Protesters storm Thai hotel; Arroyo, leaders flee
Philippine Daily Inquirer
PATTAYA, THAILAND – Helicopters evacuated foreign leaders out of this beach resort city after anti-government protests forced the Thai government to postpone the 14th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders Summit.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo boarded a civilian helicopter which landed on the roof of the luxury Royal Cliff Grand Hotel, where the meeting was being held, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said by telephone from Pattaya.
“She’s very safe, and very OK,” said Remonde, adding that Ms Arroyo and the other leaders were never in any danger. “The protesters were not rowdy,” he said.
Thai government spokesperson Panitan Wattanayagorn said that “all the leaders have been evacuated from Pattaya” after around 1,000 demonstrators breached security and barged into the media center at the hotel and convention complex.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Pattaya, a beach resort about 150 kilometers south of the capital Bangkok, where the 14th ASEAN Leaders Summit and related meetings were to have been held on April 10-12.
“The task for me and the government now is to provide security for the leaders to travel back home safely,” Abhisit said in a brief address on television.
Huge embarrassment
The cancellation is a huge embarrassment for Abhisit’s government, which came to power in December via parliamentary defections that the opposition says were engineered by the military.
The weekend’s events will raise questions about how enduring his government can be after four prime ministers over the last 15 months have failed to resolve Thailand’s deep political rifts.
Hundreds of red-shirted supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra broke through lines of soldiers and smashed a window at the conference center housing the media adjacent to the summit venue, Royal Cliff Hotel, blowing whistles, waving flags and shouting slogans.
Troops chased after them, but then bolted down the road to the hotel itself to prevent the protesters from reaching the venue where Asian leaders were scheduled to hold a lunch.
All the foreign leaders were safe, said foreign ministry spokesperson Tharit Charungvat. Nine foreign leaders were at the hotel when the protesters broke in. Thai officials told the leaders to stay in their hotel rooms.
“The meeting cannot go on. We have to consider the security of the leaders,” said government spokesperson Supachai Jasamuth.
“The situation is too violent and it is a security concern for the leaders,” he said.
Many of the leaders of the 16 Asian nations due to attend the summit had already arrived or were arriving in Pattaya yesterday.
Postponed indefinitely
No new date was set for the annual summit, being hosted this year by Thailand, which brings together the leaders of the 10-member ASEAN and those of Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand for discussions about trade, economic issues and regional security.
ASEAN leaders were to sign an investment agreement with China, but that was scrapped after the blockade kept Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao from reaching Royal Cliff Hotel.
The leaders were being evacuated to the U-Tapao military airfield near Pattaya where planes for the foreign leaders were on standby, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
An Agence France-Presse photographer later said that Abhisit was the first to arrive by helicopter at the airfield, followed by Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung and Burma’s Thein Sein.
Panitan said that other leaders, including those of China, Japan and South Korea, had been evacuated separately from a hotel where they had been holed up for several hours after protesters trapped them with roadblocks.
He said that details of the operation to remove them were “not being disclosed to media.”
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had not yet arrived in Thailand when the summit was cancelled, while Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had only just reached U-Tapao airport and turned back immediately, he said.
A separate news report said Rudd’s plane turned around mid-flight.
“The Australian government has been informed by the government of Thailand that the East Asia Summit has been postponed. As a result, the Australian prime minister is now returning to Australia,” a statement from Canberra said.
Remonde confirmed that Ms Arroyo was flown out of the hotel and convention complex by helicopter to the military airport where she would wait for the rest of her party.
In a later text message, he said the President and her delegation would be flying out of T-Tapao for a scheduled visit to Dubai at 6 p.m. yesterday, a day ahead of schedule.
“President Macapagal-Arroyo remained calm and collected all throughout” the crisis, he said.
Despite the summit’s postponement, Remonde said ASEAN and its partners South Korea, Japan and China made some gains, quoting Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.
He said there was an agreement in principle on contributions to the $120-billion emergency fund to fight the global financial crisis – $24 billion from ASEAN, $24 billion from South Korea, and the balance from Japan and China, he said.
The other gains were the establishment of the ASEAN political security community, and the initial convening of the Committee of the Permanent Representatives.
In Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said he would be serving as government “caretaker” in the absence of the President and Vice President Noli de Castro. The latter was to leave on a trip to Syria yesterday.
Red shirts vs blue shirts
The red-shirted protesters, who are calling for the resignation of Abhisit, smashed through the glass doors of the convention hall and ran through the building, overturning tables, blowing horns, waving Thai flags and screaming, “Abhisit, get out!”
After rampaging about the media center, the “red shirts” were soon huddling with reporters in impromptu news conferences around the vast conference center. Among them was a 90-year-old woman in a wheelchair.
