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[united]

wooooooooo, looks like it will be one hell of an exciting time in pattaya this weekend..........


Clashes as Thai protesters trap PM at beach hotel
April 7, 2009

PATTAYA, Thailand — Anti-government protesters trapped Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva inside a beach hotel and attacked his motorcade as the kingdom's political turmoil boiled over into violence.

The clash was the most serious since supporters of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded Abhisit's offices in Bangkok on March 26, and came amid mounting speculation about a possible military coup.

The protesters want British-born Abhisit to dissolve his four-month-old government and call elections, but he has said he must stay to resolve problems that have plagued Thailand since Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 coup.

Tuesday's scuffles erupted after Thaksin loyalists clad in signature red shirts surrounded Abhisit's hotel in the coastal resort of Pattaya as he held a cabinet meeting, preventing him from leaving for several hours.

Abhisit finally escaped but about 50 demonstrators chased his car when it stopped at a traffic light and then pelted it with plastic bottles, police who saw the incident told AFP.

Police tried to move the premier to another car but the demonstrators pulled open the door of the second vehicle and began to beat the driver and police who were escorting Abhisit, they said.

The Oxford-educated Abhisit escaped unharmed, but Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he had ordered the immediate arrest of the assailants.

"This is not a peaceful protest. They have violated the law, the government already warned them that they will be prosecuted," Suthep told reporters, adding that police had photographic evidence.

The government insisted that the clashes would not derail a key summit of Southeast Asian leaders plus regional partners including China and Japan, which is due to start on Friday in Pattaya.

"The 'Red Shirts' protest will not affect foreign leaders attending the summit," said Vitawas Srivihok, the senior Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) department official at Thailand's foreign ministry.

But the protests further raised tensions a day before a mass rally planned by Thaksin's supporters outside Abhisit's office in Bangkok, which organisers say hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend.

The Red Shirts are hoping to emulate the success of rival, yellow-clad demonstrators who helped to drive Thaksin's allies from government in December last year with a street campaign including a blockade of Bangkok's airports.

Thaksin, who is living in exile to avoid a two-year jail term imposed last year over corruption allegations, has fired up his supporters with a series of video speeches over the past two weeks.

But the supreme commander of Thailand's armed forces, General Songkitti Jaggabatara, said that the army would not stage a coup even if the situation on Wednesday spiralled out of control.

"The Thai military is acting under the law in supporting the work of the government... It's impossible that military will mount a coup similar to 2006," he said.

In a televised national address late Monday, Abhisit rejected suggestions that Thailand was on the brink of "civil war" but warned that the government would not tolerate any violence or insults to the monarchy during the protests.

The country remains deeply divided between Thaksin's followers among the urban and rural poor and his foes among the traditional power cliques of the palace, military and bureaucracy.

[❋ღḰℯηℨ@ḯღ❋]

damn chui lolx i see the news... kanna trap in hotel

[admin*xposed]

Another absurdist event in Thai politics. It is going to go on and on like a merry go round.

[Octopuss]

PATTAYA, Thailand (AFP) - - Thai protesters smashed their way into a major Asian summit on Saturday, forcing the country's embattled prime minister to cancel the meeting and evacuate foreign leaders by helicopter.
 
Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in the resort of Pattaya after thousands stormed the summit, which was supposed to focus on the financial crisis and North Korea's rocket launch.

Choppers airlifted dignitaries from the roof of the luxury hotel venue after the red-shirted supporters of ousted Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra breached police lines, broke down glass doors and streamed into the building unopposed.

The indefinite postponement of the summit piles more pressure on British-born Abhisit, who has pledged that his four-month-old government will heal years of political turmoil since Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup.

"The government has a duty to take care of the leaders, who will depart from Thailand," Abhisit said in a sombre nationwide address broadcast live across all Thai television channels.

The meeting -- the biggest international gathering since the G20 summit in London -- grouped the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Protesters said they had run out of patience with Abhisit's refusal to bow to their demands for his resignation, and that they were angry at the wounding of three supporters in earlier clashes with pro-government rivals.

"The 'Red Shirts' have been asking him to resign for four months and we decided that now was the time to push him," Pichet Sukjindatong, one of the protest leaders, told AFP.

Hooting horns and triumphantly chanting slogans, anti-government protesters decked out in red pushed past lines of troops who carried shields and batons but offered little resistance.

They toppled metal detectors, smashed reception tables and left behind small pools of blood where some had been injured by glass.

About 100 demonstrators reached the driveway of an adjacent building where the ASEAN leaders where having a luncheon.

Staff were forced to bustle hotel guests -- including a bikini-clad female tourist -- away from restaurants and the poolside.

Officials did not say if or when the summit would resume.

"ASEAN leaders have reached the consensus that the meeting has to be postponed for the security of leaders," Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.

Several foreign leaders including Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and Abhisit himself were later airlifted to a nearby military airbase where emergency planes were on standby, AFP reporters said.

The so-called Red Shirts had earlier clashed with pro-government rivals armed with sticks and bottles, forcing the morning's agenda to be scrapped, including ASEAN meetings with the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea.

The three East Asian leaders remained in their hotels elsewhere in Pattaya.

There was confusion over which side the injured demonstrators came from and who attacked them.

Protest leader Arismun Pongreungrong said his Red Shirts had been fired on by the rival demonstrators, whom he accused of being security forces in disguise.

"We found 500 blue shirts behind army checkpoints with used bullet casings, handmade bombs and sticks," Arismun, a former pop singer, said at a press conference in the hotel lobby.

Oxford-educated Abhisit has repeatedly resisted calls to step down despite days of escalating anti-government protests both in Bangkok and at the summit.

He came to power in a parliamentary vote in December after a court ruling toppled Thaksin's allies from government -- a development that came after anti-Thaksin protesters occupied Bangkok's two airports for more than a week.

His nemesis Thaksin, a billionaire populist who still has a loyal following among the country's poor but is loathed by the Bangkok elite, is living in exile to avoid a jail term for graft.

[united]

i was just 5 metres away when the protesters smashed the hotel lobby glass entrance and stormed the building............ chui.

now trying to get out of pattaya asap......

[Octopuss]

i was just 5 metres away when the protesters smashed the hotel lobby glass entrance and stormed the building............ chui.

now trying to get out of pattaya asap......

Walau A~ so jialat siah~ better run ASAP man~



Last time yellow shirt occupy airport, now red shirt attack summit~ super chui 

[stitchmailbox]

where is our LOS ??

[Octopuss]

BANGKOK - Thailand's ousted prime minister called for a revolution as chaos broke out Sunday in the streets of the capital, with protesters commandeering public buses and swarming triumphantly over military vehicles in unchecked defiance after the government declared a state of emergency.

[Astroboy]

can see frm the news.. this time rd look very jialat...

[stitchmailbox]

can see frm the news.. this time rd look very jialat...

it might add on to the economic crisis in asia if not dealt with nicely and fast.