Thai army chief announces military
coup on live TV


Thailand’s army chief announced in a televised
address to the nation on Thursday that the
armed forces were seizing power after months
of deadly political turmoil.
“In order for the country to return to normal
quickly, the National Peace Keeping Committee
comprised of the army, the Thai armed forces,
the Royal Air Force and the police need to seize
power as of May 22 at 4.30 pm,” army chief
Prayut Chan-O-Cha said.
The commander-in-chief, who invoked martial
law on Tuesday, said the coup was needed to
prevent the conflict escalating. “All Thais must
remain calm and government officials must
work as normal,” he added.
The move came after military-hosted talks
between the kingdom’s political rivals
apparently failed to reach a compromise on
ending nearly seven months of mass protests
on the streets of Bangkok.
Rival protest leaders at the talks — held at a
heavily guarded military facility in the capital —
were seen being taken away by the army
although it was unclear whether they had been
formally detained.
The long-running political crisis broadly pits a
Bangkok-based royalist elite and its backers
against the billionaire family of former premier
Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin, a former tycoon-
turned-populist politician, was ousted by the
military in a coup in 2006 but still enjoys strong
support, particularly in rural northern Thailand.
His sister Yingluck Shinawatra was dismissed
as prime minister earlier this month in a
controversial court ruling after months of
protests seeking her overthrow. Her supporters
have warned of possible civil war if opposition
demonstrators achieve their goal of seeing an
unelected interim premier take power to
oversee vaguely defined reforms widely seen as
a bid to cripple the Thaksin family’s political
power.

Culled from Vanguard