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Thailand stalled anew as Reds refuse to yield
Reuters - May 11, 2010
Ambika Ahuja & Chalathip, Bangkok – Protesters in Thailand refused on Tuesday to call off demonstrations that have paralyzed Bangkok's commercial heart and stifled the economy, while the government said it had done all it could to reach a deal.
That leaves few options for ending mass protests by Thailand's rural and urban poor that have sparked a two-month crisis in which 29 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the country's worst political violence in 18 years.
The antigovernment "Red Shirts" accepted on Monday a timetable for a Nov. 14 election proposed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva but also set a new condition: Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban must face prosecution over protesters' clash with troops in April that killed 25 people and wounded more than 800.
Suthep, chief of security during the protests, went to the Department of Special Investigation on Tuesday to hear complaints filed against him by relatives of some of those killed, but the protesters said he must face formal criminal charges before they would agree to leave the city's main shopping district.
"The legal proceeding has not begun," Nattawut Saikua, a Red Shirt leader, said.
Thousands of protesters showed no signs of leaving.
"We are not going anywhere until the government shows they will take responsibility for the clash," said 39-year-old protester Panna Saengkumboon. "People lost their eyes, their legs and arms. Others paid for this with their lives."
The Red Shirts, who broadly support ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been demonstrating since mid-March, at first demanding immediate elections. They say the ruling coalition has no mandate after coming to power in a parliamentary vote 17 months ago orchestrated by the army.
More than 20 protest leaders face criminal charges ranging from violating a state of emergency to weapons possession and assaulting security officers. Some face more serious charges under terrorism statutes punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
Red Shirt leaders said the head of the government should face terrorism charges as well.
"They are trying to force the police to formally charge government officials," said Tanet Charoengmuang, a political scientist at Chiang Mai University.
"Essentially, they are refusing to go down alone and take all the blame," Tanet said.
On April 10, troops clashed with protesters in a chaotic gunbattle in Bangkok's old quarter. Twenty civilians and five soldiers were killed.
There are precedents for senior officials to face criminal charges. Cases can be bogged down for years in Thailand's labyrinthine legal system, but such a scenario could offer a way out for all sides.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said it was the Department of Special Investigation's job to handle all cases tied to the protests.
"The government has done its best," said Panitan, when asked if the authorities would do more to satisfy the protesters' demands. "It's not clear to me what they are demanding; we can't respond to something we don't understand."
The Red Shirts' campaign has paralyzed an upmarket Bangkok commercial district, where thousands of protesters remained camped behind barricades of sharpened bamboo staves and tires, and hammered the lucrative leisure and tourist sector.
Abhisit has come under pressure from the Bangkok middle classes and traditional elite to get tough but faces a dilemma about how to dislodge the Red Shirts, including women and children, from a camp that sprawls across three square kilometers.
He does not have to call an election until the end of 2011, but offered the November poll as a way to end the crisis.
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