Bangkok protest leaders surrender

tauringhuang.

Leaders of the months-long street protests trying to bring down the Thai government have surrendered to police.

They have demanded they be released on bail, after insisting treason charges against them be dropped, and they are now expected to be freed.

They face other charges of inciting arrest and illegal assembly.

Protesters continue to occupy the grounds of parliament, after violent clashes with police on Tuesday that left two dead and hundreds injured.

Seven protest leaders with outstanding arrest warrants entered a police station near their protest camp.

They included senior People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul, PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila, social activist Pibhop Dhongchai and Somsak Kosaisuk, a union leader.

Two other top leaders - Chamlong Srimuang and Chaiwat Sinsuwong - were arrested last week but released on Thursday. They were greeted with rapturous cheers on their return to the protest camp.

The nine protest leaders had initially been charged with treason and insurrection, but negotiations led to the dropping of these charges on Thursday.

The remaining charges could still result in prison sentences of three to seven years.

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Negotiated peace?

Analysts are uncertain about whether the legal moves offer a way out of political instability.


Protesrers gained sympathy after a teargas attack

The shocking injuries suffered by protesters under a police onslaught of teargas earlier this week had shifted some sympathy towards the protest movement.

However, police, journalists and other witnesses say the protesters carried guns, iron bars, machetes, slingshots, firecrackers and bottles in their attacks on the police, 20 of whom were seriously wounded.

Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who resigned after the violence, has told the Bangkok Post that he believes a military coup is the only way out of the impasse.

The newspaper's editorial points out the failure of the recent military government to heal divisions, and calls for greater efforts to preserve democracy.

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Thaksin redux

PAD protesters want an end to any government they see as linked to the former elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who now lives in exile in Britain.

A more activist judiciary has in recent months laid several corruption charges against Mr Thaksin and his wife Pojaman. It has also deposed Mr Thaksin's ally, former prime minister Samak Sundaravej.

His successor, current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, is a brother-in-law of Mr Thaksin and so, despite his calmer demeanour, is distrusted by the protesters.

PAD argues that the largely rural base of support for Mr Thaksin is uneducated and says the voting system should be changed from one-man one-vote, to a more controllable system of professional constituencies.

The BBC's Jonathan Head says that without their most charismatic leaders, the protests at Government House could soon fade.

But he says the basic problem remains: the protesters' loathing for Mr Thaksin and those perceived as his allies.

Mr Thaksin was deposed in a coup in 2006.

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