Students ‘cheer up’ Phuket police with flowers

PHUKET: Around 3,000 students from local high schools and universities, all backing opponents of the government, yesterday afternoon (December 2) visited Phuket Provincial HQ.



By Khemin Wicheetthagoon

Tuesday 3 December 2013, 10:19AM

Col Arayapan: No power cut, just cut flowers.

There, they handed bouquets of flowers to Provincial Deputy Commander Pol Col Arayapan Pukbuakao to “cheer the police up”.

The protesters stressed that they were not there to tell the police to close the police station, but were simply “visiting” the officers.

Earlier in the day students could be seen riding their motorbikes around Phuket Town, blowing their horns and waving Thai flags.

The visit to the police HQ was in sharp contrast with events in Bangkok, where clashes between police and anti-government protesters have been multiplying, and where the protestors managed on Saturday (November 28) to cut power to the national police HQ and demanded it close.

The Bangkok Post reported this morning (December 3) that Metropolitan Police Chief Pol Lt Gen Kamronwit Thoopkrachang had ordered his officers to comply with anything the protesters want – even to the point of letting them burn down the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) headquarters.

Gen Kamronwit told his officers not to use tear gas against protesters, and not to resist if they wanted to get inside the MPB.

“The office belongs to the public and it was built with tax money,” he said. If protesters want to seize or burn the building, they should be allowed to do so, and he will “take the blame”.