Protesters determined to oust Thailand's caretaker government

BANGKOK, February 17 (TNA) - Thailand's anti-government protesters have blocked access to Bangkok's Government House, vowing they will not let Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra return to the government seat and they are determined to oust the caretaker government. Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary-general of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), led his demonstrators to block all the gates of the Government House on Monday morning to prevent the Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) from taking control over the government seat. Once arriving at the Government House, PDRC demonstrators built concrete walls to block Gates 1 and 2 of the Government House, while there were no government authorities showed up to confront the protesters. Suthep said his group responded to CMPO Director and Caretaker Labor Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubamrung, who earlier announced to bring the caretaker prime minister back to work at the Government House. Suthep reiterated that the caretaker prime minister and her Cabinet have already lost their legitimacy in national administration; so, demonstrators would not let them return. PDRC co-leader Thaworn Senneam insisted that protesters would not let the CMPO retrieve their demonstration sites and the caretaker administration would be held responsible for any violence that might happen to demonstrators. Meanwhile, Phra Phuttha Isara, the monk who has led protesters seizing the Central Government Complex on Chaeng Watthana Road in the capital, told reporters that he would file complaints with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Office of the National Human Rights Commission (ONHRC) on February 19 against an arrest warrant issued against him.(TNA)