Govt House sealed off

POLICE yesterday began closing 14 roads around Government House to traffic for fear that anti-government protesters may move their rally to the area.

The move came as an anti-government group threatened to hold a large rally and a nationwide strike.

Checkpoints were set up along perimeter roads and only people who could prove that they worked or lived in the area were allowed to pass, according to Metropolitan Police Bureau spokesman Maj-General Adul Narongsak. 

 

Road closures began at 2pm yesterday, he added.

 

“Vehicles and people are not allowed to enter the area, unless they get permission from authorities. 

 

People who live and work in the area must show their ID cards as proof,” said Adul, who is also a Metropolitan Police Bureau deputy commissioner.

 

He said police intelligence showed that the anti-government protesters – now gathering at Lumpini Park and Urupong Intersection – were planning to move to Government House, which is off-limits to protesters under the Internal Security Act (ISA) invoked last week.

 

The government’s Centre for Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), which enforces the ISA, yesterday issued an order prohibiting the use of sections of 14 roads: Ratchasima, Phitsanulok, U Thong Nai, Likhit, Rama V, Sukhothai, Ratchavithi, Ratchadamnoen Nok, Look Luang, Phichai, Nakhon Sawan, Sri Ayutthaya, Nakhon Pathom and Krung Kasem.

 

National Security Council secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut yesterday said the road closures were a precautionary measure and a move to send a signal to the protesters that they should not attempt to move on Government House.

 

He said that the Urupong Intersection, where the group of protesters were holding their street rally, was not far from Government House and that it would take the protesters only a short time to move their operations from there.

 

CAPO spokesman Pol Maj-General Piya Utayo yesterday said it was expected that the protesters would change their rally site a number of times and would not end their protest easily.

 

Thaikorn Pholsuwan, coordinator of the anti-government group known as the People’s Army to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime, said yesterday the group would announced a large rally today and a campaign for a nationwide strike. He said that the 40th anniversary of the 1973 student-led uprising today was the appropriate occasion for people to rise up and protest against the country’s problems. 

 

He also said his group would resume protesting outside Government House and that it planned to mobilise more protesters, who would come from the provinces.

 

The Cabinet last Wednesday resolved to invoke the ISA in Bangkok’s Dusit, Phra Nakhon and Pom Prab (Sattru Phai) districts, with effect from last Wednesday to this Friday. The districts are of political significance as they are home to Government House, Parliament House, Democracy Monument and Sanam Luang.

 

The government’s move to invoke the ISA came just a day after the People’s Army began its rally outside Government House. Leaders of the group later agreed to end their rally there ahead of a visit by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang last Friday. However, some of the protesters were unhappy with their leaders’ decision and began gathering at the Urupong Intersection, just outside the ISA area.