Thai PM says army chief to take charge of operations to restore peace after violent protests

Thai army chief takes charge of restoring order

BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister put the army commander in charge of restoring order in the wake of bloody political unrest, taking the task away from the deputy prime minister after a botched raid Friday to arrest anti-government protest leaders.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, speaking in a special television broadcast on all stations, said Gen. Anupong Paochinda would take charge of the peacekeeping force meant to prevent violence by red-shirted protesters who are seeking to topple his government.

“A decision has been made to make the command line more effective and swifter,” Abhisit said. “Therefore I have made an order to change the person in charge to Anupong, the army commander.”

Anupong’s appointment sends a signal that Abhisit is willing to raise the stakes in his standoff with the tens of thousands of mostly rural protesters camping in the Thai capital by letting the army take direct charge of security. Thai media have reported widely that junior commanders are itching to move against the protesters.

Abhisit said peacekeeping force will be able to “call in forces in a more united and integrated way, so that they can handle the terrorism-related activities specifically.”

Troops have also failed to clear Red Shirt protesters who have besieged Bangkok for the past one month. A major attempt to clear one of the two main protest sites last Saturday ended in fierce clashes that left 24 people dead and more than 800 injured. The protesters have since consolidated their forces at the second site in an upscale shopping and hotel district.

The Red Shirts are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in bloodless coup in 2006. They accuse Abhisit of heading an illegitimate government because it came to power without winning an election in December 2008, replacing a pro-Thaksin administration.

The security forces suffered another embarrassment Friday when they tried to arrest Arisman Pongruangrong, a militant leader of the Red Shirts, holed up in a hotel. But he escaped from a third story balcony by using a rope.

Arisman drove off in a getaway car with two senior police officers taken hostage by his supporters, in the latest humiliation for the government.

Less than 30 minutes earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, the official replaced by the army commander, had announced on national television that police commandos had surrounded the hotel to arrest Arisman and other protest leaders.

The Red Shirts are demanding Abhisit’s resignation, the immediate dissolution of Parliament and new elections. Abhisit has only agreed to call elections by year’s end — one year ahead of schedule.

“From now on our mission is to hunt down Abhisit. … This is a war between the government and the Red Shirts,” Arisman, a charismatic pop singer-turned-activist, told supporters after his escape.

Arisman, one of the more radical protest leaders, is wanted by police for leading an invasion of Parliament by scores of supporters on April 7 that forced lawmakers to scale a back wall to escape. VIPs were evacuated by helicopter. He had also led the storming of a Southeast Asian summit last year in the beach resort of Pattaya that forced the conference to be canceled.

On Friday, Arisman was lowered by rope from a third-story balcony at the hotel — owned by Thaksin’s family — into a waiting crowd of cheering Red Shirt supporters, as outnumbered police looked on.

“I would like to thank all of the people who saved me — you have helped save democracy,” Arisman said.

Tens of thousands of Red Shirts have protested in Bangkok since March 12. They accuse the country’s traditional ruling elite — represented by Abhisit and his allies — of orchestrating Thaksin’s ouster in the 2006 coup on corruption allegations. Thaksin is living in overseas exile to avoid a two-year prison term.

The coup was followed by elections in December 2007, which were won by Thaksin’s allies. But two pro-Thaksin prime ministers were unseated by court decisions, and an opposition coalition led by Abhisit filled the power resulting vacuum.

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Associated Press writers Kinan Suchaovanich, Grant Peck, Jocelyn Gecker and Vijay Joshi contributed to this report.