuel, water cannon and rubber bullets utilized in Victory Monument confrontation
Police fired tear fuel, rubber bullets and water cannon on anti-government protesters on Saturday, the fruits of a working battle during which demonstrators had been compelled to vary their vacation spot 3 times.
Redem demonstrators had organized initially to satisfy at Democracy Monument at 2pm on Saturday, with a plan to march to the Grand Palace.
Redem (Restart Democracy) has no official leaders however nonetheless has guards. Created by the Free Youth group in February, it might probably consist of various pro-democracy teams that share frequent targets at any given time.
The group on Saturday was trying to push three calls for — Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha should unconditionally resign as prime minister, the budgets for the palace and armed forces should be lower and allotted to Covid-19 aid efforts, and the “tycoon” Covid-19 vaccine should be modified to the mRNA sort.
Just a few hundred folks arrived at Democracy Monument round midday. Police closed the world to site visitors at 12.20pm and advised them to disperse. In entrance of the Grand Palace close by, the same old wall of containers was seen, fortified this time with decommissioned tanker automobiles obtained from the State Railway of Thailand.
At 1pm, police began clearing the world. Rubber bullets had been reportedly used and a minimum of two folks had been arrested.
The demonstrators had been pushed again to the Phan Fa Bridge. Some threw firecrackers and fired catapults on the police.
Free Youth then posted on Fb that the vacation spot was being modified to Authorities Home. As container partitions had been additionally arrange there, a loudspeaker truck introduced one other change of vacation spot to Victory Monument, with a deliberate march to the 11th Infantry Regiment, the place Prime Minister Prayut resides.
Because the demonstrators arrived at Victory Monument and had been heading for Vibhavadi Highway, which ends up in the military base, police blocked site visitors utilizing stacked containers and barbed wire, with crowd management police lining up behind the obstacles.
Police advised them to return to Victory Monument.
As a few of the protesters tried to take away the containers, a number of tear fuel canisters had been fired at them at Din Daeng intersection at three.30pm.
Police mentioned they’d use rubber bullets if the protesters nonetheless tried to maneuver ahead.
At 5.30pm, police pushed them additional again to Victory Monument utilizing water cannon. Video taken on the scene additionally confirmed tear fuel and muzzle flashes — probably from firing of rubber bullets — being utilized by officers positioned on the skywalk overlooking the roundabout.
Free Youth known as off the rally round 5.30 however sporadic clashes had been persevering with into the night between small teams of protesters and police. The Victory Monument BTS station was briefly closed because the police operation continued.
“Tear fuel and rubber bullets had been used for crowd management. Our aim is to take care of order,” mentioned Pol Col Kritsana Pattanacharoen, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police Workplace.
The demonstrators threw ping pong bombs, stones and marbles, he added.
Dozens of protesters had been seen being carried away on bikes and in ambulances. The Erawan Emergency Medical Centre mentioned a minimum of two civilians and three officers had been injured.
A police detention van is burned on the Din Daeng conflict web site. (Photograph by Wichan Charoenkiartpakun)
