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by Anusak Konglang
BANGKOK (AFP) -- Thai security forces fired warning shots Wednesday during a confrontation with anti-government protesters in Bangkok, which is reeling from weeks of sometimes deadly unrest.
The standoff, which followed a period of relative calm in the city, came as hundreds of soldiers and police officers blocked a convoy of "Red Shirt" protesters who had left their fortified rally base in central Bangkok.
"Security force so far fired warning shots," said police spokesman Major General Prawut Thavornsiri. "There's a confrontation but no clashes yet."
About 2,000 protesters had earlier moved out of their sprawling rally site in pick-up trucks and on motorcycles to travel to the north of the capital, which is under a state of emergency.
Thai media reported rubber bullets were fired during the face-off, and Red leaders accused troops of using "war weapons" against the protesters, who want immediate elections to replace Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government.
"It looks like a war. They are fighting with unarmed people," protest leader Nattawut Saikuar said from a stage at the site in Bangkok's commercial district that has become the focus of the weeks-long rallies.
"The government wants to lure us to go there so that they can come and disperse us here," added Nattawut, who warned earlier in the day that the Reds were "ready to fight to the death".
Street clashes earlier this month and grenade attacks last week in the heart of Bangkok have left 26 people dead and hundreds more wounded in the country's worst political unrest for almost two decades.
The Reds, many of whom come from Thailand's rural poor and urban working classes, have beefed up their defences with barricades made from truck tyres and bamboo stakes as they brace for a crackdown by security forces.
Raising the pressure on the embattled premier, the Constitutional Court agreed to hear a recommendation by an election body to dissolve the ruling party for alleged misuse of grant money, a court official said.
He declined to give a timeframe for the case but said Abhisit's Democrats would be asked to provide a written defence.
Abhisit said in an interview with the BBC Tuesday that he would step down if he believed he were an obstacle to stability.
He said the issues were "not a purely political problem. There are security problems involved, there are terrorist problems involved", adding that there was no imminent likelihood of martial law being declared.
Abhisit, regarded as elitist and undemocratic by his opponents, has rejected an offer by the Reds to disperse if elections are held in three months' time.
Army spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said Tuesday that security forces were ready and waiting "for the right time" to retake the Reds' rally area, which has paralysed traffic and caused many major hotels and stores to close.
The government has said it will not tolerate road blocks set up by protesters to prevent more troops heading to Bangkok.
Sunsern has previously warned protesters they could face real bullets in any new clashes and said troops had set up checkpoints to prevent people bringing in weapons to the confrontation zone.
The government says it has uncovered a network of people suspected of plotting to overthrow the kingdom's revered monarchy and is ready to round up alleged members.
The Reds have denied involvement in any attempt to undermine the royals and threatened to sue the government over the accusation.
Early Wednesday morning two grenade attacks hit a Bangkok bank and military checkpoint -- the latest in a series of blasts to hit politically significant sites -- but nobody was wounded, police said.
Britain on Tuesday extended a warning against visiting Thailand, urging its nationals to avoid all but essential travel to all of the tourist destination due to "violent incidents of an unpredictable nature".
-- ©Copyright AFP 2010-04-28
Published with written approval from AFP.
