Tensions eased in Thailand's strife-hit capital Saturday after protesters abandoned their attempted "shutdown" of Bangkok, but the move was seen as only a temporary reprieve for the kingdom's embattled premier. The surprise retreat by the opposition demonstrators, who will dismantle many of their barricades, raised hopes of a decline in street violence that has left 23 people dead and hundreds wounded in recent weeks.
There have been increasingly frequent gunfire and grenade attacks targeting the protest sites, mostly at night. The anti-government movement vowed to keep up its wider campaign, while experts said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's position remained precarious. An anti-corruption panel is pressing negligence charges against Yingluck that could lead to her removal from office and a five-year ban from politics.
"The protesters themselves could never oust Yingluck from office. Only the courts or a military coup could do that," said Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs at Chiang Mai University. "Most probably judicial intervention will fell the Yingluck government and it is likely to happen in March," he said, adding that a military coup remains another possibility.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban announced on stage late Friday that the anti-government movement would abandon its blockade of key road intersections in Bangkok after nearly seven weeks of traffic chaos. The movement denied the retreat marked a defeat, saying it would keep up its struggle to overthrow a government that it sees as corrupt. "Our Bangkok shutdown campaign has succeeded. The government is now in disarray and we have got support from the masses," rally spokesman Akanat Promphan told AFP.
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