Thailand’s armed forces declared a military coup today at 5:00p.m local time.
This move ends the administration headed by the interim Prime Minister Nitthamronrong Boonsongpaisan, in office since May 7, when the Constitutional Court ruled against the premier Yingluck Shinawatra and other nine ministers for abuse of power, causing her removal.
Both yesterday and today the Premier refused to attend a meeting called by the Peace and Order Maintaining Command, the military panel overseeing the martial law. The aim of the meeting was to address the positions of the sides and seek a possible mediation.
Aside from the military commanders, the talks were attended by the leaders of the anti-government protest and of the pro-government United Front fro Democracy and against Dictatorship (UD, better known as Red Shirts), representatives of the two main parties, the ruling Puea Thai and opposition Democratic Party, in addition to members of the senate and Constitutional Court.
The little information emerging in the past hour, provided mainly by the military commanders on TV, with intermissions of patriotic music, indicates that many of the participants of the meeting have been arrested. The arrests have practically wiped out the leaderships of both the protest movement headed by Suthp Thaugsuban and the Red Shirts pro-government movement. The military justifies its move with the distances between the opposing fronts of the crisis and the refusal of the government, beseiged and in fragments, to step down. The decision will undoubtedly have consequences on an economic level and international credibility. Internal reactions are also attended. After the coup declaration, the armed forces entered the Red Shirts camp in the outskirts of the capital, evacuating the thousands of supporters gathered for around ten days.
Moody’s Rating Agency just today had indicated that the military intervention could anticipate a credit rating drop in the nation, in a political and econmic impasse. Earlier today reactions had emerged on the censoring and the actual intentions of the military, after an unjustified intervention, which however forced a makeshift peace and the sides to sit at the same table. Reactions are now attended from the Red Shirts and supporters of the main parties that have their headqarters in the North and East, far from Bangkok.
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