Mon, April 13, 2009
Thai troops launched a crackdown Monday to enforce a state of emergency in Bangkok, firing warning shots and tear gas as anti-government protesters hurled petrol bombs in clashes that left 70 injured.
Columns of smoke rose over the capital Bangkok as hundreds of heavily-armed soldiers cleared a busy intersection blocked by demonstrators calling for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to quit after just four months in office.
Abhisit issued an emergency decree in and around Bangkok on Sunday to curb mass protests against his government, a day after demonstrators forced the humiliating cancellation of a major Asian summit at the Pattaya beach resort.
The government said soldiers had cleared the intersection and arrested several of the red-clad protesters, who are loyal to Thaksin Shinawatra, the fugitive former premier ousted in a 2006 military coup.
"The operation is complete, and a number of protesters have been detained in safe places. The operation is in line with the law, accountable and reasonable," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said on television.
But tensions continued at the site after the pre-dawn offensive, with protesters throwing more molotov cocktails at soldiers. Demonstrators blocked another road with stolen buses and torched piles of tires.
Authorities made no effort to clear the main body of some 10,000 protesters who defied the state of emergency and remained camped out at Government House, where Abhisit's offices in the capital are located.
Thailand has endured years of political turmoil but this is the biggest crisis that Abhisit has faced since he came to power in December, following a controversial court ruling that drove Thaksin's allies out of office.
"Abhisit, are you still a human being? This is a most inhuman act, to crack down on unarmed protesters," protest leader Jatuporn Prompan told supporters at Government House.
Emergency services said at least 70 people were injured -- including 23 soldiers -- but no one was killed. Two people suffered gunshot wounds.
An AFP photographer who saw the pre-dawn operation to clear the intersection said the soldiers fired hundreds of rounds into the air after several hundred protesters hurled bottles, rocks and molotov cocktails at them.
The demonstrators retreated into side streets but regrouped and more were on their way. Angry protesters showed a shirt covered with blood.
Army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd accused the Red Shirts of opening fire first and of trying to crash a car into the lines of soldiers.
"We will start with soft measures and proceed to harder ones. We will avoid loss of life as instructed by the government," he told AFP.
"Protesters fired tear gas, molotov cocktails and fired at soldiers, prompting soldiers to fire tear gas and shots in the air to warn the protesters," he said.
It is the first time the army has taken action since Abhisit ordered tanks and soldiers onto the streets of Bangkok on Sunday. The military refused to enforce emergency decrees by previous pro-Thaksin governments last year.
The British-born premier appeared on television overnight flanked by the chiefs of the army, navy, air force and a senior police officer in a show of unity.
He is under intense pressure to curb the unrest after the "Red Shirt" protesters stormed the venue of an Asian summit Saturday, forcing it to be cancelled and leaders to be evacuated -- some by helicopter.
The trouble moved to Bangkok Sunday, where demonstrators attacked a convoy carrying Abhisit out of the interior ministry, and fired shots in the air after police arrested the leader of the summit raid.
Thais should be celebrating the nation's main festival, the New Year holiday of Songkran, with three days of public holidays beginning Monday. Bangkok authorities scrapped all official celebrations because of the unrest.
Train services out of Bangkok were also cancelled after protesters blocked a main line.
Demonstrations also reportedly spread to northern Thailand, Thaksin's stronghold, where he is popular among the rural poor. He remains loathed by the Bangkok-based power centres of the palace, military and bureaucracy.
Thaksin, who lives in exile to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption, stoked up his followers by phone late Sunday, saying: "You don't have to be frightened of this state of emergency."
(Agencies)
