Thai Protests Widen Beyond Bangkok

Updated Nov. 27, 2013 7:41 p.m. ET

Antigovernment protesters marching toward Thailand’s Industry Ministry in Bangkok Wednesday Reuters

BANGKOK—The movement to topple Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra widened Wednesday, with protesters occupying a second government building after holding widespread marches at some provincial government offices as well as in Bangkok.
On the fourth day of escalating street rallies, more than 10,000 protesters marched for hours under scorching heat with their leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, to the government complex, a large compound on the outskirts of Bangkok that houses a number of offices of government agencies. Street tensions heated up Sunday when more than 100,000 people—the biggest antigovernment crowd since 2010—joined Mr. Suthep’s movement.

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Mr. Suthep—who resigned as an opposition lawmaker to lead the protests—smiled and waved as he led a raucous group of protesters. Protesters also appeared in good spirits, flashing their smartphones and tablets to snap photos of themselves as they followed their own motorcade that temporarily paralyzed traffic on one of Bangkok’s outbound roads.
Mr. Suthep told state employees and a few hundred police officers in one of the buildings in the complex to leave their duties or else they would be “dealt with,” before the protesters entered and occupied the building in the evening.
“It’s our plan to control the entire complex so government agencies can no longer serve the government,” Mr. Suthep, 64, told protesters, his voice hoarse after days of barking out commands.
While the protests have expanded, Ms. Yingluck has said the government wouldn’t use violence to deal with the demonstrators. The memory of protests in 2010 is fresh, when about 90 people were killed after the military tried to break up nine weeks of protests aimed at toppling the previous government.
Other groups of protesters in Bangkok spread out on Wednesday to several ministries, where they called on state employees to abandon work.
Senior officials in charge of some ministries let the protesters in and told their staff to go home early, before the protesters retreated. Television footage showed some government officials waving and blowing whistles in an apparent show of support. Protesters had done the same Tuesday, telling officials at key ministries to revolt against the government’s authority by leaving early.
Ms. Yingluck held a meeting with senior government officials and security ministers Wednesday to evaluate the situation and instructed them to safeguard government property and back up critical data. The government’s security ministers told reporters that the situation remained under control.
The protesters accuse Ms. Yingluck of working in the interest of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by the military coup in 2006. Mr. Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile over the past five years to avoid imprisonment for a corruption conviction that he says was politically motivated.
Protesters vow to get rid of what they call “Thaksin’s regime”–a term Ms. Yingluck rejected Wednesday, telling reporters that “such a regime has never existed. We only have the democratic regime here.”
On Monday, protesters made their way into the Finance Ministry, which they continued to occupy. A parking lot inside the ministry compound has become a rally site, and vendors have set up makeshift shops of food and protest paraphernalia—whistles, Thai-flag wrist bands and hand clappers—on the ministry’s compound.
Provincial demonstrators also rallied in front of city halls in more than a dozen provinces, mostly in the south, amid the light presence of security forces. Though largely peaceful, the protests put enough pressure on provincial authorities to let their staff go home and close offices early.
The southern provinces have traditionally been a stronghold of the opposition Democrat Party, of which Mr. Suthep was a leading member. He resigned from the party specifically to lead the protests; had he remained a member, it might have been at risk of being declared illegal and dissolved.
Analysts said the government has been under mounting pressure to counter the demonstrations and occupations of ministries with tougher law enforcement and protest dispersal, which could pave way for bloody confrontation.
“The most compromising solution is for the prime minister to dissolve the lower house and call a new election,” said Somchai Pagapasvivat, an economic and politics commentator.
“Still, it’s going to be a ceasefire that doesn’t lead to a true peace,” Mr. Somchai said, as the Pheu Thai party is likely to win the elections again.
On Monday night, the government activated a special security law in Bangkok and nearby provinces. Often used to deter protests that can cause a major disruption, it allows authorities to impose curfews, block roads and stop vehicles, and restrict access to areas or buildings in the name of national security.
Government officials said the law will be in place through December, although it can be lifted earlier.
A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Suthep on Tuesday, but there was no apparent attempt to arrest him at the rally site or while he led Wednesday’s march. On Wednesday, the Thai police said it was preparing to seek arrest warrants for six other protest leaders, mostly opposition lawmakers who resigned with Mr. Suthep, for trespassing, damaging government property and instigating disorder.
The latest round of antigovernment protests began early this month after the lower house of Parliament, controlled by Ms. Yingluck’s ruling Pheu Thai party, passed a law extending amnesty to Mr. Thaksin and others for a wide range of offenses. That was seen as paving the way for Mr. Thaksin to return to Thailand a free man.
The amnesty law was quickly killed in the Senate, but that failed to appease the protesters, and tensions have escalated daily.
—Nopparat Chaichalearmmongkol contributed to this article.

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