Thai PM defends deadly crackdown

The spiraling violence has raised concerns that Thailand was teetering toward instability. The political uncertainty has spooked foreign investors and damaged the vital tourism industry,which accounts for 6 per cent of the economy.

The demonstrators on Saturday accused government snipers of picking people off with head shots. The Army says it is not shooting to kill,but protesters crawled along sidewalks to slowly drag away bodies of three people near the city’s Victory Monument traffic circle in the Ratchaprarop area on Saturday.

“The situation right now is getting closer to civil war every minute,” a protest leader,Jatuporn Prompan,said. “We have to fight on. The leaders shouldn’t even think about retreat when our brothers are ready to fight on.”

The televised comments were Abhisit’s first comments since the latest violence began on Thursday after a Red Shirt protest leader was shot and seriously wounded by a sniper’s bullet.

Since then explosions and street fighting have killed 23 people and wounded more than 170 as troops tried to seal off the 3-sq-km zone where some 10,000 Red Shirt protesters have occupied one of the capital’s most upscale areas since March 12.

The Red Shirts claim Abhisit’s coalition government came to power through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military,and that it is indifferent to the poor. Abhisit said the government was acting in the interests of the public and the plan is “to return normalcy with minimum loss” to Bangkok.

“We cannot deny that while these protests are taking place,terrorism also is taking place involving the use of war weapons,” he said. “I insist that if we want to see an end to the loss of life,the only way is to have the protesters end their protest.” He said the government offered a reconciliation plan that was rejected by the Red Shirts.

“We cannot let … a group of people set up a militia to topple the government. This is the only way to achieve peace,” Abhisit said.

Abhisit’s comments came as fighting spread on Saturday to several streets leading to the encampment,and the army set up barricades in an attempt to seal off the area,where all shops,hotels and businesses were closed.

On Saturday,soldiers unrolled razor wire across roads leading to the Ratchaprarop area — a commercial district north of the main protest site — and pinned Thai and English-language notices saying ‘Live Firing Zone’ and ‘Restricted Area. No Entry’.

The military posted a banner in one neighbourhood declaring a “Live firing zone.” The banner also included the words in English that were misspelled as “life firing zone.” A Thai television station reported that the banner was taken down late in the afternoon on Saturday.

Because of the fear of snipers,a photographer said,two dead or wounded victims lay for a long period in a street unattended. The military was not allowing ambulances to pass a roadblock,the photographer said,which meant that rescue workers had to run at a crouch with stretchers to carry out the victims.

AP (With inputs from NYT)