Red Shirt leaders flee as Thai forces raid hotel
Saturday, 17 April 2010
BANGKOK, Apr 16 (AFP): Thai commandos stormed a Bangkok hotel Friday where leaders of the Red Shirt protest movement were holed up, but the mission ended in dramatic failure after the suspects managed to flee.
One leading Red Shirt climbed down an electric cable from the third floor of the hotel in Bangkok's northern outskirts before being rushed away by jubilant supporters, despite the presence of dozens of riot police nearby.
The bungled attempt to arrest several Red Shirt leaders came days after the army tried in vain to clear an area of the capital of anti-government demonstrators in an operation that sparked the country's deadliest civil unrest in 18 years.
As special forces surrounded the SC Park Hotel, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban announced to the nation in a televised address that the authorities were swooping on "terrorists" and their leaders hiding inside the building.
But the government later admitted the mission had failed and the red-clad movement said all of their leaders had escaped, vowing to turn up the heat on embattled Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
One leading Red Shirt climbed down an electric cable from the third floor of the hotel in Bangkok's northern outskirts before being rushed away by jubilant supporters, despite the presence of dozens of riot police nearby.
The bungled attempt to arrest several Red Shirt leaders came days after the army tried in vain to clear an area of the capital of anti-government demonstrators in an operation that sparked the country's deadliest civil unrest in 18 years.
As special forces surrounded the SC Park Hotel, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban announced to the nation in a televised address that the authorities were swooping on "terrorists" and their leaders hiding inside the building.
But the government later admitted the mission had failed and the red-clad movement said all of their leaders had escaped, vowing to turn up the heat on embattled Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.