Word: coups
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that strikes other cities. Yet this past week, the Southeast Asian kingdom showed the world a rather less peaceful visage. Protests against Thailand's ruling junta spilled onto Bangkok streets last weekend, with an estimated 13,000 demonstrators calling for the resignation of the generals who masterminded a bloodless coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last September. The marches, which sometimes erupted in clashes with the police, were the largest show of dissatisfaction to date against the military government led by the coup's architect, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin...
...Sunday, the junta blamed the TRT party leadership for the protests, later hinting that cash handouts had lured many poor citizens to the demonstrations. But the anti-junta rallies span a wider spectrum than just Thaksin's supporters. Democracy advocates took to the streets to decry the September coup. Anti-poverty campaigners who claim the junta has not adequately addressed the plight of Thailand's rural poor raised their voices, as did employees of community-radio stations banned from the airwaves by the interim government. Legal activists condemned what they believe is deteriorating judicial freedom under the military leadership...
...Meanwhile, President Abbas, who remains a safe distance away from the fury of Gaza at his fortress home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, has accused Hamas - his partner in a short-lived unity government - of trying to stage a coup. Abbas aides warned that unless Hamas calls off its fighters in Gaza, Fatah will begin targeting Hamas members in the West Bank, where Fatah may be marginally stronger than the Islamists...
More possible, perhaps, is either a counter-coup against the interim government - hardly a confidence-booster for believers in Thai democracy - or heightened clashes between anti-junta protestors and army troops. In a worrisome precedent, similar pro-democracy marches back in 1992 ended with soldiers firing on unarmed protestors, killing dozens. "To be fair to the military, they have been disciplined and patient so far, but for how long?" asks political scientist Thitinan. "They are trained to respond by force. If it turns more violent, it will be bad for Thailand economically - and for how it is viewed...
...Last Sunday, the government-sanctioned day of rest for domestic workers, she pulled off her biggest coup yet. With 13 other Filipino women, Unite starred in Hong Kong's first ever play by domestic workers about domestic workers. The production, staged and directed by a volunteer crew of professional dramaturgs, was slick and effective, weaving skits, video interviews and monologues into a very human tale of the migrant domestic workers' plight...