May 23, 2014 -- Updated 1759 GMT (0159 HKT)
Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is held at a military compound in Bangkok as the military tightens its grip. FULL STORY
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SAFE FOR TOURISTS?
Thai military tightens grip, bans more than 150 from leaving country
May 23, 2014 -- Updated 1600 GMT (0000 HKT)
Anti-government protesters welcome coup
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- U.S. says Americans should "reconsider any nonessential travel to Thailand"
- Source: Ex-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at a military compound in Bangkok
- The Thai military imposes a travel ban on scores of people
- Anti-coup protesters demonstrate in central Bangkok; military keeps a distance
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Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- The Thai military on
Friday tightened its grip on the politically unstable Southeast Asian
nation, banning more than 150 prominent figures from leaving the country
and threatening to arrest politicians who disobey its orders.
Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was among those who reported to the military junta, which seized power in a coup Thursday after months of turmoil that paralyzed much of the government and caused deadly clashes in the streets of Bangkok.
The United States and
other countries have criticized the military's intervention, the latest
in a long list of coups in Thailand, and called for the swift
restoration of democracy.
Yingluck, whose
government was in power when the unrest began in November, was removed
from office this month by the country's Constitutional Court over the
appointments of top security officials.
Prominent people summoned
Thai Ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra detained
Some Thai free-to-air channels return
Military coup in Thailand
Yingluck arrived around
noon Friday at a military compound in Bangkok with one of her sisters
and was still there hours later, a source close to the former leader
told CNN. The military on Thursday summoned Yingluck and three other
members of her politically powerful family to report to authorities.
It has also called on
more than 100 others, including prominent figures on both sides of
Thailand's political divide, to come to military facilities. Those who
don't report, it has warned, will be arrested.
Military officials
haven't provided much explanation about the reasons for the summonses,
saying it's necessary "to ensure smooth operation of restoration of
peace and order."
They have also placed travel bans on Yingluck and scores of others.
Yingluck was being
detained at a military barracks outside Bangkok, the Thai government's
national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut, said late
Friday. Paradon said Yingluck was detained for her own safety along with
and former ministers and one-time members of her Cabinet.
The junta on Thursday
detained some of the leaders of the country's deeply polarized political
factions. Some of those held, including opposition leader Abhisit
Vejjajiva and members of Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party, were later
released.
Constitution ditched, curfew imposed
Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha,
the head of the military, has assumed the powers to act as Prime
Minister until a new one takes office, the military said Thursday.
Life under martial law in Thailand
Bangkok park at center of protests
How the government will
operate remains unclear, given that the military also has thrown out the
constitution it drew up in 2007 after a previous coup, except for
Section 2, which acknowledges that the King is the head of state.
The last six months have
been marked by large-scale protests, both by those backing Yingluck's
government and those opposed to it. There have been periodic outbursts
of deadly violence in the streets.
Protest camps of both sides in Bangkok have been cleared away since the coup.
Under the new order,
schools will be closed nationwide between Friday and Sunday, the
military said. A curfew is in place between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. And all
state-run, satellite and cable TV providers have been ordered to carry
only the signal of the army's television channel; CNN is among those
networks that have been taken off the air.
The military warned against posting misleading or critical comments on social media platforms.
In a speech Thursday, Prayuth explained that these actions were necessary to restore order and push through reforms.
In Bangkok, calm and a cleanup
The day after the coup, a
peculiar calm had settled on the streets of much of the Thai capital,
which has been the focal point of political unrest.
A few hundred anti-coup
protesters gathered in central Bangkok, some cheering and whistling and
others holding banners saying "no to coup," but members of the military
kept a distance.
A few demonstrators from
rival camps argued among themselves, but police tried to calm both
sides down. The crowds were thinning out by early Friday evening.
Life in most of the city's center appeared normal during the day, with shops open and people going to work.
In the area by the
Democracy Monument, where anti-government protesters had camped out for
months, work had begun to clear up the detritus that had been left
behind.
Dozens of people were
dismantling large tents, cleaning and sweeping. Trucks and cranes were
pulling down the infrastructure the protesters had put up at the camp.
The military presence
around the city remained subtle, with few soldiers in view, except
outside the Defense Ministry and military sites.
"The situation in
Bangkok is quite calm at the moment, but obviously we're all watching
very, very closely to see what happens next," Kristie Kenney, U.S.
ambassador to Thailand, told CNN.
Kenney said she would
not be attending a briefing Friday that the Thai military was holding
for diplomats but would send someone from the U.S. Embassy.
Her comments came after
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that there was "no
justification" for the military coup.
The U.S. Embassy in
Bangkok has updated its guidance for Americans traveling to Thailand. It
"recommends that U.S. citizens reconsider any nonessential travel to
Thailand, particularly Bangkok, due to ongoing political and social
unrest and restrictions on internal movements, including an indefinite
nighttime curfew."
The question many
analysts are asking is how the popular "Red Shirt" movement, which
supports Yingluck and her exiled brother Thaksin Shinawatra, will
respond to the coup.
The Red Shirts, whose
support base is in the rural north and northwest of Thailand, were
already angered by Yingluck's ouster this month, a move they viewed as a
judicial coup by Bangkok elites.
Senior Red Shirt
leaders, as well as prominent figures from the anti-Yingluck protesters,
were still being held Friday by the military, according to Paradon, the
national security adviser to the government.
