Bangkok, April 11 (DPA) The Thai government Sunday vowed to return the situation in Bangkok to normalcy, after fierce clashes on the weekend between troops and protesters claimed at least 19 lives and injured 807.
“We are committed to restore the situation to normalcy as soon as possible,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanayakorn said.
Among the dead were 15 civilians, mostly protesters but also a Japanese photographer working for the Thomson Reuters news agency, reports from the government’s Narenthorn Medical Centre said.
On the military side, four soldiers lost their lives and 200 were injured, 90 of them seriously, the government said.
Under a ceasefire agreement reached Saturday night between the government and United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) protest leaders, troops withdrew Sunday from the two main protest sites, Phan Fa Bridge in the old part of the capital, and at Ratchaprasong, a posh shopping and hotel district in modern Bangkok.
Saturday the government, which placed Bangkok and surrounding provinces under emergency law, moved to enforce the decree by sending troops to clear out tens of thousands of supporters of the UDD from Phan Fa Bridge.
The move sparked bloody clashes as the protesters refused to budge and fought back with sticks, Molotov cocktails, grenades and rifles.
Suthep Thaugsuban, deputy prime minister in charge of security, vowed the government would not back down and rejected claims that the coalition led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva was wobbling.
“We will continue to do our duty,” he said. “I am still confident that the coalition parties understood what happened.”
The UDD, also called the red shirts, has been staging protests at Phan Fa Bridge for almost a month, calling on Abhisit to dissolve parliament and hold new elections.
In their efforts to increase pressure on the government to meet their demands, the red shirts on April 3 occupied the Ratchaprasong intersection, an upmarket shopping and hotel district.
Wednesday, they attacked Parliament building, forcing legislators to flee and prompting Abhisit to declare emergency law, a decree that bans gatherings of more than five people and provides broad immunity for officials involved in cracking down on dissent.
The red shirts defied the emergency decree on Friday by seizing the ThaiCom Satellite station to force the People Channel TV back on the air. The channel, their main media outlet, had been cut by the government.
Saturday, the government decided to get tough and clear the protesters from Phan Fa, and thereafter Ratchaprasong.
But the troops ran into stiff resistance, especially at Khok Wua intersection on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, where protesters lobbed grenades at the troops, injuring more than 20.
The soldiers reportedly responded with live bullets, causing casualties, a claim the government refuted.
“There were no live bullets shot at the protesters as far as we can tell,” Panitan said.
In most encounters the troops used water cannon, tear gas, batons and rubber bullets.
By 9 p.m. (1400 GMT), with injuries mounting on both sides, the government agreed to withdraw its troops from Phan Fa and sued for truce negotiations, which the UDD leadership initially refused.
UDD chairman Veera Muksikpong Saturday night called on Abhisit to “dissolve parliament and leave Thailand.”
But Abhisit has shown no inclination to step down.
“The government and I are duty-bound to resolve the problems, restore peace and maintain justice for the country,” he said in a televised broadcast Saturday midnight.
He promised to set up an independent body to determine the cause of deaths and injuries.
