Thai king steers clear of intervening in political crisis in 1st remarks since protests began

Thai king refrains from intervening in crisis

BANGKOK — Army troops locked down elevated train stations in the Thai capital and authorities suspended service Tuesday after anti-government protesters broke into a downtown station and threw tires on the platform in their campaign to force immediate elections.

The closure coincided with morning rush hour, causing commuter chaos and concern in the tense capital at the sight of hundreds of soldiers armed with automatic weapons guarding stations and scattered along major Bangkok boulevards.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said security forces were sent to negotiate with protesters to remove the tires and it was not immediately clear when service would resume.

Police Maj. Gen. Anuchai Lekbumrung told reporters that protesters had agreed by midmorning to remove the tires.

“We talked to the Red Shirt leaders, and the guards and they have removed the tires,” he said. “they placed the tires on the platform not on the tracks.”

Thai media had reported that protesters had put tires on the tracks before service had started for the day.

Protesters are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve Parliament and call fresh elections.

At least 26 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 wounded since anti-government protesters known as the Red Shirts began occupying parts of Bangkok in mid-March, closing down five-star hotels and shopping malls and devastating the country’s vital tourism industry.

The government has repeatedly said it hopes to resolve the political crisis peacefully, despite a breakdown in negotiations, but says it will not allow the protests to go on indefinitely or let the protesters occupy more areas of the capital.

Many Red Shirt supporters around and outside the capital tried Monday to prevent police reinforcements from moving into Bangkok.

In at least six places around the country, Red Shirt supporters scattered nails along roads, set up checkpoints and searched vans and buses for police officers headed to the capital.

Some police heading to Bangkok were forced to return to their bases, while police in the central province of Phitsanulok, impatient after a five-hour standoff with the Red Shirts, broke through a cordon of protesters who hurled rocks and wooden sticks at them, Thai media reported.

Panitan said that some of the troop movement Tuesday was intended to prevent protesters from blocking security forces. He said it was not a crackdown aimed at clearing protesters from the shopping boulevard.

“We are not looking at a major sweep but we are trying to relieve the public and open up certain locations for the public to use and for officers to travel,” he said.

“We are trying to make sure that demonstrators do not spread out and try to block major communication links or systems,” he said, adding that “Security forces will go to several major highways to make sure highways remain open.”