BANGKOK, 15 February 2014 The government’s Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) has given an assurance that the attempt to reclaim demonstration sites was not meant as a crack down on the protesters, but rather to arrest protest leaders concealed among them.
The CMPO Secretary-General and Chief of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Tarit Pengdit said the government’s operation was only to apprehend the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) leaders, whose arrest warrants had been issued by the Criminal Court.
The operation did not see any clashes as it proceeded peacefully with both protesters and security guards abandoning the sites.
According to him, illegal objects including weapons and drugs have been found at the sites during police inspections. The CMPO secretary-general also rejected claims that police and the protesters had made a deal so that there would be no violence.
The operation will go on until the PDRC leaders are brought to justice, Mr Tarit said.
