Bangkok braced yesterday for more unrest a day after the Thai government rejected a peace overture from demonstrators offering to end increasingly violent protests in return for early polls.
The red-shirted supporters of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra told thousands of supporters to expect a crackdown and rescinded their offer to end a three-week occupation of Bangkok’s main shopping area if the government called elections in 30 days.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose six-party coalition government is under pressure from upper-class and royalist Thais to take a stern line with the Red Shirts, is sticking with an offer to call elections in December, a year early.
The mostly rural and urban poor protesters returned to their previous demand for immediate polls, which their political allies are well placed to win.
Abhisit said their peace overture looked insincere, designed only to boost their image and could not be considered amid threats. The protests, he said, were taking a toll on Thailand’s economy, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest.
Hotel occupancy in Bangkok has crumbled to 20 percent, tourism operators say, down from about 80 percent in February, squeezing an industry that supports 6 percent of the economy.
“We will have to revise the growth rate again, especially after this month and last month, as we can see that the protests have had a big impact on tourism,” Abhisit said in his weekly television broadcast.
He said the government would have to revise down its forecasts of 4.5 percent economic growth this year.
The protesters threaten more aggressive measures, including laying siege to Central World, the second-largest shopping complex in Southeast Asia, next to the stage at their main protest site.
“If you want Central World shopping mall back safely, you must withdraw army forces out of the nearby Rajaprasong area immediately,” said Jatuporn Prompan, a protest leader.
The shopping center at the Rajaprasong intersection has been closed since the protesters occupied the area on April 3.
Bangkok, a sprawling city of 15 million people, is on edge after a series of grenade blasts three days ago killed one person and wounded 88 in a business district, an attack the government blamed on the Red Shirts, who deny they were responsible.
The army warned on Saturday it would forcibly disperse the protesters who have set up a self-contained village an area of the city, but it said wanted to first separate militants in the area from women and children.
Any attempt to disperse the protesters risks heavy casualties and the prospect of clashes spilling into high-end residential areas, which are slowly emptying of residents and workers as shops close and apartment building owners tighten security.
Thousands of troops, many armed with M-16 assault rifles, keep watch over Red Shirts at several city intersections. Royalist pro-government protesters often gather outside their fortress-like barricade, with both sides hurling bottles.
Tens of thousands of Red Shirts remain encamped in the central Bangkok shopping district, vowing to stay until parliament is dissolved and defying a state of emergency.
“This hardening of the battle lines between the two sides does not bode well for Bangkok’s security situation and a risk of another, and this time maybe even more violent, crackdown is immediate,” risk consultancy IHS Global Insight said in a note.
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