Bangkok burns as troops and protesters do battle

TROOPS fired at crowds of anti-government protesters in Bangkok, and demonstrators fought back with firebombs and stones, as Thailand plunged deeper into political crisis yesterday.

One person was shot dead and nearly 100 were injured in the fighting. As dusk approached, soldiers advanced into an area held by protesters near Government House, the prime minister's office, setting the stage for a final push to end demonstrations that have further hobbled a country still reeling from last year's political chaos and the global financial crisis.

Hundreds of soldiers, with riot police behind them, lined up on two roads approaching Government House, where protesters who support exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and are known as the "red shirts" have been encamped since late last month.

"This will be our final stand. I beg that you return here and face them together," protest leader Jatuporn Phromphan shouted from a platform near Government House. "We will use peaceful means and stay right here to end their violence."

Tanyawalai Wongsuriyaneth, 46, a female protester returning to join the rally, said: "I don't mind dying right here if it means we become a real democracy. You can kill me right here. I am not here to cause trouble. I just want my rights."

Protesters commandeered a number of public buses to block several key intersections, set tyres and vehicles on fire, and sent two unmanned buses, one of them burning, hurtling towards lines of soldiers. The burning bus swerved and then ricocheted off trees on the side of the road before coming to a halt, with no-one injured. The other bus also crashed without injuring anyone.

In one of the many confrontations, a line of troops in full battle gear fired volleys of M-16 rifle fire, most of it aimed above the heads of protesters, and turned water cannons on the crowd near Victory Monument, a major traffic circle.

One side of a government building was on fire, and a Thai TV channel said it was caused by a firebomb. Black smoke billowed into the Bangkok sky.

Several thousand "red shirts" were still at Government House as night fell. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appeared on television, urging people to leave the area and guaranteeing their safety. Mr Abhisit had declared a state of emergency in Bangkok on Sunday.

The clashes came two days after "red shirt" protesters forced the cancellation of a high-profile Asian summit in Thailand, a big embarrassment for Mr Abhisit, whom they have been trying to remove from office. He took over only in December.

Several countries, including Britain, issued travel advisory notices for Thailand.

The violence threatens to slash the country's tourism revenue and could lead to the loss of 200,000 jobs in an industry that directly employs two million people, Kongkrit Hiranyakit, chairman of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said.

It is also likely to give pause to foreign firms considering building factories or making other investments – especially as it comes just months after a group of rival protesters occupied the capital's airports for a week, stranding thousands of tourists and businessmen.

Mr Thaksin, the figurehead of the protests, told CNN from an undisclosed location – believed to Dubai – that people had died.

"Many people are dying… They even take the bodies on the military trucks and take them away," he said.

Thailand's Emergency Medical Institute said 94 people, including soldiers, had been injured in yesterday's clashes, and that 24 were still in hospital.

The violence began before dawn at the start of the Thai New Year holiday, much of it near one of the city's central traffic hubs, Din Daeng junction, which "red shirts" had blockaded. Even as soldiers and protesters battled in the streets, in other parts of town squealing children and shrieking adults blasted each other with water pistols as part of New Year celebrations.

Streets in one backpacker haven in Bangkok were packed with Thais and foreigners drinking beer and ignoring the chaos only a few miles away.

"A few people are protesting, but the masses are partying," said Ruud Segers, 42, a Dutch tax lawyer, as he emerged soaked after a volley of water pistol fire in Khao San Road – a pedestrian street popular with tourists. "It's a place of both sides. You have the protesters who are angry and those who are having a good time. It's all in Thailand."

General Songkitti Chakabakr, Thailand's top military commander, said in a televised statement that the committee charged with restoring order would strive "through every peaceful means" to return things to normal as soon as possible but reserved the right to use force if necessary.

Thailand's intractable political divide pits royalists, the military and the urban middle class against the less well-off rural majority that is loyal to Mr Thaksin and his populist policies, which gave them greater economic assistance.

Last year, politicians backed by the "red shirts" were in power, and royalist "yellow shirt" supporters of those now in government held nearly non-stop protests in the capital, culminating in a week-long occupation of Bangkok's main airports.

The political strife died down for a while after Mr Abhisit came to office through parliamentary defections that Thaksin supporters say the army engineered. They are demanding new elections, which they would be well placed to win.

Protests flared anew after Mr Thaksin, ousted from power in a 2006 coup and living in exile to avoid jail on a corruption conviction, set a deadline for Mr Abhisit's resignation of 8 April – the day before Thailand was to host the East Asia Summit in Pattaya.

Mr Thaksin's supporters descended on the beach resort south of Bangkok, and Mr Abhisit's strategy of treating them gently to avoid inflaming passions backfired when they smashed their way through a cordon of troops into the venue, forcing an evacuation of leaders by helicopter.

Now, with fires blazing in the Bangkok streets and smoke from burning buses rising over the city of 12 million, a political solution appears as distant as ever.

The premier seems intent on sweeping the protesters from the city before the New Year festivities end, preferably with a minimum of casualties, to burnish his credibility after the summit fiasco.

He appeared on television late on Sunday, flanked by military commanders, to say a coup was not going to happen. Thailand has had 18 coups since 1932, and the military often has the final say in its politics, sometimes with the blessing of the revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej.