Thai Protesters Shock Troops By Killing Them
Apr 10, 2010 2 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
BANGKOK, April 10 (AP) – (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH DEATH OF SOLDIERS, GOV’T CALL FOR CEASEFIRE, NEW CASUALTY TOLL, GRENADE ATTACK ON GOV’ HOUSE)
The Thai government proposed a ceasefire with antigovernment protesters after confrontations throughout the day took an ugly turn Saturday evening when protesters fired weapons and threw makeshift bombs at soldiers, reportedly killing three and wounding around 20.
A Kyodo News photographer at the scene witnessed at least several soldiers being shot and injured, and local television later reported that eight of the soldiers were seriously injured.
Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesman of the Emergency Operations Command, said the government has named Korbsak Sabhavasu, an aide to Prime Minister Abihisit Vejjajiva, as its negotiator and called on the protest leaders to talk with him about a ceasefire.
Sansern said the government wants to avoid resorting to the use real bullets instead of the plastic ones used so far and that would lead to a deterioration of the situation.
He regretted that while the government has been trying to avoid bloodshed, the protesters have begun using “many kinds of ammunition including bullets, grenades and bombs made from cooking gas cylinders to attack, which resulted in a high number of injured on the side of the soldiers and civilian security personnel.”
The shooting incident in the Khaosan area of Bangkok came after soldiers and police failed in attempts earlier in the day to disperse thousands of antigovernment protesters in another area of Bangkok, near Democracy Monument, with clashes there leaving at least 171 injured.
After several rounds of clashes, the red-shirted protesters held their ground at the Phan Fah Bridge, located in the Democracy Monument area where the protesters have been encamped since March 12.
Earlier in the day, several hundred protesters had clashed with soldiers in front of the 1st Army Region headquarters near Government House in central Bangkok while trying to storm the base. They were repelled by water cannon.
Soldiers with shields, tear gas and weapons loaded with rubber bullets had then marched toward the Democracy Monument area from two directions, and clashes ensued after the protesters blocked them.
With the protesters refused to budge, an army helicopter dropped dozens of tear gas canisters on them, causing panic and injuries but failing to get them to disperse.
Later in the evening, a grenade was thrown into the Government House compound, damaging the Prime Minister’s Office, reports said.
According to Bangkok’s medical emergency operation center, at least 239 people were injured in Saturday’s clashes. It did not give a breakdown, but earlier in the day, before the Khaosan shooting, it has said that at least 55 soldiers and nine policemen had been injured.
Most of the injuries were caused by tear gas and rubber bullets, it said, but one soldier reportedly needed an urgent operation as he was stabbed in the neck by a sharpened bamboo stick. A Belgian photographer suffered a broken ankle bone.
Sansern said authorities would initially focus on dispersing the protesters from the Phan Fa Bridge and they would later deal with a separate encampment of protesters at Ratchaprasong intersection in an upscale area of the city where posh malls and luxury hotels have been forced by the protests to close since April 3.
His remarks came after riot police earlier in the day retreated from the area of Ratchaprasong intersection after several rounds of attempts to approach it were met with strong resistance.
Abhisit declared a state of emergency Wednesday after the protesters stormed Parliament.
The protesters, mostly supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have been staging a rolling rally in the capital in an effort to pressure Abhisit to dissolve Parliament and hold a snap election.
