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Thai protesters denounce coup
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 23, 2006
BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand's new military rulers got their first taste of popular dissent Friday when about 100 protesters defied a ban on public gatherings to denounce the army's coup this week as undemocratic. The military leaders, meanwhile, appointed nine people to investigate corruption under ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and announced plans to write a new constitution to hold future leaders more accountable. The protesters met outside Bangkok's most upscale shopping mall in groups of five or less to avoid breaking new military restrictions on larger public gatherings. "Don't call this reform, this is a coup!" read one of their signs. There was no violence and no arrests, according to a protest leader and police. "We want the military to stop interfering in politics and restore the rights for peaceful assembly and expression as well as free media," said Ji Ungpakorn, a lecturer in political science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University and one of the protest leaders. The coup, carried out Tuesday night while Thaksin was at the United Nations in New York, had been welcomed by many Thais who marched against Thaksin in Bangkok this year, alleging corruption and abuse of power and demanding he resign. The military has pledged to hand over power in two weeks to an interim civilian prime minister and said a new election would be held by October 2007.
[Last modified September 23, 2006, 01:37:43]
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