Thai protesters to consolidate forces in Bangkok, but cancel march on army base

Thai protesters to consolidate forces in Bangkok

BANGKOK — Anti-government protesters said they will consolidate their forces in the commercial heart of the Thai capital after canceling a march Wednesday on a military camp where the prime minister has sheltered during their month-old campaign to oust him.

A failed attempt by security forces to flush thousands of so-called “Red Shirt” protesters out of their Bangkok encampments over the weekend ended with bloody street battles leaving 21 killed and hundreds wounded in Thailand’s worst political violence in nearly two decades.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said arrest warrants were out for “terrorists” linked to the Red Shirts who had fired assault rifles and grenade launchers during the savage, chaotic confrontation Saturday, the Thai-language newspaper Matichon said.

He said some of them were working as guards at makeshift stages set up by the protesters and that the protest leaders knew of their “terrorist acts.”

Both sides blame each other for the killings, with the government insisting its troops only fired over the heads of demonstrators. Reporters saw and photographed weapons in the hands of some in the clashes who appeared to be on the side of the protesters.

Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, said that by Thursday the Red Shirts would move out of a historic quarter of Bangkok to a second encampment, which they have occupied since April 3 and which is lined with upscale shopping centers and five-star hotels.

“We would be more efficient when it comes to organization, and have one center when it comes to mobilization,” he said. The shopping malls have mostly remained shut and hotels have seen large numbers of guests check out, causing millions of dollars in losses.

Another protest leader, Weng Tojirakarn, said Tuesday night that the group was sticking to its demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva immediately dissolve Parliament and hold elections. But he canceled an earlier announced “offensive” against the army camp where Vejjajiva has been staying.

Weng said the Red Shirts would decide what step to take next after the end Friday of a raucous three-day celebration of Thai New Year, or Songkran, which doused some of the tensions that have kept Bangkok on knife-edge since March 12.

The Songkran festival, an annual ritual of dancing, heavy drinking and water fights, saw revelers flooding some streets on Tuesday, driving around in pickup trucks packed with barrels of water, splashing pedestrians, passengers on buses and motorcyclists.

In the tourist hangout of Khao San road — a bar and hotel-lined street where violence between protesters and soldiers spilled over on Saturday — foreigners joined in the revelry, firing at each other with super-sized water guns. An elephant, under the guidance of a handler, sprayed people with water from its trunk.

“This is such a great relief from politics,” said Jetsada Pinyomongkol, brandishing a giant pink-and-yellow water gun. “I think many people get sick of it. Everywhere you turn to it’s Red Shirt this, government that. It’s great that we could put the differences aside for at least today.”

At loggerheads in the yearslong struggle for power in Thailand are the rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — whose ouster in a 2006 coup exposed the country’s deep political divisions — and the traditional ruling elite represented by Abhisit and his allies. The Red Shirts claim Abhisit, whose supporters include business leaders, the military brass and members of the urban middle class, took power illegitimately.

Denchai Thanuson, a protester, said he decided to stay in Bangkok to “fight for democracy” instead of celebrating Songkran in his village in an outlying province. As he spoke his children clambered atop military armored cars crippled in the clashes and shot off their water guns.

A new feature of the holiday this year were red bowls for throwing water printed with the slogans, “Power to the People” and “Dissolve Parliament.”

The pendulum in the monthlong power struggle appeared to swing in the demonstrators’ favor Monday when the Election Commission ordered the dissolution of the ruling Democrat Party for allegedly concealing campaign donations, and the powerful army chief threw his weight behind calls for new elections.

The moves were initially expected to blunt the Red Shirt demonstrations but protest leaders dismissed them as just a ploy by the government to buy time: The Election Commission ruling still must be approved by a court, a potentially lengthy process.

The body found the Democrat Party guilty of failing to disclose — as required by law — that it received 258 million baht ($8 million) from TPI Polene, a cement producer, in 2005.

“This is a long legal process. It can be a ploy for Abhisit to buy time,” Weng said.

Associated Press writers Kinan Suchaovanich, Vijay Joshi and Grant Peck contributed to this report.