Protests continue in Thailand

The Thai government on Thursday declared the situation in the nation's capital under control though troops continued to battle pockets of resistance by Red Shirt protesters as the conflict spread to the rural northeast. As the heavily-armed troops combed the sprawling city in armoured cars and on foot to end Thailand's deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years, nine more deaths were reported from a temple where thousands of protesters had taken shelter.

The authorities extended the indefinite curfew imposed n the capital and 23 other provinces for three days as fresh violence was reported from the northeast where four provincial halls were torched and some 13,000 anti-government protesters rallied. "Overall, we have the situation under control," army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kawekamnerd said, as soldiers smashed through bamboo barriers and burning tyres to clear up an encampment of more than 5000 protesters in Bangkok. The government said that more troops could be deployed in high risk areas particularly Wat Pathumwanaram where nine people were reported killed, TNA news agency reported.

The military spokesman said that sporadic clashes were still going around the temple, located near the protest site at Ratchaprasong. Most of the protesters left after their leaders were arrested by police. Most analysts fear that the situation though successfully brought under control was not fully settled and could flare up anytime. Besides the death in Bangkok and thousands being injured in the weeks of protests, Nation Television reported that one person had been killed and 14 wounded in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, where protests erupted on Wednesday. After the soldiers cleared the protesters' main encampment, Red Shirts yesterday set fire more than 23 buildings including an upmarket shopping mall, the country's stock exchange, a TV station and a movie theatre.

The government described the chaos as "an organised crime." It said that the arson and looting were "systematically planned and organised" by Red Shirt leaders before they surrendered. "Authorities can control the situation to some extent, but there are still protests in Lampang and Chiang Mai," an army spokesman said, referring to violence in northern towns popular with tourists. Army spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said that 13,000 Red Shirts rallied in 20 provinces yesterday night after their protest camp in Bangkok was stormed by armed forces.

Bangkok's skyline overnight was blotted by flashes of fire and black smoke from more than three dozen buildings set ablaze including Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theatre and one of Asia's largest shopping malls. Troops in the central business district, occupied by protesters for weeks, exchanged occasional fire today morning with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together. A special police unit entered a Buddhist temple inside the former protest site where the government said 5,000 Red Shirt supporters, most of them women, old men and children, had sought shelter in recent days.

Image : A policeman clears the protestors camp in Bangkok. Photagraph: Fayaz Kabli/Reuters