Thailand: clashes between police and pro-democracy protesters in Bangkok
Pro-democracy protesters outside the Thai Parliament on November 17, 2020 in Bangkok.
AP Photo / Sakchai Lalit
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
A new pro-democracy demonstration took place on Tuesday, November 17 in Bangkok around the Parliament which had met to discuss a possible amendment to the Constitution.
The police had to use tear gas.
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With our correspondent in Bangkok,
Carol Isoux
The air was unbreathable on Tuesday evening around the Thai parliament.
Hundreds of tear gas canisters were thrown against the demonstrators who were protecting themselves with the means available, swimming glasses;
water mixed with toothpaste poured over the eyes to reduce the effects of gas.
Small groups took turns on the front line for hours.
Several ambulances took the injured to the nearest hospitals, to the applause of the crowd.
Mian is a nursing student, he came to help with first aid at the back of the demonstration.
“
Now the ball is in the government's court.
There are hundreds of parliamentarians, let them do their job,
launches the young man.
We, if we obtain the resignation of the current government, new elections;
we are ready to stop everything, but it seems that all they can do is respond with violence and more violence
”
The clashes began in the afternoon with groups of "Yellow Shirts", ultra royalists who oppose a modification of the Constitution which would reduce the powers of the king and which is one of the flagship demands
of the student movement.
.
These scenes of urban guerrilla warfare between royalists and supporters of reform are reminiscent of those which preceded the last coup, in 2014.
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