First-round talks between protesters, caretaker government go on smoothly

BANGKOK, February 25 (TNA) - The first round of negotiations between representatives of Thailand's caretaker government and political protesters has gone and ended smoothly. An election commissioner, Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, posted the updated information on his Facebook account on Tuesday morning, saying that both sides discussed negotiation steps and their negotiators, while agreeing to develop good atmosphere for subsequent talks by refraining from attacking each other physically and verbally. Somchai reported that the first-round talks happened on Monday between Phra Buddha Issara, an abbot who has led protesters of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) in Chaeng Wattana area on the outskirts of Bangkok, and former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, who is also Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's brother in law. The election commissioner revealed that both sides did not, however, mention their demands during the first-round negotiations. Meanwhile, there were, again, explosions and gunshots at an anti-government protest site near the Lumpini public park and Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok for nearly two hours on early Tuesday morning, around 1am-3am, injuring five demonstrators and demonstration guards. PDRC leaders Witthaya Kaewparadai and Thaworn Senneam, together with police, then inspected the area from Sala Daeng Intersection to Chulalongkorn Hospital and Gate 5 of the Lumpini park, ordering PDRC guards to check visitors carefully and watch out for untoward incidents around the clock. In a related incident, National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew presided over a royally-sponsored bathing ceremony for the body of a police officer who died after a clash with anti-government protesters at Phan Fa Bridge in Bangkok last week. The body of 28-year-old police officer, Sarawut Chaipanha, of the Bang Lamung station in Chon Buri Province in the Thai East, was brought from the Institute of Forensic Medicine to the Tri Thotsathep Temple in Bangkok for the ceremony. His wife and his four-year-old son traveled along with the transport of the body to the ceremony that colleagues and supervisors also attended. Police Lance Corporal Sarawut was shot in his head during an attempt to disperse anti-government protesters on Rajadamnoen Avenue near Phan Fa Bridge on February 18. The officer succumbed to his injury on February 24. The body of the police officer was later moved to the Krathing Lai Temple in Chon Buri for a Buddhist prayer ceremony and would then be brought to his native Sida Districe in Nakhon Ratchasima Province in the Thai Northeast. In another development, it was reported on social media that five heavily armed Navy SEAL officers were arrested at a hotel in Rayong Province in the Thai East. Police Major General Somnuek Burami, commander of Rayong police, confirmed the arrest but saying it had nothing to do with any political issue and local police were verifying whether the arrested were soldiers.(TNA)