Thailand street battles escalate as Red Shirt leader warns of civil war [as death toll had risen to 30]

Sian Powell and Richard Lloyd Parry in Bangkok
Times Online

Urban warfare raged through Bangkok today as anti-government protesters battled with the military and a protest leader warned of civil war.

Streets around the protesters’ fortified encampment in the capital’s commercial heart were designated “live fire zones” by the military. They echoed with the rattle of gunfire and small bombs as the Government considered a curfew to try and contain the uprising.

The Government also announced that it was extending the state of emergency to a further 5 provinces, bringing the number under emergency rule to 17.

With at least 30 dead and more than 232 injured since the fighting erupted on Thursday night, pressure on the Thai Government to end the insurrection is growing. A total of 59 people have been killed since violence erupted in April, almost all of them civilians.

Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, an army spokesperson, said that the authorities would send the Red Cross to help to evacuate protesters, particularly women, children and the elderly, who wanted to leave the Bangkok encampment.

“Men can also leave the site but they have to show they are unarmed,” he said.

At the Bon Kai intersection, near the protest base, crowds gathered to try and join the movement inside the encampment, where thousands of United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship protesters, widely known as Red Shirts, have been living since early April, demanding the dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections.

The Thai military threw a cordon around the protest site on Thursday evening, hoping to squeeze the protesters out. Soldiers fired teargas, live ammunition and rubber bullets at the protesters, while they responded with home-made bombs and other weapons. Eye-witnesses reported that at least three protesters had been shot early today.

Karkaew Pikulthong, a protest leader, told The Australian: “It’s likely to become a civil war. I don’t want to see it.”

Mr Karkaew said that he had heard that police had shot at soldiers on Friday and Saturday, adding to his worries about civil war. He was appalled, he added, by news that the bodies of civilians shot dead by unnamed snipers in the Din Daeng district, about 2km (1.2 miles) from the protest site, were left in the street for more than 24 hours because the military refused to permit them to be retrieved.

Inside the encampment Natisayan Reungsak, a retired police officer, said that he went backwards and forwards from his home in Lop Buri, about 150km northeast of Bangkok, to the protest site with several friends and often brought his wife. “I’m not scared; I just don’t want Abhisit,” he said, referring to Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. “Abhisit is no good for Thailand.”

Protest leaders have asked the Government for a ceasefire but Mr Abhisit refused in a national television address broadcast on Saturday night. “I insist that what we are doing is necessary,” he said. “The Government must move forward. We cannot retreat because we are doing things that will benefit the entire country.”

A further offer from the Red Shirts to take part in UN-brokered talks was also rejected today.

A pause by the Thai military was unnecessary since troops were “not using weapons to crack down on civilians,” said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn. The government maintains it is only targeting armed “terrorists" among the demonstrators.

Mr Karkaew said that the number of protesters remained steady at about 5,000, even though many impartial observers thought that it appeared the crowds had thinned since the fighting began. He also denied that Red Shirt leaders had resigned, as had earlier been confirmed by others in the leadership, but he conceded that the former chairman, Veera Musikaphong, was now working “on the outside”.

Mr Karkaew said that he and other leaders wanted to call a halt to the protest. “Some of us have different ideas; we think we should stop,” he said. “But I can’t leave my people, even if we think differently. I have to stand up to fight side by side with the Red Shirts.”

Kanokporn A, a construction administrator who lives in Bangkok, said that she had left her husband and her 13-year-old son at home be with the Red Shirts. “I’m scared,” the 43-year-old said, declining to give her full last name in case of future reprisals. “But we must help each other because if we don’t, it will still be like this in 100 years. The rich people, they are full; the poor people, they are still hungry. I must help the hungry people.”

The Red Shirts have long campaigned for an end to economic and social equality in Thailand.

Mr Karkaew said that he wanted to begin some form of negotiation to limit the killings. “I invite the Government to come back to the table; killing does not solve any problems,” he said. “It will not solve the protest. I’m very exhausted and very upset. I never thought it would be like this.”