Thai protesters vow not to compromise after 21 die in clashes - Times Online

Thai protesters vow not to compromise after 21 die in clashes - Times Online

April 11, 2010

Anti-government protesters in Thailand swore today that they would never compromise with the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the day after street battles left 21 people dead, including demonstrators, soldiers and a Japanese journalist.

At least 870 people were injured yesterday, when soldiers in armoured vehicles attempted to break up a gathering of tens of thousands of Red Shirts who are demanding that Mr Abhisit call elections immediately.

Sixteen protesters were killed, many of them shot in the head, as well as Hiro Muramoto, a Japanese cameraman with the Reuters news agency.

But the Red Shirts – who support the exiled prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was driven out four years ago in a military coup – also caused spectacular damage of their own.
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Four soldiers, including a colonel, died during the battles, and the demonstrators seized six armoured personnel carriers whose smashed frames lie abandoned close to the Democracy Monument.

"There is no more negotiation,” Jatuporn Prompan, a Red Shirt leader, told a crowd from a nearby stage, which was piled with automatic rifles, machine guns and ammunition belts seized from the soldiers, four of whom were briefly taken prisoner.

“Red Shirts will never negotiate with murderers. Although the road is rough and full of obstacles, it's our duty to honour the dead by bringing democracy to this country.”

Sixteen red-painted boxes, symbolising the coffins of the victims, were laid out on the Democracy Monument, whose heroic friezes were pocked with bullet holes from the day before.

At a dozen spots scattered around the scene of the battle, Red Shirt sympathisers left incense, flowers and offerings of rice in front of sticky pools of congealed blood, where the casualties of Saturday’s violence are said to have died.

But how they were killed, and by whom, is still far from clear, and each side blames the other.

In a televised press conference, Mr Abhisit’s spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, insisted that the soldiers used only rubber bullets and blanks, with orders to fire live rounds only into the air and in self-defence.

But photographs and videos posted on the internet show confused scenes in which at least one unarmed young Red Shirt has the top of his head blown off during a burst of shooting, as if by a high-velocity bullet.

“The soldiers starting shooting machine guns at about 2 or 3pm,” the UDD leader Weng Tajirakarn told The Times.

“They tried to say that maybe the Red Shirts started it and the soldiers were striking back – that is a lie. Abhisit Vejjajiva has accepted they used real bullets, but the Government tried to excuse it, saying it was simply protection against threats. They are shooting people who have only bare hands.”

The weekend violence erupted at the heart of historic Bangkok and spilled into the part of the city most frequented by foreigners, the famous Khao San Road backpacker enclave.

Tourists described how the street of cheap guest houses and Internet cafés was transformed into a battleground of security forces and protesters.

“We heard a lot of gunfire,” said Tom Reynolds, 21, of Tring in Hertfordshire. “For about three hours everybody was trying to get up here. There was a line of riot police holding them back – then the police just cleared out. It was a war zone.”

The protests, which began a month ago, have also sealed off the heart of Bangkok’s shopping district, and closed down or disrupted some of its most expensive hotels and shopping malls.

Some governments have cautions travellers to avoid travel to Bangkok. The Foreign and Commonwealth advises British tourists to “remain indoors and to monitor the media” in case of violence.

Mr Abhisit came to power last year as the result of a coalition formed in the wake of the military coup which deposed Mr Thaksin in 2006. His Democrat Party has never won an election under his leadership – the Red Shirts are challenging him to dissolve parliament and face Mr Thaksin’s supporters at the ballot box.

Under the constitution Mr Abhisit must call an election by the end of next year, but he insists that he will go to the country early only if it will benefit the country as a whole.

Protesters defiant after deadly clashes in Bangkok - Times Online

Protesters defiant after deadly clashes in Bangkok - Times Online

Times Online, April 11, 2010

Anti-government protesters in Bangkok said they would not negotiate an end to protests in the Thai capital after at least 18 people died and 800 were injured in savage clashes between activists and soldiers overnight.

Earlier today thousands of Red Shirt protesters swarmed back into an area that had briefly been taken by government forces last night.

Bullet casings, rocks and pools of blood covered the streets as protesters showed off a pile of weapons captured from the troops, including rifles and heavy-calibre machine-gun rounds.

“There is no more negotiation. Red Shirts will never negotiate with murderers,” a key protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan, announced from a makeshift stage.

“Although the road is rough and full of obstacles, it's our duty to honour the dead by bringing democracy to this country.”

Hopes had been expressed that the two sides would come to the negotiating table after the worst violence in Bangkok since four dozen people were killed in an anti-military protest in 1992. The United States has urged both sides to show restraint.

The death toll rose during the night although the fighting, some of it in tourist areas, had ended after the security forces pulled back late on Saturday and urged the Red Shirts to do the same.

Thai troops had fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators, who fought back with guns, grenades and petrol bombs near the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok's old quarter, a base for the month-long protest.

Riot shields lay near pools of blood around the city's historic area near the Khao San Road backpacker district, while ambulances ferried away casualties and injured soldiers were loaded on to pick-up trucks.

"It's frightening. We heard explosions and people were running all around," Sharon Aradbasson, a 34-year-old Israeli tourist, said.

Soldiers had made repeated charges to clear the Red Shirts, as tourists looked on. Two protesters and a Buddhist monk with them were badly beaten by soldiers and taken away by ambulance.

A Japanese tourist who was wearing a red shirt was also clubbed by soldiers until bystanders rescued him.

Five soldiers and 13 civilians, including Hiro Muramoto, a Japanese cameraman for the Reuters news agency, were killed during the clashes.

Mr Muramoto, 43, who had worked for Thomson Reuters in Tokyo for more than 15 years, was shot dead. He had arrived in Bangkok on Thursday to cover the protests.

"I am dreadfully saddened to have lost our colleague Hiro Muramoto in the Bangkok clashes," David Schlesinger, Reuters' Editor-in-Chief, said.

"Journalism can be a terribly dangerous profession as those who try to tell the world the story thrust themselves in the centre of the action. The entire Reuters family will mourn this tragedy."

A government spokesman said that an investigation had been launched into the violence and that negotiations were under way to bring about a resolution to the stand-off without further unrest.

The violence erupted after security forces tried to push out demonstrators who have camped in parts of the capital for a month and staged disruptive protests demanding that Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, dissolve parliament and call new elections.

The protesters claim that Mr Abhisit took office illegitimately in December 2008 after the military pressured parliament to vote for him.

Mr Abhisit offered his condolences over yesterday’s deaths but refused to bow to the protesters' calls for him to resign.

"I and my Government will continue to work to resolve the situation," he said in a televised address to the nation.

The Prime Minister had invoked emergency rule on Wednesday after the Red Shirts stormed parliament, prompting lawmakers to flee.