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By Matthew Tostevin, Patpicha Tanakasempipat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A watershed moment in Thailand’s growing protest movement began with the unannounced arrival of a champagne-colored Rolls Royce limousine on a Bangkok street.
When Queen Suthida’s caravan slowed down as it encountered a few dozen protesters mocking the Government House in Bangkok on October 14, royalists denounced it as unforgivable harassment in a kingdom whose constitution demands reverence for the monarchy. .
The government, led by a former army chief who was the initial target of months of protests, responded quickly.
He banned the protests and made dozens of arrests. But that sparked more demonstrations and far more criticism of a monarchy that protesters say has helped allow decades of military rule.
At a time when King Maha Vajiralongkorn has faced unprecedented scrutiny, many Thais have wondered why the queen was on that path at the time and questioned the seriousness of the backlash, which also included three arrests on charges. little used that could carry the death penalty.
The opposition Move Forward party said Thursday it was planning a parliamentary motion “to study the mistakes made in the caravan,” complaining that this had led to harsh measures, specifically citing the use of Article 110 of charges of violence or intent. of violence against the queen. .
“It shows a flaw in the configuration of the royal caravan route,” party spokesman Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn said.
Other people noted that the route was not the shortest between the Dusit Palace, where the king and queen reside, and the temple Suthida was going to.
They also asked why the caravan had moved so slowly, even at points where there was no obvious obstruction. Real vehicles tend to move much faster.
(GRAPH: Tipping Point in Thailand – https://graphics.reuters.com/THAILAND-PROTESTS/MOTORCADE/qzjvqaawqvx/Thailand-Motorcade.jpg)
Some Thais have raised questions about whether the meeting was used to justify a crackdown. Reuters has no evidence to confirm this.
The Palace declined to comment, as it has since the start of three months of protests that initially called for the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief, but then broke a decades-long taboo by demanding royal reform. .
Government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri told Reuters that securing the royal caravan routes was the responsibility of the police.
“The emergency declaration was necessary to prevent further incidents and conflicts,” he said, rejecting the protesters’ accusations that it was a provocation to justify tough measures.
Police did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Reuters.
RECONSTRUCTION
Reuters has reviewed nine videos provided by the people who filmed them and taken from different angles, in addition to other videos on social media, more than 100 still images with attached metadata and interviewed eight eyewitnesses to reconstruct how the events unfolded.
There are gaps. Reuters was unable to establish the full route of the caravan before and after the incident, why it was taken, why there had not been advance notice of the route or why the actual convoy traveled much slower than usual.
The incident began when Queen Suthida reached the protesters around 5:22 p.m. on October 14.
Suthida was on a rare visit from Europe, where she and the king had spent most of the year before arriving in Bangkok on October 10.
Dressed in a light blue silk gown with a gold sash, she was traveling in royal functions with the king’s 15-year-old son and potential heir, Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, who was wearing his white dress uniform, laced with golden braids.
The protesters were outside Prayuth’s office at Government House. Prayuth seized power in a coup in 2014 and protesters accuse him of organizing an election last year to maintain his control, a charge he denies.
Most of the tens of thousands of protesters were behind police blockades nearly a kilometer away, but a few dozen had reached the gates and were circling, outnumbered by police, who lined up 20 in a row in road.
Usually the police close the roads in advance for the royal caravans, but this time it was only the appearance of the main car and the motorcycle escorts that announced what was coming, minutes before.
“There was no announcement,” said Pravit Rojanaphruk, a reporter for Khaosod English, who was interviewing the protesters at the time. Video footage supports the claim that the usual warning was not given.
The protesters rushed when the motorcyclists arrived. Recognizing a real car, they raised their arms to give the pro-democracy three-finger salute taken from “The Hunger Games.” Others picked up the phones to take pictures.
A chant of “Our Taxes” developed, a reference to the charges of royal debauchery. Some chanted “Nation, religion, people”, adapting the traditional pillars of Thai society: “Nation, religion, monarchy.”
The queen’s limousine slowed to a stop as police pushed back protesters on both sides. It took almost a minute as some were swept away. Photographs show them clinging to the legs of police officers as they fall near the Chamai Maru-chet bridge.
