BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai anti-government protesters marched in Bangkok yesterday, carrying empty coffins in memory of comrades killed at the weekend, as the country’s worst political violence in 18 years sent the stock market down 5 percent.
Saturday’s fighting, some of it in well-known Bangkok tourist areas, ended after security forces pulled back late in the night. The capital has been calm since then, while authorities ponder whether to renew a potentially bloody crackdown on the month-long protests or make some concession to demands for immediate polls.
The clashes, in which 21 protesters and security personnel died and more than 800 were injured, prompted concern from ratings agency about Thailand’s credit risk.
The “red shirt” protesters, mostly rural and working-class supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006, want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and leave the country.
Thousands of them circled the city on trucks, scooters and “tuk-tuk” taxis, in a defiant mood after the army failed to eject them from one of two Bangkok bases where they have camped out — one in an upscale area, where big malls have had to shut.
“We will continue to rally until Abhisit is no longer prime minister,” Jatuporn Prompan, a red shirt leader, told reporters.
“We are hearing they will shorten the conditions for the dissolution of parliament from nine months to six or three, but we won’t engage in any negotiations on this,” he said.
The Bangkok Post daily, citing unnamed sources, said Abhisit could dissolve parliament in six months, three months sooner than his most recent proposal. He has to call an election by end-2011.
The red shirts see Abhisit as a front for the establishment elite and military who came to power not through the ballot box but through a parliamentary stitch-up in December 2008 when the courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin ruling party. The military brass is averse to allowing Thaksin’s supporters back into power, but many in the ranks who come from the same social strata as the red shirts sympathise with them
Revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has intervened in past crises, has been silent so far.
The 82-year-old head of state has been in hospital since September.
Political analysts said the impasse could continue even if new elections were held.
