Fresh strife as Thais mark 2006 coup

BANGKOK — As thousands of demonstrators marked the anniversary of a 2006 coup in the Thai capital Saturday, a rival group of protesters clashed with police and villagers near the Cambodian border, showing the country's long-running political crisis is far from settled.

In the three years since the coup there have been multiple violent demonstrations, court rulings that have purged two prime ministers from power, and massive damage to the tourist industry after protesters shuttered the airports last year.

The country now appears locked in an endless cycle of protest and counterprotest by supporters and opponents of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in the Sept. 19, 2006, coup on accusations of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for the constitutional monarch. Thaksin himself remains in self-imposed exile, able to rally his followers only by phone.

"Thai politics three years after the coup has become more confused, convoluted, and the stakes have increased. There has been no progress, no headway towards reconciliation and reform," Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said this week. "The political situation has become more combustible."

The alliance that led demonstrations culminating in the coup tried Saturday to march toward the gates of a temple on disputed land near the Cambodian border, triggering clashes that left 17 people injured, according to local hospitals. The People's Alliance for Democracy demanded that the Thai government recover the territory that is claimed by both countries.

Supporters of Thaksin and pro-democracy activists rallied in Bangkok to mark the coup's anniversary, with more than 6,000 police on hand to prevent a repeat of rioting that killed at least two and injured hundreds in the last major anti-government protests in April.

Saturday's crowd — which drew 20,000 to 30,000 people in Royal Plaza, a major public square — was addressed by Thaksin via video.

"I want to ask people who hate me and those who love me to review the past three years and answer if you have seen anything changed for the better," he said. "Is the economy better? Have people reconciled? How about the people's rights and justice? Have the past three years hurt the country enough?"

Saturday's protesters want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down, claiming he came to power illegitimately with the help of the military and the judiciary, seen as pillars of the Thai ruling class. Abhisit took office late last year by wooing Thaksin's supporters in Parliament after the former leader's allies were forced out of office by court rulings of conflict of interest and electoral fraud.