Protesters spilled their own blood at the gates of Thailand’s government headquarters yesterday in a colorful act of political theater designed to propel their fugitive hero back to power.
Thousands of “Red Shirts” loyal to deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra lined up during the day to donate blood in makeshift tents, where it was poured from syringes into 5-liter water bottles for the bizarre spectacle.
Red leaders said they had collected 300 liters of blood, far short of their aim of 1,000 liters, most of which they poured at Government House gates in the late afternoon to press their demand for snap elections.
They later took some of the blood to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat party offices for a second protest, where a Hindu priest began the symbolic spilling by invoking a curse against the government.
It was the latest part of a pro-Thaksin demonstration which has drawn up to 100,000 protesters to the streets of Bangkok since the weekend, police said, watched over by a 50,000-strong contingent of security forces.
The Hindu priest, wearing a traditional white outfit and with bare feet, knelt down in the blood to wipe his hands in it, before raising them aloft. Others then joined in, creating pools of blood at the steps of the offices.
“This blood is to show our commitment in calling for democracy. This is an important curse ritual,” Red leader Nattawut Saikur said.
The Red Shirts, whose numbers appeared to be dwindling yesterday, held the blood bottles in the air triumphantly as they rode on trucks followed by thousands of supporters and monitored by riot police.
They are protesting against the perceived elitism and illegitimacy of the Abhisit government, which came to power via a December 2008 parliamentary vote after a court ruling ousted Thaksin’s allies.
Abhisit rejected demands to dissolve parliament and call elections, and yesterday he again stood firm against their calls.
“A decision cannot be made between protesters and the government, because it is related to the whole country,” he said on TV.
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