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Bomb Blasts kill 1 and wound 50



 
 
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Old April 22nd, 2010, 05:02 PM posted to soc.culture.thai,rec.travel.asia
Obersturmbanfuhrer Olly
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Default Bomb Blasts kill 1 and wound 50

Blasts kill 1, wound 50 in Bangkok, officials say

(AP) – 32 minutes ago

BANGKOK — An emergency center in the Thai capital says one person has
been killed and more than 50 wounded in blasts near a protest site.

Anti-government demonstrators are massed in the heart Bangkok's
business district, engaged in a tense standoff with troops in riot
gear and rival protesters.

Four explosions detonated near the protest site on Thursday night.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.

BANGKOK (AP) — A series of blasts were detonated Thursday near a
massive encampment of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, wounding
as many as 28 people and sending passengers running from the station,
according to witnesses and local media.

The cause of the blasts, in the heart of the Thai capital's business
district, was not immediately known. The area has seen Red Shirt
protesters, who are demanding Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resign,
and troops face off over the past several days.

More recently, a rival mob has rallied in the area, occasionally
hurling stones and insults at the Red Shirts, creating a volatile mix.
Several of the blasts near where the rivals have gathered.

Previously, explosions at the site have been from fireworks.

The TPBS television network reported a total of 28 people wounded,
including three foreigners. Associated Press reporters saw at least
four people injured after four blasts, two with serious wounds who
were not moving.

The streets were full of people tending to the injured and carrying
away casualties.

The Red Shirts, who believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately and
are pushing for him to call elections immediately, have rallied in the
streets for several weeks. On Thursday, the army warned that time was
running out for the protesters to clear the streets, warning they
would crack down soon.

"To take people in Bangkok hostage is not right," army spokesman Col.
Sansern Kaewkamnerd warned the Red Shirts. "Your time to leave the
area is running out." The army has issued several warnings that it
will move to break up the protests if they are not ended voluntarily.
They are already in violation of several laws, including a state of
emergency.

Prospects for a peaceful solution to the political crisis appear slim,
and every night brings a new flurry of rumors of an imminent
crackdown.

A failed April 10 attempt by security forces in Bangkok to flush
protesters from their first encampment erupted into the worst
political violence Thailand has seen in 18 years, with 25 people dead.

Witnesses said the first of four explosions Thursday night occurred at
an elevated train station. Another appeared to happen on the streets
below, where the Red Shirts have erected a formidable looking barrier
of sharpened bamboo sticks and old tires atop which their guards
perch. Behind the Red Shirts' line is their redoubt, which extends for
more than a mile (2 kilometers) up to another intersection, where tens
of thousands of supporters gather around a stage to hear nearly
nonstop speeches.

Across from the Red Shirt wall are several police trucks, dozens of
police in riot gear, and a few hundred anti-Red Shirt demonstrators,
who are waving Thai flags and hurling abuse at their opponents.

The anti-Red Shirt group includes office employees, middle class
families, academics, some low-wage workers and members of the Yellow
Shirts, a group that supports the current government and who
themselves rampaged through Bangkok and seized the city's airports two
years ago.

While some are genuinely aggrieved by the inconveniences wrought by
the protests, many seem to have primarily political objections to the
Red Shirts, including claiming the movement is directed against the
country's widely revered monarch. A songsheet distributed to followers
included hateful right-wing songs used in military-backed anti-
communist campaigns of the 1970s.

Weng Tojirakarn, a Red Shirt protest leader, accused the government of
hiring the mob in order to cause trouble that could be blamed on his
group.

In one effort to avert further violence, the head of a pro-Red Shirt
political party has asked for an audience with King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, who in the past has stepped in to end violent political
crises, the newspaper Matichon reported.

The ailing, 82-year-old king has been hospitalized since Sept. 19 and
has made no comments on the current turmoil. In 1992, the king ended a
bloody confrontation between the military and pro-democracy protesters
by calling in leaders of the opposing sides and instructing them, on
nationwide television, to cease hostilities.

Now, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former prime minister who now heads the
pro-Red Shirt Pheua Thai Party, is seeking a similar intervention.

The protesters 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 after months of
demonstrations by the Yellow Shirts.

The Red Shirts believe Abhisit's government is illegitimate because it
came to power under military pressure through a parliamentary vote
after disputed court rulings ousted two elected pro-Thaksin
governments.

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Denis D. Gray and Thanyarat
Doksone contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 




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