[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Thai protesters teach break-in techniques

[Patrick Bond]

(You may not like Thaksin's politics but you've got to hand it to his 
team, upping the ante for global justice movement demos in future.)

Protesters storm Asian leaders' summit in Thailand

Anti-government demonstrators declare victory and retreat after forcing 
talks to be abandoned by smashing way into convention hall

    * Peter Beaumont
    * guardian.co.uk, Saturday 11 April 2009 10.10 BST

In a humiliating setback for its prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, 
Thailand was forced to cancel a summit of Asian leaders in the seaside 
resort of Pattaya today after protesters stormed the conference centre.

Nine of the foreign leaders had to be flown by helicopter to a military 
base before the anti-government protesters declared victory and 
retreated from the summit venue.

The red-shirted demonstrators - supporters of former prime minister 
Thaksin Shinawatra - demanded Abhisit's resignation and stormed the 
conference's media centre. Local media said Thaksin had asked his 
supporters to "swarm the summit venue" - the Royal Cliff Beach hotel - 
and force the prime minister to step down.

Thaksin was deposed in 2006 following a military coup. The present prime 
minister came to power in December after opposition defections, which 
the opposition says were stage-managed by the country's military. 
Thailand has now had four prime ministers in 15 months, none of whom has 
been able to heal the political divisions.

The protesters smashed through the glass doors of the convention hall 
and ran through the building, overturning tables, blowing horns, waving 
Thai flags and screaming: "Abhisit get out."

The latest factional violence follows warnings from some observers that 
the country is in danger of slipping into a "mobocracy".

Thailand's political crisis has been escalating since last year amid a 
clash of personalities and deep disagreements over what the nature of 
the country's political system should be in the aftermath of the 2006 
military coup, one of 18 the country has witnessed. The 2006 coup 
deposed Thaksin, accusing him of corruption. A deeply divisive figure, 
he is popular with the rural poor but largely loathed by urban Thais.

"We want to tell Abhisit himself that this meeting cannot go on," 
protest leader Arisman Pongreungrong said after leading the mob into the 
convention hall.

The red-shirted protesters claimed although they had earlier agreed to 
break up, they had been attacked by blue-shirted government supporters, 
events which triggered the assault on the conference centre. "There were 
at least two cases of shootings aimed to harm our red-shirt supporters, 
a clear evidence of government supporters possessing guns and using them 
directly at us," the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship 
said. Those claims could not immediately be verified.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn earlier described the "blue 
shirts" as people "we believe are concerned about the meetings. They 
want them to continue, and they want them to continue peacefully." But 
photographers on the scene said the blue shirts, wearing balaclavas or 
scarves to keep from being identified, had clubs, bricks and slingshots 
and threw smoke bombs as they clashed with red shirts.

"The meeting cannot go on. We have to consider the security of the 
leaders," government spokesman Supachai Jaisamuth said. "The situation 
is too violent and it is a security concern for the leaders."

The attack on the conference centre was only the latest incidence of 
street violence in Thailand's increasingly fractious political crisis. 
The country, which has been one of the worst hit in the region by the 
global economic meltdown, last year saw a two-month siege at government 
house - the prime minister's office - by yellow-clad supporters of the 
People's Alliance for Democracy, who also closed two of the country's 
airports.

Today's chaos dealt a major blow to Abhisit, who has been trying to 
project an image of calm and normality since taking power in a 
parliamentary vote four months ago, after a court dissolved the previous 
government for election fraud.

It also scuttles a chance for the 16 regional leaders, including those 
from China, Japan and South Korea, to confer on ways to combat the 
global slump that has battered Asia's export-oriented economies. North 
Korea's recent rocket launch also was to be discussed at the weekend summit.

The East Asia Summit brings together the 10 members of the Association 
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, 
Australia and New Zealand for discussions about trade, economic issues 
and regional security.

Asean leaders were to sign an investment agreement with China, but that 
was scrapped after the blockade prevented the Chinese premier, Wen 
Jiabao, from reaching the Royal Cliff hotel.