The 2006 Thai coup d'état took place on 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'état against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup d'état, which was Thailand's first non-constitutional change of government in fifteen years since the 1991 Thai coup d'état, followed a year-long political crisis involving Thaksin, his allies, and political opponents and occurred less than a month before nationwide House elections were scheduled to be held. It has been widely reported in Thailand and elsewhere that General Prem Tinsulanonda, a key person in the military-monarchy nexus, Chairman of the Privy Council, was the mastermind of the coup. The military cancelled the scheduled 15 October elections, abrogated the 1997 constitution, dissolved parliament and the constitutional court, banned protests and all political activities, suppressed and censored the media, declared martial law nationwide, and arrested cabinet members.
2006 Thai coup d'état
Soldiers of the Royal Thai Army in the streets of Bangkok on the day after the coup.
Armoured vehicles (M41 Walker Bulldog) parked inside the compound of the Headquarters of the 1st Army
As the tanks (including this M41 Walker Bulldog) rolled in, a slight out-of-season drizzle poured over the city.
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987, and was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
Thaksin in 2005
Thaksin meeting Donald Evans in December 2001
U.S. President George W. Bush meets with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand in the Oval Office Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Thaksin in a meeting with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in October 2003