Calm returns to Bangkok after deadly rioting

[October 08, 2008]  BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Soldiers stood guard on street corners Wednesday as an uneasy calm returned to Bangkok after fierce clashes between anti-government protesters and police left at least two dead and more than 400 injured.

There was no sign of renewed street clashes Wednesday between police and protesters, mainly from urban areas, who want sweeping electoral changes to prevent what they say are corrupt politicians exploiting the rural majority to take power.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat met with diplomats from 68 countries at the Foreign Ministry about the deepening political crisis, telling them "my government is still able to run the country," he told reporters afterward.

Troops armed with batons and helmets were stationed at the Bangkok police headquarters near Parliament. A day earlier, anti-government protesters barricaded the building and trapped lawmakers inside for several hours as police outside fired countless volleys of tear gas trying to clear the area.

"We will continue to fight until Somchai resigns," one of the protest leaders, Pipop Thongchai, told reporters. "He has lost the credibility to run the country, he has to take responsibility for the dead and injured."

Somchai justified the use of tear gas against protesters as the "international standard" for restoring civil order.

Hundreds of workers swept the streets around Parliament that were littered with burned-out cars and debris from the rioting that degenerated into Thailand's worst political violence in more than 16 years.

At least five major confrontations with police left 423 protesters and 20 police injured, medical authorities said.

Both sides accuse the other of having used vicious tactics in Tuesday's clashes. Protest leader Somsak Kosaisuk accused the government of using "weapons of war" against peaceful protesters.

"We will continue to fight in a peaceful way to topple the killer government," Somsak told reporters.

Questions have arisen over whether tear gas canisters could blow off limbs and toes and feet, some of the more gruesome injuries suffered by protesters.

An Associated Press photographer saw stun grenades being thrown into the crowds. He and other AP staffers were overpowered by tear gas that required hospital treatment for one person.

Protesters said their gathering was peaceful, but many used iron rods, slingshots, firecrackers and bottles to attack police. An AP Television News reporter saw at least three protesters carrying guns. Authorities said some protesters also had explosive devices.

An AP reporter saw two police inside the parliamentary compound who had been shot by unknown assailants.

The street fighting was the worst in Thailand since 1992, when the army killed dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators seeking the ouster of a military-backed government.

Six weeks of political tumult have spooked investors and scared off tourists to Thailand.

"My government is committed to ensuring confidence in our political system," Somchai told foreign diplomats, according to a text of his remarks released by the Foreign Ministry. "We will resolve domestic problems through the democratic process."

Somchai, who was sworn in Sept. 25, sought to reassure foreign diplomats Wednesday in a briefing on the political situation at the Foreign Ministry. On Tuesday, he vowed not to step down.

Somchai was the main target of protesters who had surrounded Parliament trying to prevent him from delivering his maiden policy speech and then trying to keep him from leaving. Somchai escaped the building by climbing over a side fence, Thai media reported.

The violence heightened the political uncertainty that has gripped Thailand since early 2006, when large protests called for Thaksin Shinawatra, the tycoon-turned-prime minister, to step down for alleged corruption and abuse of power.

Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law, a family tie that makes him unacceptable to protesters.

A September 2006 coup ousted Thaksin, who is now in exile in London to escape corruption charges.

Samak Sundaravej was elected in December 2007 but protesters dismissed him as a proxy for Thaksin. Samak was dismissed from office on Sept. 9 by a court decision that found him guilty on a conflict of interest charge.

The protesters, called the People's Alliance for Democracy, include royalists, wealthy and middle-class urban residents and union activists, all of whom feel threatened by political and social change.

The alliance claims Thailand's electoral system is susceptible to vote-buying, and that the rural majority, the Thaksin camp's power base, is not sophisticated enough to cast ballots responsibly.

It advocates abandoning one-person, one-vote to allow some lawmakers to be chosen by professions and social groups, but has not explained how such a system would work and be free and fair.

[Associated Press; By SUTIN WANNABOVORN]

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