Thailand protests turn violent once more

Thai soldiers reportedly killed one of their own comrades today in a chaotic confrontation with anti-government Red Shirt protesters which left at least ten people injured and brought further embarrassment to the Government of the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The Associated Press reported that Thai security forces fired on a group of motorbike-riding soldiers, apparently believing them to be demonstrators embarked on a protest procession along a Bangkok highway. After several of the motorbikes crashed, one of the soldiers was taken to hospital with a head injury, where, according to Thai media, he later died.

The incident occurred after about 2,000 Red Shirts, who are demanding that Mr Abhisit resign and call a snap election, left their rallying point in the centre of Bangkok in a convoy of pick-up trucks and motorbikes. The security forces attempted to stop them on a road passing through the city’s northern suburbs, close to the former international airport.

An advance party of about 100 demonstrators was stopped by a line of soldiers who began by firing into the air and attempting to disperse the crowd with shields and truncheons. After the Red Shirts responded with stones and sling shots, they began to fire directly at the crowd.It was not immediately clear whether they were using blank, rubber-tipped, or live rounds. An army spokesman suggested that troops would not be discriminating in choosing between live and non-lethal rounds. “At this point, there is too much chaos for anybody to constantly report what kind bullets they are using,” Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. “We brought force out to stop them. At this point, society finds it unacceptable to have protesters travelling in a motorcade like this. We try our best to prevent losses.”

Twenty-seven people have died in the violence so far, and close to 900 have been injured, most of them on April 10, when soldiers made a disastrously botched attempt to seize one of the Red Shirt strongholds. Since then, they have fallen back to the Ratchaprasong area, a district of five-star hotels, shopping centres and expensive shops, most of which have been closed indefinitely by the protest encampment blocking the streets.

The authorities promise to clear the area under special powers granted under an ongoing state of emergency. The Red Shirts, who have shed their distinctive colours to make themselves less recognisable, live in constant expectation of a second crackdown which, so far, has not come.

Suthep Thuangsuban, Mr Abhisit’s deputy in charge of security, said: “It is clear the protesters are not gathering peacefully. We will not be lenient with these people any more.”

But in an interview with CNN, Mr Abhisit, suggested that they would choose their moment. “We recognise that as every day passes by, the people of Thailand suffer, the country suffers, but we want to make sure that there is rule of law,” he said. “We will try to enforce the law with minimum losses and we will try to find a political resolution, but it takes time, patience and co-operation.”