Thailand's army chief assumed the role of mediator today by summoning the country's key political rivals for face-to-face talks one day after imposing martial law. Residents, meanwhile, tried to make sense of the dramatic turn after six months of turmoil.
Around Bangkok there was little sign of any change, and most soldiers that had occupied key intersections in the capital a day earlier had withdrawn. People went about their work normally, students went to school, and the traffic was snarled as it would be any other weekday in this bustling city.
Martial law for now appeared to be playing out primarily behind closed doors, as army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha "invited" the key powerbrokers in the country's latest political crisis to meet for the first time since it escalated six months ago.
The army interrupted regular programming on national television to announce the Wednesday afternoon meeting at Bangkok's Army Club, which it said was being called "to solve the political conflict smoothly."
Seven of the country's highest profile political figures were summoned. They included the acting prime minister, anti-government protest leader Suthep Thausuban and his rival from the pro-government Red Shirt group, Jatuporn Prompan. Also summoned were leaders of the ruling Pheu Thai Party and the opposition Democrat Party, as well as the five-member Election Commission and representatives from the Senate.
The meeting of bitter political enemies was unlikely to yield any immediate resolution, but the event itself was a stunning development.
Prayuth invoked the military's expanded powers today and issued more than a dozen edicts that included broad powers of censorship over the media, the Internet and vaguely defined threats to prosecute opponents.
