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A curfew enforced in Bangkok and 23 other Thai provinces will be extended for three more days from Thursday at 9pm (1400 GMT, 10pm Singapore time). --PHOTO: AP
<!-- story content : start --> BANGKOK - A CURFEW enforced in Bangkok and 23 other Thai provinces will be extended for three more days from Thursday at 9pm (1400 GMT, 10pm Singapore time), an army spokesman said. The curfew will run until 5am (2200 GMT, 6am Singapore time) the following day. Fires were still burning in central Bangkok on Thursday, a day after riots and arson by anti-government protesters in which health officials said at least seven people were killed.
'Police and soldiers told the prime minister that the curfew last night went well,' Major General Dittaporn Sasasmith told reporters. 'This will help security forces provide security for the public and prevent further violence.' Buildings smoldered across central Bangkok early on Thursday and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of holdouts 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 7 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 nighttime 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 on Thursday morning. -- REUTERS, AP>
Thai soldiers taking up position near an anti-government protest site in Bangkok. </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td class="update"></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td> </td> </tr> </tbody></table>
BANGKOK : Plumes of smoke hung over the Thai capital and gunfire crackled Thursday as troops moved to crush militants who went on the rampage after a deadly crackdown on their anti-government protest camp. Dozens of buildings including the stock exchange and the nation's biggest shopping mall were set ablaze in the chaotic aftermath of the campaign to shut down the Red Shirts' six-week occupation of a top retail district.
Bangkok was locked down in a curfew overnight, and authorities announced the measures would continue until Saturday as they work to stamp out pockets of resistance among the Red Shirts movement. Soldiers fired warning shots Thursday as they took up positions in the ruins of the Reds' rally site, attempting to restore order but warning that rebel snipers were still positioned on high rise buildings. Political observers warned that Thailand's troubles were far from over and that more civil unrest in the capital and the Reds' rural heartland was likely as a split widens between the kingdom's elites and the rural and urban poor.
"It's not the end of the conflict, it's just the beginning of another phase of war -- whatever you want to call it, civil war, guerrilla warfare," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. The Red Shirts began street rallies in mid-March to push for the ouster of a government they condemn as elitist and undemocratic. Since then, 75 people have been killed, including two foreign journalists, and about 1,800 injured. The official toll from Wednesday's offensive stands at seven but authorities said nine others had been killed in a gunbattle at a Buddhist temple inside the protest camp.
Under the watch of saffron-clad monks, the bodies of six of the victims were laid out in the temple garden, under a portrait of Thailand's revered king, who has been hospitalised since September and has not commented on the crisis. Some 5,000 protesters who had cowered in fear there overnight were led out between police cordons. The army promised a probe into the deaths, in a "safe zone" where many women and children had sought shelter, but said that soldiers were not responsible. "If security officials wanted to kill people the death toll could be much higher," said army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, adding that the government was "ready to prove itself in this case".
Troops and police moved in Wednesday in an overwhelming offensive, punching through the Reds' towering homemade barricades made of tyres and razor wire and triggering battles with hardline protesters. Those militant elements ran amok after their leaders turned themselves in to police, starting fires that left 35 locations in the capital ablaze including the vast Central World mall which is now in ruins and partly collapsed. Some 900 army and police had to escort firefighters to the scene so they could tackle the inferno. Police said fire crews were shot at earlier while attempting to extinguish another blaze at a cinema.
Elsewhere in the city, the unruly mobs that roamed late Wednesday, before the curfew began, appeared to have retreated and the flashpoints of the last few days were quiet. Looters pulled metal wire from charred buildings on a major thoroughfare leading into the ruined protest camp, where dozens of soldiers were guarding checkpoints. Government offices and schools have been shut for the rest of the week to keep civilians off the street, and the city's two main train networks are closed. The Stock Exchange of Thailand is closed until next week after protesters set fire to its headquarters, and the Bank of Thailand has ordered all commercial banks in the capital to remain shuttered.
