Protesters Say They’ll End Blockades in Bangkok
BANGKOK — In what appeared to be a major retreat by the movement to overthrow the Thai government, protesters on Friday said they were abandoning their campaign to shut down Bangkok and would dismantle their blockades of major intersections set up in January.
The leader of the main protest group, Suthep Thaugsuban, told a dwindling number of supporters on Friday night that he apologized for the inconveniences of the blockades and that demonstrators would adopt a new strategy to disrupt the government from a new base in central Bangkok. A statement by the broader protest movement said intersections would be unblocked by Monday “as a token of our appreciation.”
The protesters’ retreat came after an escalation of violence in recent weeks and a rare speech by the powerful head of Thailand’s army on Monday. In the speech he distanced himself from the protest movement’s goals and emphasized the importance of adhering to the country’s Constitution.
Yet analysts said the change in tactics by the movement did not mean the end of Thailand’s power struggle, which has left Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra leading a weak caretaker government after protesters hampered elections in early February, preventing the formation of a new government.
Two smaller factions of protesters have vowed to continue their blockades of government offices. And the protest movement retains considerable support in the Thai bureaucracy, among the elite and middle class in Bangkok, and in southern Thailand. A series of contentious rulings in the courts have hampered the government, including a court order banning the dispersal of the protests. And a hasty and aggressive investigation by a government agency into a costly rice subsidy program could result in Ms. Yingluck being barred from politics.
Somsak Jeamteerasakul, a prominent historian, said Friday’s announcement was the biggest retreat since the protest movement began four months ago, and many people might feel relieved.
But he said the street protests were no longer the biggest impediment facing the government.
“If the protest ended today, the crisis would not be over,” he said in a posting on Facebook. Even if the election went forward and Parliament were able to convene, Ms. Yingluck’s party would be unable to govern until the opposition movement returned to the electoral process, he said.
The Democrat Party, the country’s oldest one and historically the voice of the Bangkok ruling class, allied itself with the protesters and boycotted the election. The party is seeking the appointment of a prime minister to replace Ms. Yingluck.
Sombat Boonngamanong, an activist in the Red Shirt movement, which supports the government, said the protesters were forced to retreat because, unlike in previous crises, the military leadership was noncommittal to them.
“Suthep was stuck in the street and waiting,” Mr. Sombat said. “But they never arrived. He felt disheartened.”
The military in 2006 overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms. Yingluck’s brother and the founder of what is the most successful political movement in recent Thai history. It has won every election since 2001, and its dominance is one of the major grievances of his detractors.
Mr. Thaksin now lives in self-exile after what he says was a politicized trial in 2008 in which he was convicted of illegally procuring land.
The protest movement, which in December and January drew tens of thousands of office workers and wealthy Bangkok residents into the streets, struggled to attract similar crowds in recent weeks. At its height, the so-called shutdown of Bangkok affected only a limited number of areas in the vast metropolis.
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