Thai PM defends deadly crackdown on protestors
Thailand’s prime minister has today defended the deadly army crackdown on protesters in Bangkok, saying the country’s very future was at stake.
Protesters dragged away the bodies of three people – who they said were shot dead by army snipers – as soldiers blocked major roads and pinned notices of a “Live Firing Zone.”
“I insist that what we are doing is necessary,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a defiant broadcast on national television, making it clear he would not compromise.
“The government must move forward. We cannot retreat because we are doing things that will benefit the entire country.”
The protesters launched a steady stream of rudimentary missiles at troops who fired back with live ammunition in several areas around a key commercial district of Bangkok.
Army snipers were perched with high-powered rifles on tall buildings and thick black smoke billowed from tyres set ablaze by demonstrators as gunfire rang out.
The spiralling violence has raised concerns of sustained, widespread chaos in Thailand – a key US ally and south-east Asia’s most popular tourist destination.
“The situation right now is getting close to a civil war each minute,” Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader, told reporters. “Please don’t ask us how we are going to end this situation, because we are the ones being killed.”
Since Thursday, the once-bustling commercial and shopping district has become a war zone with Red Shirt protesters firing weapons, throwing homemade explosives, and hurling rocks at troops firing live ammunition and rubber bullets.
The violence ignited after the army started forming a cordon around the protesters’ encampment and a sniper shot and gravely wounded a rogue general reputed to be the Red Shirts’ military adviser.
At least 24 people have been killed and more than 194 wounded since Thursday. Previous violence since the protest began in mid-March caused 29 deaths and injured 1,640.
The crisis had appeared to be near a resolution last week when Mr Abhisit offered to hold elections in November, a year early. But the hopes were dashed after Red Shirt leaders made more demands.
The political uncertainty has spooked foreign investors and damaged the vital tourism industry, which accounts for 6% of the economy.
Mr Abhisit, in his first comments since Thursday, said the protesters have “held the people of Bangkok hostage” and described them as “armed terrorists” who attacked security forces.
“Officers on duty have the right to defend themselves,” he said.
The Red Shirts, drawn mostly from the rural and urban poor, say Mr Abhisit’s coalition government came to power through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military, and that it symbolises a national elite indifferent to the poor.
The fighting is taking place in the no man’s land between the encampment and the army cordon, a normally-bustling area with hotels, businesses, embassies, shopping malls and apartments. Most of them are now shut and public transport is off the roads.
The army said its cordon has been effective and the number of protesters at the encampment has dwindled by half. Water and power were cut off to the area on Thursday.
About 5,000 hard core demonstrators held their ground under threat of military operations to oust them, down from about 10,000 days earlier, army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
“If the protesters will not end the situation, we will have to enter the encampment,” he said.
