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Soldiers heading for a Showdown with Bangkok Protesters



 
 
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Old April 19th, 2010, 08:10 PM posted to soc.culture.thai,rec.travel.asia
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Default Soldiers heading for a Showdown with Bangkok Protesters

Troops deployed as showdown in streets nears


April 20, 2010



BANGKOK: Hundreds of Thai soldiers armed with assault rifles poured
into central Bangkok yesterday to protect the city's financial hub,
raising the stakes in the standoff between the government and red-
shirt protesters.

The deployment was the first by the military in Bangkok since a
crackdown on anti-government protesters 10 days ago left 25 people
dead and more than 800 injured. The red shirts, mainly supporters of
the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup
in 2006, have occupied the capital for more than a month, causing
massive disruption to business.

Protest organisers had threatened to take their demonstrations to the
Silom financial district today.

The government faced a new threat yesterday, with the pro-government
yellow shirt movement warning it would challenge the red shirts with a
counterdemonstration if the government did not move quickly to crush
them.

''We give the government seven days to return peace to the country or
we, every member of the [People's Alliance for Democracy], will
perform our duty under the constitution,'' said Chamlong Srimuang, a
leader of the yellow shirts.

''Prepare yourselves for the biggest rally, when we will eat and sleep
on the street again,'' Mr Chamlong said, referring to months of
crippling protests by the yellow shirts in 2008 that culminated in a
week-long takeover of Bangkok's airports.

The return of troops to the streets comes after the Prime Minister,
Abhisit Vejjajiva, put the army commander in chief, General Anupong
Paochinda, in charge of security on Friday.

Military and riot police, many of them with weapons, were deployed in
Silom, close to the red shirts' rally base. Some soldiers hunkered
down with their weapons on overpasses.

Soldiers initially blocked entry into Silom Road, known as Thailand's
Wall Street, but then pulled back almost halfway along its 2½-
kilometre length to protect a key target of the protesters, the
headquarters of the Bangkok Bank, which was surrounded by razor wire.

Many of the demonstrators, who had earlier faced off against the
soldiers across an intersection, also pulled back, but they braced for
battle. They piled rudimentary weapons behind the razor wire - bricks
and stacks of bamboo rods.

The red shirts say that the bank has close ties to the government and
have staged protests in front of the building in the past.

A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, would not comment on
whether a crackdown was imminent against the protesters. ''The plan to
retake the area remains but operational units will analyse how and
when to avoid confrontation and clashes,'' he said.

An army spokesman, Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, said military
checkpoints were being set up at entry points to the capital and
within Bangkok to try to prevent more red shirts from reaching the
main rally site.

Agencies
 




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