Thai protesters refused yesterday to call off crippling demonstrations and the government said it had done all it could to reach a deal, dashing hopes for a swift end to a crisis that has stifled the economy.
The anti-government Red Shirts have accepted a timetable for a Nov. 14 election proposed by Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva but set a new condition — that Deputy Thai Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban face prosecution over a clash with troops last month that killed 25 people.
“They are trying to force the police to formally charge government officials,” said Tanet Charoengmuang, a political scientist at Chiang Mai University.
PHOTO: EPA
“Failure to do so means the protest may drag on. Essentially, they refuse to go down alone and take all the blame,” Charoengmuang said.
The Red Shirts, who broadly support ousted former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have been demonstrating since the middle of March, at first demanding immediate elections. They say the ruling coalition has no mandate after coming to power in a parliamentary vote 17 months ago orchestrated by the army.
On April 10, troops clashed with protesters in a chaotic gun battle in Bangkok’s old quarter. Twenty civilians and five soldiers were killed and more than 800 people wounded.
Suthep went to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) yesterday to hear complaints filed against him as head of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, set up to oversee the response of the government and security forces.
“I think they are just dragging this on, looking for more conditions,” he told reporters after meeting DSI officials. “But what we did was not to meet their condition. It was our intention to show our sincerity by entering the judicial process.”
His visit failed to satisfy the Red Shirts, who said the DSI — Thailand’s equivalent of the FBI — was too close to the government and that Suthep should surrender to police instead.
“We want a criminal charge against Suthep as well as Abhisit and we want a truly independent committee to be set up to investigate recent political violence,” said Weng Tojirakarn, one of several leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, as the Red Shirts are known formally.
“We cannot just end the protest without true reconciliation, which means they have to take responsibility for their actions,” Tojirakarn said.
The group said Abhisit should also be prosecuted when his immunity ends when the parliamentary session closes on May 21.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said it was the DSI’s job to handle all cases tied to the crisis, in which 29 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded, but that police and other law enforcement agencies were also involved.
“The government has done its best,” said Panitan, when asked if the authorities would do more to satisfy the protesters’ demands. “It’s not clear to me what they are demanding so we can’t respond to something we don’t understand.”
The Red Shirts’ campaign has paralyzed an upmarket Bangkok commercial district, where thousands of protesters remained camped behind barricades of bamboo and tires, and hammered the lucrative leisure and tourist sector.
Abhisit has come under pressure from the Bangkok middle classes and traditional elite to get tough, but faces a dilemma about how to dislodge the Red Shirts, including women and children, from a camp that sprawls across 3km².
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