Anti-Thaksin leader attacked in Thailand
Güncelleme Tarihi:
AFP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 18, 2009 00:00
BANGKOK - The Thai activist who led a blockade of the kingdom's main airports last year was shot and wounded in the head Friday in an assassination attempt the government said was aimed at inciting fresh unrest.
Doctors said that Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the "Yellow Shirts" royalist movement that helped topple former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was out of danger after an operation to remove a bullet fragment from his skull.
Gunmen wielding automatic weapons fired about 100 rounds at his car in a dawn attack, wounding Sondhi as well as his driver and an aide, a local police commander said. The attack will heighten tensions between Sondhi's Yellow Shirts and Thaksin's rival Red Shirts, who took to the streets of Bangkok this week in violent battles with security forces. The ambush took place as Sondhi, the leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, which seized Bangkok's two airports for nine days last year, was on his way to record a program for his private television station.
"At least two attackers followed Sondhi's car, overtook it and sprayed it with about 100 rounds of gunfire from AK-47 and M-16s," said the police commander, Colonel King Kwaengwisatchaicharn. "The motive for the attack is still under investigation," he said.
Suriyasai Katasila, spokesman for the royalist PAD, refused to blame the rival Red Shirts for the attack and suggested it had been an organized hit. "The operation was quite daring by people who are not afraid of the law.... I suspect the situation may be more complicated than we think," he said.
Hospital authorities said that 61-year-old Sondhi was out of danger after a two-hour operation to remove the bullet fragment embedded in his skull and brain membrane, but would remain in intensive care for a week.
Bangkok and surrounding areas remain under a state of emergency declared on Sunday. Thailand has been beset by four years of turmoil, with mass protests wreaking havoc with daily life. At the heart of the dispute is Thaksin, a polarising populist adored by his mainly poor supporters and loathed by PAD and its backers among Bangkok's elite in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon currently living in exile to escape a jail term for corruption, urged Thailand's revered king to step in to heal divisions in the country in an interview Fri day. "I urge his majesty humbly that, please, it is time for his majesty to step in to intervene because otherwise there will be more division and he is the only person who can reconcile the whole country."
Gunmen wielding automatic weapons fired about 100 rounds at his car in a dawn attack, wounding Sondhi as well as his driver and an aide, a local police commander said. The attack will heighten tensions between Sondhi's Yellow Shirts and Thaksin's rival Red Shirts, who took to the streets of Bangkok this week in violent battles with security forces. The ambush took place as Sondhi, the leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, which seized Bangkok's two airports for nine days last year, was on his way to record a program for his private television station.
"At least two attackers followed Sondhi's car, overtook it and sprayed it with about 100 rounds of gunfire from AK-47 and M-16s," said the police commander, Colonel King Kwaengwisatchaicharn. "The motive for the attack is still under investigation," he said.
Suriyasai Katasila, spokesman for the royalist PAD, refused to blame the rival Red Shirts for the attack and suggested it had been an organized hit. "The operation was quite daring by people who are not afraid of the law.... I suspect the situation may be more complicated than we think," he said.
Hospital authorities said that 61-year-old Sondhi was out of danger after a two-hour operation to remove the bullet fragment embedded in his skull and brain membrane, but would remain in intensive care for a week.
Bangkok and surrounding areas remain under a state of emergency declared on Sunday. Thailand has been beset by four years of turmoil, with mass protests wreaking havoc with daily life. At the heart of the dispute is Thaksin, a polarising populist adored by his mainly poor supporters and loathed by PAD and its backers among Bangkok's elite in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon currently living in exile to escape a jail term for corruption, urged Thailand's revered king to step in to heal divisions in the country in an interview Fri day. "I urge his majesty humbly that, please, it is time for his majesty to step in to intervene because otherwise there will be more division and he is the only person who can reconcile the whole country."