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Senate speaker accepts petition from Thammasat group, promises not to let them down
Some 5,000 Thammasat University lecturers, staff and students yesterday marched from the Tha Prachan campus to the United Nations office on Rajdamnoen Road to show their opposition to the controversial amnesty bill.
Gathering on the campus lawn at 8am, they began making their way to Parliament at 10.40am to submit a letter to Deputy Senate Speaker Surachai Liangboonlertchai, in which they called on senators to reject the bill.
As they were stopped by police officers manning a barricade between Rajdamnoen Avenue and the Makkawan Bridge, Surachai showed up in front of the UN office to meet them and receive the letter.
He told them that he would inform the senators of the petition, while promising not to let them down.
Separately, a large number of people from the Student and People Network for Thailand’s Reform decided to march from their rally site at Urupong intersection down Rajdamnoen Avenue and ran into the Thammasat group at the UN building.
Nitithorn Lamlua, leader of the Student’s and People Network, called on the police manning the barricades to move back, and when they did the group took over one side of the Makkawan Bridge. The protest leaders declared victory because they were able to take this area over from police.
Utai Yodmanee, another leader of the group, said now their purpose was to oust this government, adding that the rally would continue until Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved the House.
In addition, a few hundred members of the People’s Army to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime and the Dhamma Army, who were formerly protesting at Lumpini Park and Urupong intersection, continued rallying at Phan Fa Bridge, where they had moved to on Tuesday.
