Raucous Red-Shirts Rant and Riot in Chiang Mai
A small skirmish broke out for a short time between Chiang Mai police and the red-shirts of the Rak Chiang Mai 51 Group who held a protest rally in front of the Provincial Police Region 5 office in Muang district of Chiang Mai on Monday demanding the removal of Pol Lt-Gen Somkid Boonthanom, the provincial police chief.
Police reported that about 100 members of the Rak Chiang Mai 51 Group led by Phetcharawat Wattanapongsirikul and Kanyapak Maneechak started their protest in front of the Police Region 5 headquarters at noon to demanding the ouster of Pol Lt-Gen Thanom, who was to head a police meeting to oversee the reshuffle of police officers in the area.
They said Pol Lt-Gen Boonthanom should be suspended from duty after he was arraigned in the Criminal Court over the unsolved disappearance of Saudi businessman Mohammad al-Rewaili, who had vanished 1990 and was believed to have been murdered by police.
The protesters are worried that police officers in sympathy with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) would be swapped with pro-People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) officers.
A police cordon was organized to avert the demonstrators entering the headquarters.
The situation became tense when police pulled down tents erected by the protesters and they clashed for about 20 minutes as the red-shirts attempted to break through the police line into the office building. Some of the demonstrators were arrested.
Police finally restored order and erected barbed wire barricades to avert more trouble.
Related posts:
- Place related post plugin php here...