The protesters were held behind several lines of police. At some points, they appeared to be meters from the car, although always behind the police and no one seemed to be trying to reach them.
The queen, who holds the rank of general and is a deputy commander of the Royal Security Command, can be seen smiling and waving at the people.
“Some photos made it appear that we had harassed them, when they were the ones who entered our meeting directly,” said a protester who identified herself only as Vitita.
One realist group, the Center for the Protection of the Monarchy, said its members helped the police maintain control.
“We risked 20 lives to prevent the mob that surrounded the royal caravan with all our might shouting ‘Long live the King’ to drown the mob,” the group said in a statement.
In the video, some realists in yellow shirts can be seen with the police, but Reuters could not confirm the group’s claims.
About 280 meters from the bridge, another group of protesters stood behind the police and royalists.
The video shows someone throwing what appears to be a bottle from deep in the crowd. It is unclear if he struck the car as police ran to either side. Moving at about 7 km (4 miles) per hour, the convoy passed the last protesters around 5:27 p.m.
That evening, the daily royal news program showed the queen arriving at Wat Ratcha Orasaram Ratchaworawihan temple at 5:51 pm, presenting saffron robes to the monks. Later, she was shown handing out prizes to kneeling subjects.
But three sources, who declined to be named due to sensitivity, said the Palace was angry about the fight, something unheard of in decades.
EMERGENCY MEASURES
Just after 4 am the next day, state television announced emergency measures citing illegal public assemblies and said that people had “acted to affect the royal caravan and committed severe actions that affected national security.”
All political gatherings of five or more people were banned. So was news that could affect national security.
Within minutes of the announcement, riot police rushed the protesters outside the prime minister’s office. At least 20 people were arrested, including attorney Arnon Nampa, the first person to openly call for royal reform on August 3. Arnon could not be reached for comment as he remained in prison.
The response from the protesters on social media was immediate. The most trending hashtag on Twitter in Thailand, used more than 1.1 million times, translates to #KingSlandersPeople, as people said they thought the incident was being used unfairly to justify tough measures against protesters.
ARRESTS
At least 81 arrests have been made since the emergency decree, police said. The protests occurred daily, some of which drew tens of thousands of people, before emergency measures were lifted on October 22.
On October 16, two activists were arrested on charges of violence against the queen, which can carry a death sentence if the queen’s life is believed to be in danger.
Both Bunkueanun ‘Francis’ Paothong and Ekachai Hongkangwan can be seen in videos taken at the scene just before the queen’s car arrived and among protesters pushed back by police.
Now out on bail, Bunkueanun, 20, told Reuters: “It all went very fast in a matter of minutes. The protesters started pushing to form a wall. Then the police moved towards us to clear the road.”
He said that when he noticed a royal caravan approaching, he used a small megaphone to tell people to stay away. He said he did the salute, but then turned away from the crowd when he suddenly felt bad. “I couldn’t breathe properly and almost fainted.”
In a video posted on Facebook by the 45-year-old Ekachai before his arrest, he can be heard saying, “It’s a real caravan. Show three fingers. But the video did not show his attempt to approach the car.
Sareewat Sriyoha, Ekachai’s lawyer, quoted the activist as saying that the protesters had not seen the caravan when a large number of policemen pushed them back. They had thought that the police were trying to prevent their planned protest at Government House.
He said that once Ekachai realized what was happening, he had yelled at the police, “Oh, it’s a real caravan, why didn’t you tell us so we wouldn’t block it?”
Sareewat said Ekachai told him that he backed off once he knew it was a real caravan. Ekachai previously served two years in jail on a royal insult conviction for selling copies of a foreign documentary about the royal family.
Both Bunkueanun and Ekachai denied the charges under article 110, which prohibits violence or attempted violence “against the queen or her freedom” and is even harsher than royal laws on insults.
A third activist, Suranat Paenprasert, was arrested on October 21 on the same charges. So far he has been denied bail. His lawyer, Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, said he was accused of persuading other protesters to block the caravan, but that none of them had realized what was happening.
“No one knew that a royal caravan was coming,” he said. “Those blocking the road were mainly police.”
(Written by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
