A crowd of angry protesters threw shoes and plastic bottles at Thai prime minister’s entourage after cornering him in an underground parking lot yesterday. He escaped unharmed.
Somchai Wongsawat’s security agents and police shielded him from the objects and huddled him into a waiting car, which sped off in a motorcade.
The protest was staged by more than 100 employees of the state-owned telecom operator TOT during a visit by Somchai to their headquarters outside Bangkok.
It marked the first time in Thailand’s months of political crisis that state employees have come into direct confrontation with the prime minister.
It was not, however, the first time that Somchai has had to make a quick getaway.
On Oct. 7, Somchai escaped a violent protest outside parliament by climbing over a back fence to safety. Riot police outside the building fired tear gas to disperse rowdy protesters, leaving hundreds injured and two dead.
Yesterday’s rally started outside the TOT headquarters, in the grounds of the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Somchai’s motorcade detoured into an underground parking lot to avoid the crowd shouting “Somchai, Murderer!” in reference to the two fatalities at the Oct. 7 protest.
Protesters swarmed around him in the parking lot, waving noisy plastic clappers shaped like giant hands.
After a meeting inside the building, Somchai exited through the main entrance, where more protesters had gathered. Some hurled clappers at his entourage and plastic water bottles and shoes.
Throwing shoes is particularly insulting in Thai culture, which considers feet the dirtiest part of the body.
Somchai, who took office last month, has come under growing pressure to step down to ease Thailand’s deepening political crisis. He is a brother-in-law of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, around whom the crisis revolves.
Thaksin was convicted of corruption for helping his wife buy a piece of cut-price government land and sentenced to two years in prison in a landmark ruling on Tuesday. But he is currently living in self-imposed exile in London and most Thais doubt he will ever serve time behind bars.
Pprosecutors began gathering evidence yesterday to submit to Britain asking for Thaksin’s extradition.
“The special litigation department will copy the verdict and translate it into English, before we prepare case details,” said Sirisak Tiyapan, international affairs director at the attorney general’s office. “All documents must be translated into English before we can prepare the petition and that will take considerable time ... in our petition, we have to prove Thaksin committed a crime that is common between the two countries.”
Once all the paperwork is complete, the attorney general will forward a petition to the foreign ministry.
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