Two people died and more than 100 were wounded yesterday when Thai soldiers used teargas and automatic weapons to break up antigovernment protests that have brought chaos to the streets of Bangkok.
The Thai Government said that the deaths came after fighting between the Red Shirt antigovernment protesters and enraged local people.
The organisters of the protest will now be prosecuted for violating a state of emergency banning large gatherings, the national police chief said today.
“All the core protest leaders will be prosecuted,” Patcharawat Wongsuwan said.
“The arrest warrants will be issued very soon on charges of illegal assembly of more than five people, which is banned under the emergency rule,” he said, adding that the warrants would be issued within hours.
The citywide crackdown on the Red Shirts began yesterday before dawn when a key intersection in Bangkok was cleared using teargas and sprays of automatic weapon fire. More than 70 people were wounded in the raid.
Later the Red Shirts at the intersection set fire to a commandeered public bus and set it rolling in the direction of the soldiers. The soldiers then fired into the air and pushed forward as a monk pleaded for calm, crying: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”
Several protesters were arrested and stripped of their shirts, and attempts to blockade the Victory Monument roundabout were foiled.
The Thai military chased protesters from other key points in the city, leaving the rally near Government House, where thousands of protesters including women and children had gathered behind barricades, as the centre of resistance. A senior military spokesman said that the strategy was to confine the protesters to Government House and prevent others from joining them.
The decisive action was in marked contrast to the military’s passive response at the weekend, when the Red Shirts were effectively permitted to invade the venue of a conference, sending world leaders fleeing and humiliating Mr Abhisit.
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