Thailand’s prime minister, opponents to meet again after initial talks ease tension

Thai PM, protesters meet again after live TV talks

BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister and his political opponents sat down Monday for a second set of talks meant to defuse tensions over a protest group’s insistence he call new elections.

The talks — which were televised on Sunday — were a relatively calm moment after more than two weeks of protests that have drawn some 100,000 people to increasingly confrontational rallies against a government that demonstrators consider illegitimate. The protests have raised concerns of violence and prompted travel warnings from three dozen countries.

Three “Red Shirt” protest leaders met Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and two of his advisers in the same room where they held three hours of discussions a day earlier. So far, they have failed to resolve differences between the two sides.

The Red Shirts say Abhisit came to power with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional ruling class, and only new elections can restore integrity to Thai democracy.

“Our request is simple and direct. We would like Parliament dissolved to return power to the people, so they can make their decision,” said Veera Musikapong, one of the protest leaders.

The leaders gave Abhisit 15 days to meet their demands, which Abhisit has repeatedly rejected, arguing that calling new elections will not fix Thailand’s deep political problems.

While both sides have vowed to remain nonviolent, a string of nonfatal attacks have unnerved Bangkok in recent days.

Sunday night, one person was wounded when a bomb exploded near the home of former Prime Minister Banharn Silapa-archa, gunfire struck a branch of Bangkok Bank, and a tent that served food to protesters was burned down.

A dozen soldiers and four civilians were wounded in weekend blasts at the army base serving as Abhisit’s office and at two state-run TV stations.

Abhisit initially refused protesters’ demands for talks on live television but abruptly reversed course Sunday “to restore peace and minimize the chance of violence,” his office said. He met protest leaders at an academic institute in a Bangkok suburb.

Thailand’s political crisis started in 2006 when protesters wearing yellow shirts demanded the ouster of then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whom they accused of corruption. Thaksin was toppled later that year by a military coup.

Four years later, Thaksin remains at the center of Thailand’s political conflict. He has helped orchestrate the Red Shirt protests from Dubai and other locations since fleeing a corruption conviction in 2008.

The Red Shirt movement — known formally as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship — consists largely of Thaksin supporters from the country’s poor, rural heartland and pro-democracy activists who opposed the army takeover.

Protest leaders have portrayed the demonstrations as a struggle between Thailand’s impoverished, mainly rural masses — who benefited from Thaksin policies of cheap health care and low-interest village loans — and a Bangkok-based elite impervious to their plight.

Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.