Thai troops yesterday hunted for militant protesters who left parts of Bangkok in flames as the authorities extended a night curfew in the capital despite tentative signs of a return to normality.
The top leader of the anti-government “Red Shirt” movement urged supporters to halt the mayhem that left major buildings smoldering and in ruins after a deadly army crackdown ended a six-week rally in the retail heart of the city.
“Democracy cannot be built on revenge. Good things are built on non-violence,” Veera Musikapong said after surrendering to police along with other top leaders in the face of the military offensive that left 15 dead.
The death toll from Wednesday's offensive rose after authorities said nine people had been killed in a gunbattle at a Buddhist temple inside the Red Shirts' ruined camp, where thousands of protesters cowered in fear overnight.
Under the watch of saffron-clad monks, the bodies of six of the victims were laid out in the temple garden, under a portrait of Thailand's revered king, who has been hospitalized since September and has not commented on the crisis.
After the terrified protesters were led out through a police cordon, the army said it was not responsible for the deaths in a “safe zone” where many women and children had sought shelter.
The stock exchange and the nation's biggest shopping mall were among dozens of locations set ablaze in the chaotic aftermath of the campaign to end the Red Shirts' occupation of Bangkok's top retail district.
Political observers warned that Thailand's troubles were far from over and that more civil unrest in the capital and the Red Shirts' rural heartland was likely as a split widens between the kingdom's elite and the rural and urban poor.
“It's not the end of the conflict, it's just the beginning of another phase of war — whatever you want to call it, civil war, guerrilla warfare,” said Pavin Chachavalpongpun from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Bangkok prepared for a second night under curfew, and authorities announced the measures would continue until today as they work to stamp out pockets of resistance among the Red Shirt movement.
The curfew was extended to cover 23 provinces as the conflict spread outside the capital. Four provincial halls were targeted by arsonists on Wednesday, and some 13,000 rallied in rural areas, the army said.
Soldiers fired warning shots yesterday as they took up positions in the ruins of the Reds' rally site in the capital, attempting to restore order, but warning that rebel snipers were still positioned on high rise buildings.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said both sides had committed “serious abuses” during the confrontation.
However, the unruly mobs that roamed Bangkok late on Wednesday before the curfew began appeared to have retreated and the flashpoints of the past few days were quiet.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a