Sunday 29 / June / 2025
Bangkok: Thousands of protesters rallied in Bangkok on Saturday to demand the resignation of Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over an escalating border dispute with Cambodia.
Bangkok police said around 17,000 protesters had showed up despite monsoon rains in the afternoon.
They chanted "Ung Ing, get out," using the prime minister's nickname.
"She should step aside because she is the problem," said Parnthep Pourpongpan, one of the protest leaders.
Saturday's protest was organised by a nationalist group known as the United Force of the Land. In the past, the group has rallied against previous governments led by various members of the Shinawatra family.
Paetongtarn faces growing dissatisfaction over her handling of a border dispute with Cambodia surrounding a historic Buddhist temple.
The dispute flared up on May 28 when a border skirmish broke out between the Thai and Cambodian armies. One Cambodian soldier was killed in the incident.
In the following days, a phone call between Paetongtarn and Cambodia's former prime minister Hun Sen that was meant to ease tensions was leaked to the press.
Paetongtarn was accused ot kowtowing to the Cambodian lawmaker in the call, in which she called him "uncle" and referred to a Thai military commander in the border region as her "opponent."
She later apologized for the comments.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice ruled that the area surrounding the Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia.
The temple was the site of clashes in 2011. In 2013, the UN court reaffirmed its earlier ruling.
Hun Sen on Saturday accused the Thai army of a serious violation of Cambodia's sovereignty in last month's border skirmish.
"This poor Cambodia has suffered from foreign invasion, war and genocide, been surrounded and isolated and insulted in the past, but now Cambodia has risen on an equal face with other countries," he said in a speech at the 74th anniversary celebration of the founding of his long-ruling Cambodian People's Party.
