Thai troops move to disperse protest remnants
Buildings smouldered across central Bangkok early today and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of die-hards a day after the army routed anti-government protesters in a push to end Thailand’s deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years.
The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital after a major military operation that killed at least seven people and left 88 wounded.
But underlying political divisions that caused Thailand’s crisis may have been exacerbated, and unrest spread to provinces in the north and northeast.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva imposed a night-time curfew in the capital and 23 other provinces and said his government would restore calm.
Although leaders of the Red Shirt demonstrators surrendered, sporadic clashes between troops and remaining protesters continued this morning.
As night fell yesterday, Bangkok’s skyline was blotted by flashes of fire and black smoke from more than two dozen buildings set ablaze – including Thailand’s stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theatre and one of Asia’s largest shopping malls.
This morning, troops in the central business district, occupied by protesters for weeks, exchanged occasional fire with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.
A special police unit entered a temple inside the former protest site where several hundred Red Shirt supporters, most of them women, old men and children, sought shelter in recent days.
Photographers said there was no resistance at the temple as police took away the group to a nearby police station.
Some cried and many were fearful that they would be incarcerated by the military and others remained defiant.
“We won. We won. The Red Shirts will rise again,” shouted one woman.
Since the Red Shirts began their protest in mid-March, at least 75 people - mostly civilians – were killed and nearly 1,800 wounded. Of those, 46 people died in clashes that started on May 13 after the army tried to blockade their one-square-mile camp.
Six bodies were found at the temple, but it was unclear when those people died and whether they already were included in the official death toll as collected by the government’s Erawan Emergency Centre.
Elsewhere in the city, municipal workers removed debris and collected piles of garbage left in the streets that had been cordoned off by authorities for the past week.
A spokesman for the Bangkok administration, Thanom Ornketpol, said there had been a total of 35 arson attacks since yesterday, with targets also including office buildings, gold shops, a hotel, government offices and convenience stores.
While many of the rioters were believed to be members of the Red Shirts and their sympathisers, there was also an element of criminals and young hoodlums involved in the mayhem in the city of 10 million people. The protest and violence in one of Southeast Asia’s most stable countries damaged its economy and tourism industry.
hai authorities extended the curfew in Bangkok and 23 other provinces by three more days.
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kawekamnerd said the curfew would be in force from 9pm to 5am until Saturday night.
The curfew was imposed yesterday after widespread rioting in central Bangkok following an army crackdown on an anti-government encampment.
Col Sansern told reporters today that authorities found a cache of bombs, “war ammunition” and guns including AK-47 and M-16 automatic rifles in the crackdown.