Thaksin, a business
tycoon who built a highly successful political movement through populist
policies benefiting the rural masses, was deposed as Prime Minister in a
military coup in 2006.
In 2010, when the
pro-Thaksin party was out of power, the Red Shirts mounted large
protests in the heart of Bangkok. An ensuing crackdown by security
forces resulted in clashes that killed around 90 people.
CNN's Kocha Olarn and Paula Hancocks
reported from Bangkok, and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong
Kong. CNN's Paula Hancocks, Simon Harrison, Neda Farshbaf and Greg
Botelho contributed to this report.
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China launches terrorism crackdown after an attack on a market killed dozens, the country's state news agency, Xinhua reports.
FULL STORY
- Attack hit open-air market
- Attacks targeting civilians
- Who's responsible?
China launches terrorism crackdown after Xinjiang region attack
May 23, 2014 -- Updated 1643 GMT (0043 HKT)Xinjiang attacks shifting to civilians
STORY HIGHLIGHTS- State news agency: China begins "one-year crackdown on violent terrorist activities"
- The report offers no details of the crackdown, but authorities tighten security at entry ports
- Thursday's explosions killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 90, state media say
Hong Kong (CNN) -- China has launched a terrorism crackdown one day after a series of explosions in an open-air market killed dozens in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, the country's state news agency, Xinhua said Friday.
Without any details, the report said authorities had undertaken a "one-year crackdown on violent terrorist activities" in the volatile region after blasts in the heavily policed city of Urumqi killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 90, according to state media. The number of dead does not include the attackers.The state news agency reported Friday that five attackers were responsible for the blasts; four were killed in the explosions, and a fifth was arrested Thursday. They were identified through DNA testing, Xinhua said.In Urumqi, authorities tightened security checks at entry ports in an attempt to curb weapons smuggling, including inspections of individuals, luggage, transport facilities and postal deliveries at land border crossings, Xinhua reported Friday.After visiting the injured and the scene of the explosions, Guo Shengkun, minister of public security, called for severe punishment for those responsible, state media said.President Xi Jinping also called for the terrorists behind it to be "severely" punished.Explosions in Xinjiang region of China
Location of incident
Two SUVs slammed into shoppers gathered at the market in Urumqi at 7:50 a.m. Thursday, and explosives were flung out of the vehicles, Xinhua said.The vehicles then exploded, according to the news agency.Some of the photos circulating on social media suggested a hellish scene, with bodies strewn on the ground amid burning wreckage. Others showed flames and smoke billowing out of the end of a tree-lined street guarded by police.'An enormous sound'"I heard an enormous sound, then I looked out from my balcony," said a resident of a building near the explosion who would only give his surname, Shan.He told CNN that trees obscured much of his view of the scene, but that he "could see there was chaos, with people injured."Many of the victims caught in the blasts were elderly people who regularly visited the morning market, Xinhua reported."It's mainly people coming to trade vegetables, especially the elderly who get up early and buy vegetables to cook," Shan said.The U.S. government condemned the attack."This is a despicable and outrageous act of violence against innocent civilians, and the United States resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.String of recent attacksChinese authorities have stepped up security measures in Xinjiang in recent months amid a series of attacks within the region and in other major Chinese cities.On Wednesday, Xinhua reported that 39 people had been sentenced to prison in the past two months for "inciting violence" in Xinjiang.But Thursday's devastating blasts suggest the government is facing a foe determined to wreak havoc.The market attack comes less than a month after an explosion hit a train station in Urumqi, killing three people and wounding 79 others.The April 30 blast occurred just after Xi had wrapped up a visit to the region.Ethnic tensionsChinese officials have linked a mass knife attack in March that killed 29 people at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming to Islamic separatists from Xinjiang.They have also blamed separatists for an October attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in which a car rammed into a pedestrian bridge and burst into flames, killing two tourists and the three occupants of the vehicle.The knife-wielding assailants in the Kunming attack and the people in the car that hit Tiananmen were identified as Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang.Ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese people, millions of whom have migrated to resource-rich Xinjiang in recent decades, have repeatedly boiled over into deadly riots and clashes with authorities in recent years.Some Uyghurs have expressed resentment over harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and Han people taking the lion's share of economic opportunities in Xinjiang. The Han are the predominant ethnic group in China, making up more than 90% of the overall population.Shift in targetsThe pattern of ethnic violence in the region goes back decades, according to James Leibold, an expert in ethnic relations in China at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia."But what's new, and what I think is significant, is that we have a shift in target," Leibold said. "We have a targeting of innocent civilians, places where innocent civilians gather -- an attempt to maim innocent civilians in large numbers."The other change is that the violence has "seeped outside" the borders of Xinjiang into other parts of China, he said.It remains unclear who is behind the recent high-profile attacks.Chinese officials have pointed to a murky separatist group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which they have blamed for violent acts in the past. East Turkestan is the name used by many Uyghur groups to refer to Xinjiang.But analysts are divided about the extent of the that group's activities and its links to global terrorist networks such as al Qaeda."Generally, the government response is to blame terrorists without providing many details," Leibold said. "So I suspect it's going to be very difficult to get to the bottom of this incident like previous ones."copy http://edition.cnn.com
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