About 150 Danish-Thais participated in a demonstration, arranged by People´s Democratic Reform Committee, Denmark, in Copenhagen on February 22 to show solidarity with the ongoing anti-government protesters in Thailand. They marched through the center of Copenhagen and had a sit down at the town hall square, waving Thai national flags and placards, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and political reform.
It was the fourth protest event held in Copenhagen since Thailand’s political crisis escalated into a protracted confrontation between protesters and security forces in the streets of Bangkok since November.
This time around, the demonstration was held to condemn the indiscriminate bombing and gun attacks that killed several children and unarmed protesters in and near anti-government protest sites in Rayong and Bangkok over the weekend.
Orn-arnong Rasmussen, the organiser of the protest marches in the Danish capital, told ScandAsia in an interview: “We are protesting because we, as Thai people, have had enough of this [Yingluck] government. And we want an end to these senseless killing of innocent children and unarmed protesters in Thailand.”
She held the first protest rally in Copenhagen in November when the Yingluck government’s attempt to get the Thai Parliament to pass an amnesty bill that would have forgiven former premier and Yingluck’s own brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, of corruption. Thaksin has been a fugitive from justice since 2008 after Thailand’s Supreme Court sentenced him to a two-year jail term for corruption.
“Yingluck (Shinawatra) has engaged in electoral frauds, large-scale corruption and abuses of power, which are unacceptable. We need new people clean hands to lead our country, and we need them now, “ she said.
Ornarnong Rasmussen stressed that her group of Danish-Thais will continue to show support for the anti-government protesters in Thailand until they succeed in bringing about a broad-based political reform to clean up the corruption-prone political landscape of their home country.
