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Thai army threatens new crackdown on protesters
By DENIS D. GRAY,Associated Press Writer -
Friday, April 23
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BANGKOK – Thailand's army, facing the prospect of rival political groups fighting in the streets, warned Thursday it would crack down on anti-government protesters if they did not end their occupation of parts of the capital soon.
Anger among Bangkok residents is mounting against the Red Shirt protesters, who have entrenched themselves in the capital's commercial district to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve Parliament and call new elections immediately. The weeks of protests have forced hotels and offices to close and are threatening the livelihoods of those who work in the "occupation zone."
A loose coalition opposed to the Red Shirts has started taking to the streets and clashed with the protesters on Wednesday, tossing stones bottles and shouting, "Give back our city" and "Hillbillies, get out."
The crowd was out again on Thursday and planned a mass rally for Friday, further splitting the city into hostile camps.
"To take people in Bangkok hostage is not right," army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd warned the Red Shirts. "Your time to leave the area is running out." The army has issued several warnings that it will move to break up the protests if they are not ended voluntarily. They are already in violation of several laws, including a state of emergency.
Prospects for a peaceful solution to the political crisis appear slim, and every night brings a new flurry of rumors of an imminent crackdown. Early Thursday morning, helicopters were seen flying high above the protest site, but their purpose was not clear. Protesters shot fireworks at them.
A failed April 10 attempt by security forces in Bangkok to flush protesters from their first encampment erupted into the worst political violence Thailand has seen in 18 years, with 25 people dead.
The anti-Red Shirt group includes office employees, middle class families, academics, some low-wage workers and members of the Yellow Shirts, a group that supports the current government and who themselves rampaged through Bangkok and seized the city's airports two years ago.
While some are genuinely aggrieved by the inconveniences wrought by the protests, many seem to have primarily political objections to the Red Shirts, including claiming the movement is directed against the country's widely revered monarch. A songsheet distributed to followers included hateful right-wing songs used in military-backed anti-communist campaigns of the 1970s.
Weng Tojirakarn, a Red Shirt protest leader, accused the government of hiring the mob in order to cause trouble that could be blamed on his group.
On Thursday, several hundred Red Shirt protesters rallied in front of the regional headquarters of the United Nations, submitting a request for international peacekeepers to monitor the situation in Thailand. Despite government warnings that the demonstrators would no longer be able to stage marches outside their enclave, authorities did nothing to stop the peaceful rally.
In one effort to avert further violence, the head of a pro-Red Shirt political party has asked for an audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who in the past has stepped in to end violent political crises, the newspaper Matichon reported.
The ailing, 82-year-old king has been hospitalized since Sept. 19 and has made no comments on the current turmoil. In 1992, the king ended a bloody confrontation between the military and pro-democracy protesters by calling in leaders of the opposing sides and instructing them, on nationwide television, to cease hostilities.
Now, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former prime minister who now heads the pro-Red Shirt Pheua Thai Party, is seeking a similar intervention.
Another tense situation was eased Thursday afternoon, when Red Shirt protesters agreed to end their blockade of a train carrying military vehicles that they had claimed would be used to suppress fellow protesters in the capital.
Some 400 to 500 Red Shirts blocked the train in the province of Khon Kaen, 240 miles (390 kilometers) northeast of Bangkok. Its 21 cars were stalled on a siding.
No violence was reported, and provincial officials reached an agreement with the protesters to release the train and its cargo. But the Red Shirts won the right to have several observers accompany the train to make sure it was not delivering its cargo to Bangkok.
The protesters consist mainly of poor rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists who opposed the military coup that ousted him in 2006 after months of demonstrations by the Yellow Shirts.
The Red Shirts believe Abhisit's government is illegitimate because it came to power under military pressure through a parliamentary vote after disputed court rulings ousted two elected pro-Thaksin governments.
___
Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck and Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.
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