The curfew measures have been extended to cover 23 provinces amid signs the conflict could spread outside the capital. Four provincial halls in rural areas were targeted with fiery attacks Wednesday. The Reds are mostly supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who is now accused by the government of bankrolling the protests and inciting the deadly unrest. As two more top Reds leaders surrendered, Thaksin, who lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption, applauded their move and said he regretted the deaths and injuries. "I praise the Red Shirt leaders' decision to save the lives of their comrades by surrendering themselves to police," he said on Twitter. - AFPjy
<!-- Class 'push-0' just right-aligns the element so that the main content comes first. --> <!-- cT-storyDetails --> BEN DOHERTY, BANGKOK <cite>May 20, 2010</cite> Thai red shirt leaders surrender
Leaders of the red shirt protesters in Bangkok surrender after a bloody government crackdown.
Thailand’s biggest shopping mall faces collapse after it was set ablaze by enraged protesters in the aftermath of an army offensive to shut down an anti-government rally, police said today. ‘‘The fire at Central World is put under control but the side of Zen department store building began to collapse,’’ said Police Operation Centre spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri, referring to a wall that towers about 18 storeys. Yesterday's display of brute military force and bloodshed had ended the red-shirt blockade of Bangkok, but there was still no peace last night as fleeing protesters looted shops and set fire to buildings across the city.
Bangkok's Central World shopping mall burns after yesterday's violence.
Protest leaders surrendered yesterday after Thai soldiers stormed their compound and opened fire. The raid left six people dead and 58 injured, emergency services said. The military announced in a televised address that the situation was under control and it had halted its operation against the anti-government protesters. But rioting and violence continued to spread, prompting the declaration of Bangkok's first night curfew in 15 years.
Red-shirt anti-government protestors are detained by soldiers inside their camp in Bangkok. Photo: AFP About 20 buildings, including a shopping mall, were reported to be on fire last night. A television station, the stock exchange and The Bangkok Post building were also attacked. By last night, the death toll from 68 days of protest violence had reached 74. An Italian photographer was among those shot dead in yesterday's clashes and several foreign journalists were among the injured. A tearful protest leader announced from a stage that the red shirts would end their occupation of the high-end shopping and hotel district where they have been camped.
The push to take back control of the streets began before dawn, when thousands of troops, backed by armoured personnel carriers, ringed the sprawling protest site. Just after first light, the troop carriers bulldozed through the four-metre-high bamboo-and-tyre barricades behind which the reds had kept their vigil. Soldiers initially met fierce resistance, with protesters firing handguns and rifles, launching grenades and fireworks and throwing bricks. The troops returned fire with live rounds, and were also told to shoot anyone seen inciting violence, looting or committing arson. Within five hours, troops had quashed most of the resistance and had neared the centre of the protest area, where there were thousands of women and up to 100 children.
Fears of a bloodbath eased when red-shirt leaders conceded they had lost and urged about 3000 remaining protesters to leave peacefully. ''Though the fight didn't reach our goal, we tried our best. Go home. We are sorry for not sending you home earlier. Go home safe,'' said protest leader Jatuporn Prompan. At least four senior red shirts, including Jatuporn, later handed themselves in to police. But the militant arm of the red shirts defied the plea, going on a rampage as they fled. Their radio station called for arson attacks to destroy the city. ''Light a fire if you're near any bank,'' protesters were urged. While yesterday's military operation brought the surrender of protest leaders, it is not expected to quash the rising anti-government sentiment across Thailand. The red-shirt movement is electorally powerful and the red-shirt-aligned Peua Thai Party is expected to comfortably win the next election, whenever it is held. Even as the Bangkok protest was being dismantled, rallies in sympathy were being launched in Thailand's north. In Khon Kaen the town hall was captured by protesters, and the Udon Thani hall was set ablaze.
The red-shirts movement opposes the government, led by Abhisit Vejjajiva, arguing it is undemocratic, having come to power following a military-engineered parliamentary vote. Many red shirts are still supporters of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006. The Australian government revised its travel advice on Bangkok, warning of ''an extreme risk of violence'' and urging people not to go there.
