Thai Prime Minister Somchai says he will not declare a state of emergency or resign despite violence
Anti-government demonstrators assist an injured man into the back of a truck after riot police shot tear gas into a crowd of protestors blocking Parliament in Bangkok on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
BANGKOK - ANTI-GOVERNMENT protests left at least one dead and hundreds injured as months of political turmoil boiled over, with troops deployed across Bangkok to quell the demonstrations, officials said.
There were scenes of chaos outside Bangkok's parliament as police fired tear gas into the crowd of thousands, sending bloody protesters fleeing. Angry mobs overturned police vehicles and fired guns, AFP correspondents said.
Thai DPM resigns
BANGKOK - THAILAND'S recently appointed deputy prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigned on Tuesday because of a crackdown on fresh anti-government protests.
In a resignation letter, Mr Chavalit, one of five deputy prime ministers, said his role as chief negotiator with demonstrators had been compromised after police twice fired teargas to disperse crowds on Tuesday morning, injuring 85 people.
THE call came at 6.15am, from German freelance photographer Nick Nostitz. 'The police are going to move in any minute' he said.
By the time I was organised, it was over. Police had moved in and fired several rounds of teargas to clear a path through the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which had besieged Parliament overnight with thousands of supporters, hoping to scupper the government's policy speech.
Read the rest of Nirmal Ghosh's blog and listen to an audio from the scene here.
BANGKOK - EIGHT Thai policemen were injured in shootings and stabbings during clashes with thousands of anti-government protesters Tuesday near Bangkok's parliament building, police said in a statement.
Four were shot, according to the list handed to media at Bangkok Metropolitan Police headquarters, while four were stabbed.
BANGKOK - THE Thai military is sending troops to help police keep the peace in Bangkok after a day of violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters.
Army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the navy and air force agreed with army commander Gen. Anupong Paochinda's plan to send personnel to help police cope with protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy, who tried on Tuesday to blockade parliament.
One female protester was killed during clashes, an official from a Bangkok hospital said, but did not reveal the cause of death.
Eight police officers were also shot or stabbed in the unrest, police said, which capped months of demonstrations aimed at removing Thailand's elected government because of its ties to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
A man was also killed in a car bombing near the protest site, police said, although they said it was unclear if the blast was directly linked to the violence. Police had earlier identified the victim as a woman.
'We have been asked by the police to help maintain law and order,' army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP, without specifying how many soldiers had been deployed.
'Troops will be deployed across Bangkok, not just at the flash points, to maintain law and order,' he said, but added that troops would not be armed.
Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat - who has only been in his position for three weeks - said he would not declare a state of emergency or resign as the protests escalated.
'I will continue my work,' he told reporters.
Government medical officials said 410 people had been injured, with 49 hospitalised, as police tried to disperse several thousand protesters surrounding parliament to try to prevent Mr Somchai from giving his first policy speech.
The address went ahead but the special parliamentary session ended after two hours and protesters blockaded lawmakers inside, forcing Mr Somchai and five aides to climb over a fence to escape the mob, an AFP correspondent said.
Police bombarded the demonstrators with tear gas throughout the day to try and disperse about 8,000 protesters. They eventually created an exit for the trapped politicians, who hurried out of the building.
The political turmoil began here in late May when protesters launched their campaign to overthrow the government because of its ties to Thaksin, who was ousted in a September 2006 coup.
Supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) stormed Bangkok's main government compound on August 26 and have been barricaded there since, also protesting the government's plans to amend the constitution.
Late on Monday, thousands heeded a call from a protest leader to march on parliament for a 'final battle'.
One of Thailand's five deputy prime ministers, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, resigned over the crackdown, saying his role as chief negotiator with the protesters had been compromised.
Parliament went ahead with its session on Tuesday morning despite a boycott by the opposition Democrat Party in protest against the crackdown.
Thai media, meanwhile, announced that Queen Sirikit was donating 100,000 baht (S$4,370) to pay medical expenses for the wounded protesters, who claim they are carrying out their campaign out of loyalty to the palace.
The People Power Party won elections in December last year that marked the end of military rule brought in by the 2006 coup, but the old power elite in the palace and military resented the return to power of Thaksin's allies.
Former prime minister Samak Sundaravej was forced from office in September, after a court ruled he had accepted illegal payments for a TV show, and his successor Somchai formed his new government last month.
Somchai - Thaksin's brother-in-law - has urged the PAD to leave his offices by November and opened talks with the protest leaders.
Those talks were jeopardised over the weekend with the arrest of PAD head Chamlong Srimuang and protest organiser Chaiwat Sinsuwong.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, told AFP that the PAD were protesting against the democratic system in Thailand, raising the spectre of a prolonged crisis.
'This is the end of Thailand as we know it... and the PAD is the spearhead of this right-wing conservative reassertion. There's no quick end here,' he said. -- AFP
