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Violence engulfs Bangkok as soldiers fire on protesters
Reuters - May 14, 2010
Jason Szep & Ambika Ahuja, Bangkok – Thai troops opened fire on rioting anti-government demonstrators on Friday in an attempt to throw a security cordon around their protest site, turning Bangkok's commercial district into a bloody battlefield.
Troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds at the protesters who hurled petrol bombs and launched home-made rockets on roads surrounding an area of luxury hotels and shopping malls they have occupied for nearly six weeks, witnesses said.
"We hope to return the situation to normal in the next few days," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.
By nightfall, at least five loud blasts were heard followed by bursts of automatic gunfire in the business district. Armored personnel carriers were seen arriving in the area.
The fresh wave of violence follows an assassination attempt on Thursday on a renegade general who had been advising the protesters and was critically wounded during an interview with foreign reporters outside the barricaded encampment.
Eight people have been killed and at least 100 wounded, including three journalists, since fighting erupted on Thursday, according to hospitals and witnesses.
Among Friday's casualties, a Thai cameraman from the VoiceTV news Web site was shot in his left thigh and a photographer for Matichon newspaper was shot in the leg, the news outlets said.
Canadian freelance journalist Nelson Rand, who was working for France 24 news channel, was hit by three bullets, the channel reported. One bullet perforated his leg, another hit his abdomen, another hit his wrist. He was in serious condition.
The army said it did not plan a crackdown on Friday on the main protest site where thousands of the red-shirted demonstrators, including women and children, have gathered, protected by walls made from tires and wooden staves soaked in kerosene and topped by razor wire.
"We will allow protesters to leave the area today," army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said, adding authorities were attempting to seal off the encampment, cut off their supplies and limit the crowd size.
The turbulence adds to a five-year crisis that pits a royalist urban elite who back Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva against rural and urban poor who say they are disenfranchised and broadly support former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a graft-convicted populist billionaire ousted in a 2006 coup.
Underlining concerns that some members of security forces may be sympathetic toward the Red Shirts, a Thai policeman fired bullets at soldiers while giving cover to a wounded protester, a Reuters witness said.
The two months of protests have spiraled into a crisis which has killed 31 people, wounded more than 1,400, paralyzed parts of Bangkok, scared off investors and squeezed the economy.
Thousands of protesters stayed defiant, singing along to live music on stage and calling for Abhisit to dissolve parliament immediately.
"Abhisit must take political responsibility. Otherwise, there will be more chaos," one leader, Nattawut Saikua, told Reuters.
In clashes during the day, protesters set fire to a police bus and truck, a motorbike and tires as they retreated down a road lined with office towers, hotels, the US ambassador's home and several embassies, which were closed and evacuated.
Abhisit is under enormous pressure to end the protests, which began with festive rallies on March 12 and descended into Thailand's deadliest political violence in 18 years.
The Thai government stands a good chance of clearing the streets, the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said.
"But it will not end the polarization that has led to the current instability – ensuring that the pressure from the Red Shirts will persist and that political volatility will remain a persistent problem for the forseeable future."
It is unclear who shot the renegade major-general who was in charge of security for thousands of protesters occupying three square kilometers of central Bangkok since April 3.
Khattiya Sawasdipol, a suspended army specialist, was shot in the head, apparently by a sniper, while talking to reporters on Thursday evening. A doctor said Khattiya was still in a coma on Friday after brain surgery and could "die at any moment."
Khattiya had been branded a terrorist by the Thai government, which accused him of involvement in dozens of grenade attacks but denied it was responsible for the shooting.
Recently, he was equally critical of some protest leaders, accusing them of embracing Abhisit's "reconciliation" plan which unraveled after protesters refused to leave the streets.
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