Thai protesters block roads to capital, vow to continue occupation of key Bangkok sites

Thai protesters block police on roads to Bangkok

BANGKOK — Thailand’s “Red Shirt” protesters have told followers to fight until victory but ditch their signature red shirts so they can go undercover in case of a possible crackdown as more bomb threats Monday rattled the tense Thai capital.

There was no violence in the central Bangkok shopping area where protesters remained camped for a 24th day but an explosion occurred late Sunday near the home of a politician allied to the ruling coalition. The blast in a residential neighborhood injured eight people, police said.

A bomb disposal team rushed early Monday to the city’s financial district amid reports of another explosive device outside a hospital at the edge of Silom Road, where five grenade blasts last week left one person dead and more than 80 wounded. It was not immediately clear if it was a false alarm.

Both sides in Thailand’s protracted political crisis dug in following a breakdown of negotiations and a televised appearance Sunday by the prime minister that offered no solution to the protracted crisis.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva spoke Sunday in a nationally televised interview alongside the army chief, in an apparent effort to dispel persistent rumors that there is a rift between him and the military.

The broadcast came a day after Abhisit rejected a compromise offer by the Red Shirts — who say the current government is illegitimate — dashing hopes for a peaceful end to the standoff.

Red Shirt leaders urged their supporters in provincial areas to confront the security forces being brought in to help crack down on the protests, after an earlier attempt to clear them failed, resulting in deadly clashes.

“We won’t go home until we win,” a protest leader, Khwanchai Praipana, told supporters.

He said many police and soldiers in the provinces sided with the protesters, and had even asked them to prevent fresh security forces from reaching Bangkok.

“Most police based in the provinces don’t want to come deal with the Red Shirts in Bangkok,” he said.

More than 1,000 protesters set up a roadblock overnight along a major highway, deflating the tires of 13 police vans and preventing police reinforcements from reaching Bangkok from the northeast province of Udon Thani, the government said.

Another 300 protesters set up roadblocks on the outskirts of the capital Sunday afternoon to stop hundreds of other police from entering the city, police officials said.

Protesters in the Nong Kai province also tried to block police from heading to Bangkok, but the security forces changed their route, the government said.

Thousands of Red Shirts camped Monday along the city’s main shopping boulevard heeded a call by protest leaders to change into regular attire so they will not be visible if security forces move to clear the area and send them fleeing into city streets.

The strategy dubbed “Taking Off the Red Shirts” was also to help protesters coming in from rural provinces get past military and police checkpoints aimed at blocking them, one protest leader Kokaew Pikulthong told Thai Rath newspaper.

Clashes in Bangkok have killed at least 26 people and wounded nearly 1,000 since the Red Shirts began occupying Bangkok’s commercial center more than a month ago, closing down five-star hotels and shopping malls, paralyzing daily life in the city and costing merchants millions of dollars a day.

A blast late Sunday occurred near the western Bangkok home of Banharn Silapa-archa, chief adviser to the Chart Thai Pattana Party and a former prime minister. It wounded at least eight people, police said.

The conflict has been characterized by some as class warfare, pitting protesters from the country’s vast rural poor against an elite that has traditionally held power.

“The solution process is ongoing but may not please everyone. The government, and not only the military, is preparing to be ready for what would lead to the next level,” Abhisit said in a short statement to the interviewer.

He did not specify whether the “next level” meant security forces would move to clear the Red Shirt enclave, but government and military leaders have said that the protesters cannot remain in the heart of Bangkok indefinitely.

Thai army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda, who sat beside Abhisit, said the crisis must be solved by legal means and denied there were any significant divisions within military ranks.

The Red Shirts consist mainly of rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists who opposed the military coup that ousted him in 2006. They believe Abhisit’s government is illegitimate because it came to power under military pressure through a parliamentary vote after disputed court rulings ousted two elected pro-Thaksin governments.