Police Teargas Anti-Monarchy Protesters in Thailand

Date: 17 November 2020 - 21:50

News ID: ۸۴۹۴۴

BANGKOK (Dispatches) -- Thai police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters on Tuesday, hurting several people in a bid to push back a demonstration at parliament demanding constitutional changes that would touch on the powerful monarchy.
Protesters are demanding changes to the constitution drawn up by Thailand’s former military government. They also want the removal of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former army ruler, and reforms to curb the powers of the monarchy.
Police sprayed water cannon at protesters who tried to cut their way through razor-wire barricades. Then they fired tear gas at the hundreds of demonstrators.
Ambulances ferried the injured to hospital. Bangkok’s Erawan Medical Center said five people were hospitalized due to teargas and others were treated at the scene.
Some protesters shouted in pain after being hit by the blasts of water, which stung their skin on impact, with some observed to have thrown up after.
Live television images showed water cannon being fired against an advance guard of anti-government protesters who arrived with helmets and masks and tried to remove the coils of wire.
Protesters threw back colored smoke bombs at police.
"Dictator’s lackeys!” the Free Youth protest group posted on Twitter with pictures of the helmeted riot police using the water cannon.
Police declared that protests were banned within 50m of the area. Hundreds of protesters assembled nearby.
"Protesters tried to break through the barricades to enter the restricted area,” police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen told reporters.
Lawmakers were discussing several proposals for the way in which the constitution can be amended - some of which would exclude the possibility of changes to the way King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s monarchy is treated under the constitution.
There is also discussion of the role of the Senate, which was entirely selected by Prayut’s former military government and helped ensure that he kept power with a parliamentary majority after a disputed election last year. Prayut says the vote was fair.
Opposition parliamentarians have also called for changes to the constitution.
Protests since July initially targeted Prayut and constitutional change, but have since called for the monarch’s role to be more clearly accountable under the constitution and for the reversal of changes that gave the current king personal control of the royal fortune and some army units.
"Amending the constitution is going to lead to the abolition of the monarchy,” royalist leader Warong Dechgitvigrom told reporters at the demonstration.