The “red shirts” had intended to protest peacefully but became infuriated when a group of blue-shirted pro-government protesters arrived on the scene.
“There were at least two cases of shootings aimed to harm our red-shirt supporters, a clear evidence of government supporters possessing guns and using them directly at us,” the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship said.
Panitan earlier described the “blue shirts” as people “we believe are concerned about the meetings. They want them to continue, and they want them to continue peacefully.”
But Reuters photographers said the blue shirts, wearing balaclavas or scarves to keep from being identified, had clubs, bricks and slingshots and thrown smoke bombs as they clashed with “red shirts.”
On Friday, at least 2,000 “red shirts” broke through roadblocks manned by police and soldiers, pushing aside police vans and buses and even commandeered a fire truck.
Abhisit has insisted he would not give in to demands to step down made by Thaksin, a billionaire populist living in exile to avoid jail on a corruption conviction.
He was ousted in a 2006 coup, but his reconstituted party regained power after elections, sparking months of protests last year by “yellow shirts” that closed airports in Bangkok and took a huge toll on the economy.
AFP, Reuters, AP with a report from TJ Burgonio in Manila
Baka naman si Gloria Arroyo lang ang target ng protesters, dahil siya lang ang pinaka-corrupt na lider doon!
Ewan ko ba sa Inquirer, sobra ang pakinabang siguro kay Arroyo kaya todo rispeto sila sa pagtrato kay Evil Bitch! Talaga nga naman, talagang sariling interes pa rin ang nanaig!
F**K GMA!!!
Wala naman sa hulog and kilos protesta ng mga Thais. Ito ay para sa ikakaunlad ng mga bansang myembro ng Asean na halos lahat ay developing pa lang ang status.
Mukhang wala rin sa hulog ang pagpunta na naman ni GMA sa Dubai para sa Labor conference. Mayroon naman tayong mga govt. officials na nakatalaga roon para sa mga bagay ganito at bukod doon, papunta rin si VP N. de Castro doon pagkagaling niya sa Syria. Isa pa, kagagaling lang ni GMA doon dalawang buwan pa lang ang nakalipas. Mukhang nakakaduda tuloy at baka mayroon siyang ibang sadya doon.
“Come and collected,” the idiots in the palace by the murky river says. Just who are they kidding?
I bet you the creep must have been the first one to run shrieking for safety.
I agree with Andres. The Thais must have been targetting the crook from the Philippines who has boasted of being the leader of ASEAN.
Unlike the docile Filipinos, the Thais surely would not like to put themselves at risk under the leadership of the creep, directly or indirectly!
That indeed is what people’s power is all about!
Why can’t the Filipinos do what the Thais are doing?
Sabihin ninyo na masuwerte pa rin itong hudas na pekeng presidente kuno natin. Dapat ay kasama siyang bumasak sa helicopter at ngayon ay nakaligtas na naman sa gulo. Pinag pala talaga ni Satanas itong hudas na ito.
Parang Pinas noong 2001 din ang Thailand eh. Elite grabs power. Masa elects leaders. Elite uses violence to oust those leaders. Now masa uses violence too to re-claim their rights.
Kasalanan lahat ‘to ng PAD na nagpatalsik kay Thaksin, na siyang gusto ng mga tao.
BTW, lokang GMA nagwawaldas nanaman sa Dubai.
Ang masamang damo ay matagal mamatay ang sabi nga…kaya walang takot si Gloria..she will stay corrupt for many years..
ang dapat sabihin ni Ermita ay “he will be Gloria’s undertaker”
The Red Shirts have hijacked and commandeered two army tanks in Bangkok. The Thai Army and Police are only watching this? Tagilid si Abhisit.
Masama nito, gastos na naman sa biyahe yung ating Abwisit!
Wala pang 6 months ang leader nila pero heto na naman sila – rambol na naman.
Hehe.
Ibig pa naman ng mga chacha pros na maging parliamentary tayo. Baka tuwing linggo palit ang prime minister natin. Naghahanap sabay ang mga pinuno natin ng matatakbuhan kung pinalad din ang ating mga militant protesters. Noli is supposed to mind the store when the mouse is away. Sa bagay, disposable na siya. Lagi.
let the reds’ and the yellows’ in Thailand clash in the streets of Bangkok.. ung mga pro at anti thaksin groups.. and we’ll see who stands up last… the yellows’ dosen’t want to be thaksin’s bitches neither the reds’ does not want 2 be abhisit’s bitches also.. hahaha… pwdeng mangyari ke GMA yang nangyari sa thailand ngaun.. enuf said…
we are global people.I understand the sentiment of the rebellious thai, supporters of ousted premiere but sabotaging a summit and putting the Thai Gov’t. in a Zugzwang and shaming their leaders is too much.