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Bangkok Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Protesters demand Thai PM's ouster over leaked call
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Victory Monument in Bangkok on Saturday demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call between her and Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen. The gathering, the largest anti-government protest since the Pheu Thai Party came to power in 2023, was led by the Ruam Palang Paendin Pokpong Athipatai (United Power of the Land to Protect Sovereignty). People waving Thai flags began arriving at the site at 9am. Activities began with a merit-making ceremony, followed by the group leaders taking turns giving speeches and musicians performing on the stage facing Din Daeng Road. The listed speakers included renowned political activists Jatuporn Prompan, Panthep Puaponfpan, Phichit Chaimongkol and Sondhi Limthongkul. They are scheduled to give speeches in the evening after a mass singing of the Thai national anthem at 6pm, which they said would be a symbolic act to demonstrate unity in defending Thai sovereignty over the border. The rally is scheduled to conclude at 9pm, with the leaders promising police they would not stay overnight. Security measures in place Police were stationed throughout the area, including along the skywalks where crowds of general people and press were seen flocking in to witness the large rally site. The Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) estimated at 11am that there were about 1,000 protesters on the site. Police on Friday said they expected 5,000 people there by later in the afternoon, while organisers are expecting twice that number. Over 200 CCTV cameras and drones, operated by the police, are monitoring the area, with Explosive Ordnance Disposal units and eight K9 dogs on patrol. Four ambulances were on standby for any emergency. Nearby hospitals are Police General Hospital, Phramongkutklao Hospital and Rajavithi Hospital. Officers confiscated one Sparta knife and three cutters from motorcycle delivery riders at a checkpoint at the Phahon Yothin Soi 2, one of five checkpoints set up in the area. Legal action was taken against them, police said. Officers are committed to maintaining peace and safety for all parties, said Pol Maj Gen Teeradej Thamsuthee, the MPB commander. He cautioned the public, whether joining or not joining the protest, not to carry weapons while travelling through the area. More protesters travelling to Bangkok In Nakhon Ratchasima, about 200 gathered at the Thao Suranari Monument, or Ya Mo Plaza, in Muang district and boarded four tour buses and two vans bound for Bangkok on Saturday morning. They were led by Supot Piriyakiatsakul, the provincial leader of the People's Patriotic Network. 'We are determined to fight to the very end to remove Paetongtarn from office,' Mr Supot said. In Phitsanulok, 80 people departed in a tour bus and three vans, heading to the capital. The group wore colourful shirts and carried a variety of Thai-flagged items. Ms Paetongtarn, who was in Chiang Rai to inspect the severe flooding situation, told reporters she had instructed security authorities to monitor the situation. 'It is their right to protest, and I personally have no intention to respond,' she said, and affirmed that she was open to talks if the protest group wanted to hold a peaceful discussion.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Ship carrying cocaine and MDMA worth £320m seized by Indonesia
The Indonesian Navy has seized a ship carrying methamphetamine and cocaine worth $425m (£320m) off Sumatra this week, officials said. One Thai national and four Myanmar nationals found abroad the Thai-flagged vessel were arrested, the authorities said on Friday. Officers apprehended the ship after it turned off its lights and increased its speed to try to flee Indonesian waters in the Tanjung Balai Karimun region of Riau Islands province. The vessel was taken to a navy base in Tanjung Balai Karimun, the navy said, without sharing further details about the crew members. Officers seized nearly 100 yellow and white sacks holding about 1.2 tonnes of cocaine and 705kg of methamphetamine or MDMA worth 7trillion rupiah ($320m) in one of the largest drug busts in the country, navy spokesperson, I Made Wira Hady Arsanta Wardhana, said in a statement. Officials are still investigating where the drugs came from and where the ship was headed, navy official Fauzi, who goes by one name, told reporters. A record 190 tonnes of methamphetamine were seized in East and Southeast Asia in 2023 as organised crime groups exploited weak law enforcement to traffic the drugs, mainly via the Gulf of Thailand, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a 2024 report. The Golden Triangle – an area of northeast Myanmar that meets parts of Thailand and Laos – has a long history of producing drugs, mainly used by Asian crime syndicates which distribute the narcotics as far as Japan and New Zealand. In 2022, 179kg of cocaine were found in waters near the port of Merak on Java island, at the time the largest cocaine seizure in the country, the United Nations drug agency said in a 2023 global report on cocaine. Last year, Indonesian authorities said at least four people were facing the death penalty for allegedly trafficking drugs into the resort island of Bali, defying the Indonesia's notoriously strict anti-narcotic laws. Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, and has more than 150 people on death row, mostly for drug trafficking offences. About a third of them are foreigners. Earlier in November 2019, a court in Bali sentenced two Thai nationals to 16-year prison terms for smuggling 1kg of methamphetamine into the country. The same year, a French citizen was sentenced to death on Lombok, an island next to Bali, for smuggling 3kg of MDMA before a higher court commuted his sentence to 19 years in prison. Additional reporting by agencies.
