Thai protesters ditch red shirts to prepare for possible government crackdown in tense capital

Thai rallies ditch red shirts in case of crackdown

BANGKOK — Thousands of Thailand’s “Red Shirt” protesters shed their signature crimson attire Monday, as their leaders warned they should be prepared to go undercover in the event of a government crackdown on their stronghold in the country’s tense capital.

The government said it still hoped to resolve the problem peacefully, despite a breakdown in negotiations, but could not allow the protests that have paralyzed a key part of Bangkok to go on indefinitely. “We’re required to keep peace and return the area to normalcy,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.

While there was no violence in the central Bangkok shopping area where protesters remained camped for a 24th day, an explosion injured eight people late Sunday near the home of former Prime Minister Banharn Silapa-archa, who is allied to the ruling coalition, police said.

At least 26 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 wounded since the Red Shirts began occupying parts of the capital, closing down five-star hotels and shopping malls and devastating the country’s vital tourism industry.

Thousands of Red Shirts camped in the protest enclave Monday changed into regular attire, so they will not be visible if security forces move to clear the area and send them fleeing into city streets.

The strategy was also aimed at helping protesters coming in from rural provinces get past military and police checkpoints, one protest leader, Kokaew Pikulthong, told Thai Rath newspaper.

The Red Shirts consist mainly of poor, rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists who opposed the military coup that ousted him in 2006. They believe Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government — backed by the urban elite — is illegitimate because military pressure and complex legal maneuvering brought it to power.

The conflict has been characterized by some as class warfare, and a group of pro-establishment counterprotesters, known as the Yellow Shirts, have stepped up demands that authorities crack down on the demonstrators. The Yellow Shirts have implied they might take matters into their own hands if nothing is done soon.

“The government has the responsibility to protect the people, but instead shows its weakness and inability to enforce the law,” said Suriyasai Katasila, a leader of the Yellow Shirts.

Thaksin, who fled Thailand ahead of a conviction on corruption charges, said Monday that he is in contact with the protesters as he defended their cause to reporters.

“We just fight for democracy. Let them fight for democracy and justice,” he said in Montenegro, one of a handful of countries that have offered the fugitive a passport. Others, such as Germany and Britain, have barred him.

Red Shirt leaders have urged their supporters in provincial areas to confront security forces being brought in to help crack down on the protests, and many have set up roadblocks to prevent 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 5-hour standoff with the Red Shirts, broke through a cordon of protesters who hurled rocks and wooden sticks at them, Thai media reported.

Meanwhile, Panitan, the government spokesman, painted a picture of a government that has left itself few immediate ways out of the crisis.

He said the government could not tolerate the protesters’ camping out in the city anymore, but appeared to rule out sending in security forces anytime soon because that would likely lead to violence. He also said political negotiations to resolve the crisis peacefully would remain on hold until the government had arrested Red Shirt leaders accused of inciting violence. Warrants have been issued for two dozen leaders but so far have not been successfully executed.

Over the weekend, Abhisit rejected a compromise offer by the Red Shirts, dashing hopes for a peaceful end to the standoff.

“There will be no negotiations until shadowy elements are contained,” he said.

Associated Press writer Predrag Milic in Podgorica, Montenegro, contributed to this report.