Yellow Shirts call for military action against rivals

Thailand’s Yellow Shirt activists today demanded military action against anti-government Red Shirt protesters.

Thailand’s Yellow Shirt activists today demanded military action against anti-government Red Shirt protesters.

Their call for security forces to end “anarchy” in the capital comes one day after the authorities fired on Red Shirts marching down a busy expressway on the outskirts of Bangkok.

The re-emergence of the Yellows – best known for shutting Bangkok’s airports for a week in 2008 – has added to the volatility on the streets of the Thai capital, where a seven-week stand-off has seen at least 27 people killed and nearly 1,000 injured.

The Yellow Shirts held rallies at military bases across the country, including the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bangkok, where Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has lived since Red Shirt protests began in mid-March to demand his resignation.

"The crisis in Thailand has rapidly and intensively spread and become a state of anarchy,'' said a petition handed by leaders of the Yellow Shirts - formally known as the People's Alliance for Democracy - to representatives of the government and army.

The previously pro-government Yellow Shirts denounced the government for failing to halt the protests and enforce the law, leading to “a vacuum of political power and disorder”.

“The crisis has reached a critical point and has damaged the economy and society,” it said. “We would like to see the brave soldiers help us get rid of this illegal activity and bring peace to Thai society as soon as possible.”

The Red Shirts, who want Parliament dissolved, have turned parts of Bangkok’s commercial heart into a protest camp in their campaign to bring down a government they view as illegitimate.

The encampment has forced the closure of some of the city’s upmarket malls and hotels and cost businesses millions of dollars a day.

The unrest has devastated Thailand’s vital tourist industry, which accounts for 6% of the economy, and sparked projections that the 2010 economic growth forecast of 4.5% will need to be revised downward if the protests last much longer.

Yesterday’s bloodshed occurred on a busy expressway which serves as Bangkok’s main gateway to the north.

Thai troops fired rifles and threw tear gas at a crowd of anti-government protesters riding motorbikes, blocking their effort to take the demonstrations which have paralysed central Bangkok into the suburbs.

The confrontation killed one soldier – apparently from friendly fire – and wounded 18 other people as it transformed the multi-lane road into a battle zone.

Heavily armed troops took cover behind terrified commuters’ cars and one driver clasped her hands in prayer as soldiers wove their way through traffic.

Security officials suggested the possibility of an escalation in the violence. In a television broadcast, they displayed 62 grenades they said had been found in a bag dropped by a motorcyclist who fled a police checkpoint on a road leading to the site of the clash.

A week earlier, five grenades exploded in the heart of Bangkok’s financial centre, leaving one person dead and more than 80 injured. But it was just one of about 20 incidents in recent weeks involving the use of M-79 grenade launchers.

A protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, denied the grenades belonged to protesters and criticised the military force against demonstrators as excessive.

“From what we saw yesterday, we are not in a situation where we were fighting against the government... Instead we were fighting against murderers,” he said today.

Authorities have so far resisted breaking through the Red Shirts’ barricades and clearing them out of the city, an operation which would almost certainly cause more casualties.

Yet patience appeared to be running out.

In an interview broadcast yesterday on BBC World News, Prime Minister Mr Vejjajiva said he was working to quickly restore order.

“But at the same time we have to be aware of the need to make sure that there will be minimum losses and to make sure that we comply with international standards and respect the basic rights of people, including those of the protesters,” he said.

The Red Shirts get much of their support from poor, rural provinces and see the British-educated premier as a symbol of an urban elite uncaring about their plight.

Many of Thailand’s poor support ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup amid allegations of massive corruption. But the Red Shirts’ cause has also drawn support from the urban working class and people opposed to the influence of the military in politics.

The yellow-shirted protesters led months of anti-Thaksin rallies which led to the coup and their 2008 demonstrations shut Bangkok’s airports for a week to protest a Thaksin-allied government. They retreated after Mr Abhisit’s arrival but many fear their return could lead to head-on clashes with the rival Red Shirts.

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