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Thailand coup d'etat: Military seizes power after meeting with all rival factions Thailand coup d'etat: Military seizes power after meeting with all rival factions
(about 1 hour later)
Thailand's army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized control of the government on Thursday, saying the army had to restore order and push through reforms, two days after declaring martial law. Two days after Thailand’s military declared martial law it has announced that it was declaring a full coup and seizing control of the country.
Witnesses said Thai soldiers took the leader of anti-government protests out a meeting of all factions. Television channels were shut down, radio broadcasts taken over and army personnel stepped in to clear the rally sites of rival protest groups.
An army spokesperson told The Independent: "There was no agreement at the meeting and the coup has taken place." Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha announced in a statement broadcast on national television that the military was taking control of the country’s administration from 4.30pm in order to maintain law and order.
The military will be sending troops and vehicles to escort protesters away from rally sites, a senior army official told Reuters. “It is necessary for the Peace and Order Maintaining Command - which includes army, navy, armed forces and police - to take control of governing the country,” the general said, according to the Associated Press.
Prayuth made the announcement in a television broadcast after he held a meeting with all rival factions aimed at finding a solution to six months of anti-government protests.  Army spokesman Werachon Sukondhapatipak told The Independent that the military had stepped in after various factions in the six-month stand-off had failed to reach an agreement. “There was no agreement at the meeting and the coup has taken place,” he said.
"In order for the situation to return to normal quickly and for society to love and be at peace again ... and to reform the structure of the political, economic and social structure, the military needs to take control of power," he said. The development followed two days of army-mediated meetings between the country’s rival political leaders that failed to break the impasse. The meetings were held at an army facility in Bangkok.
He said the takeover would not affect international relations. The move comes after Thailand’s military imposed martial law in the Southeast Asian country on Tuesday, in an attempt to restore order following months of protests. Shortly before the announcement was made, armed soldiers in military vehicles surrounded the building, apparently to block those inside from leaving.
On Wednesday, General Prayuth Chan-ocha had called seven different groups for a meeting at a military recreational facility on the edge of Bangkok. Thailand has been gripped by bouts of political instability for more than seven years.
The different groups invited included representatives from the government, the Phua Thai party associated with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Red Shirts movement (which has largely supported the government), the opposition Democrat party, the upper house of the parliament and the anti-government protesters whose demonstrations have undermined the government’s ability to operate. Representatives of the country’s election commission have also been invited. The latest round of unrest started in November, when demonstrators took to the streets to try to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down. They accused her of being a proxy for her popular billionaire brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and now lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail sentence on a corruption conviction.
Wednesday's talks ended inconclusively with neither side backing down from their entrenched positions, participants said. The coup is the 12th since the end of the country’s absolute monarchy in 1932.