- By: Sirikul Bunnag and Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
- Published: 15/04/2009
- Newspaper section: News
Scenes of crackdown on Bangkok streets. Protesters vow to return to the fray if called upon.
Tears and disappointment filled Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue on Tuesday as thousands of frustrated protesters packed their belongings after giving up what was supposed to have been their "final stand" at Government House.
It took several hours for military and police to search bags for weapons before allowing the protesters to board buses waiting to take them home from the Royal Plaza.
Police photographed the protesters holding their identity cards. (Continued below)
End of a rebellion: Through a gauntlet of soldiers.
Another police unit searched the demonstration site - littered with rubbish, empty tents and the wreckage of burnt mobile toilets - for weapons and home-made bombs.
About 500 demonstrators holding out at the Wang Daeng intersection behind the Education Ministry refused to leave and shouted at approaching troops and members of the media to back off.
A pocket of resistance was also reported at the nearby Phan Fa bridge.
They said they would not leave until the government dissolved the parliament.
But both groups moved during the course of the day to Sanam Luang, where they were still gathered last night.
Despite ending the protest without the victory promised them by their leaders, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) supporters do not believe they have lost the fight and vowed to return whenever their leaders call on them.
"I couldn't believe it when Veera Musikhapong [a UDD leader] said on stage that the time had come to end the protest for the sake of our own security," said Tuenchit Iamkong, a 57-year-old from Bangkok's Din Daeng district.
"It's very sad because we did not want to see it end that way.
"The authorities are using different standards in handling political demonstrators these days."
Many of the protesters were angry that, unlike the People's Alliance for Democracy, who were allowed to occupy the Government House compound for months on end, the UDD members were forced from the area.
Mrs Tuenchit said she did not fear a violent crackdown.
She believes "an invisible hand" was responsible for the mayhem of recent days, not the red shirts.
Another protester, Sorasak Tanankat, said the UDD's road blockades had backfired because they had stopped provincial people from joining the Bangkok rally.
Prajak Kaokreusudta, 32, a red shirt guard, said the protest leaders had acted unfairly by calling off the fight.
"We have lost today," he said. "But the day will come when we'll be able to put an end to the country's aristocracy and win back our democracy."
A 32-year-old resident of Kanchanaburi's Lao Khwan district, who asked not to be named, said he was convinced Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda was pulling the strings of the Abhisit administration.
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