Thai authorities to ask protesters to vacate Government Complex

BANGKOK, January 25 (TNA) - Thai authorities will ask anti-government protesters next Monday to vacate state offices they have occupied, including the Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road in Bangkok, in their three-month-long attempt to pressure to oust the caretaker government. National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanatabutr told journalists, after the first meeting of the newly-formed Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO), in the capital on Friday evening, that CMPO authorities will focus on negotiations, rather than using force against anti-government protesters and they will first ask the protesters to vacate the Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road first on January 27. The NSC chief, who is also a CMPO member, said if negotiations fail, arrest warrants will be issued for the protesters on charges of violating the Emergency Decree. Deputy Government Spokeswoman Sunisa Lertphakawat then revealed that the CMPO has been divided into two units, including its political unit headed by Caretaker Labour Minister Police Captain Chalerm Ubumrung, in his capacity as the CMPO Director, and its civil servant unit headed by National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew. Meanwhile, the national police chief signed an order forbidding anti-government protesters to intrude 13 government offices, including the Government House, the Parliament and the Interior Ministry. The CMPO order also forbids anti-government protesters and intimidators from using 26 routes in Bangkok, which cover all their seven rally sites, and from carrying weapons in public places. (TNA)