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.
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