Thai protesters step up pressure on government to step down

Bangkok: Red-shirted protesters paraded coffins through Thailand's capital yesterday in a renewed attempt to pressure the government to step down after street fighting left 21 people dead, pushing this Southeast Asian nation closer to political anarchy.

Neither side appeared willing to end a political stalemate that exploded on Saturday when protesters and security forces clashed on the streets of Bangkok for several hours, resulting in the worst bloodshed seen in Thailand in almost two decades. Both sides claim to be fighting to preserve democracy.

"Red Shirts will never negotiate with murderers," protest leader Jatuporn Prompan announced from a makeshift stage. "Although the road is rough and full of obstacles, it's our duty to honour the dead by bringing democracy to this country."

Rural support

The anti-government protesters are made up of mostly poor and rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who have massed in the city dressed in red shirts over the past month.

On the other side is the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whom the red shirts see as a symbol of the ruling elite they say orchestrated the 2006 military coup that removed Thaksin from power amid corruption allegations.

The Thai stock market plunged four per cent when it opened for business yesterday amid fears of more unrest as tens of thousands of demonstrators came out in a massive motorcade.

Like a gigantic red snake, the line of pick-up trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles wound its way through the main roads of Bangkok.

They carried 11 coffins with bodies of those killed in Saturday's violence, Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader, said.

Four soldiers and 17 civilians were killed, including a Thomson Reuters news agency cameraman, according to Reuters and the government's Erawan emergency centre. The government was conducting autopsies on nine bodies yesterday.

Both sides accuse each other of firing battlefield weapons during the confrontation. "These are the heroes of democracy," a protest leader shouted yesterday from a loudspeaker mounted atop a truck.

"We want to see shame on Abhisit's face. We want him to take responsibility for this slaughter of innocents," a woman who identified herself as Thip, said.

The disruptive protests began a month ago, taking the protesters' demands — for Abhisit to dissolve Parliament and call new elections — to a new level.