Troops Patrol Bangkok As PM Talks Reconciliation

Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 12:32 pm

BANGKOK: Troops searched for explosives while firefighters doused the embers of a torched luxury mall in central Bangkok on Saturday as the capital tried to pick up the pieces after the worst political riots in modern Thai history reported by A Pakistan News.
Troops Patrol Bangkok As PM Talks Reconciliation
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had stressed reconciliation in an address to the nation on Friday but made no offer of early elections, the main demand of protesters who had demonstrated in Bangkok for two months until troops dispersed them this week.

The “red shirt” protesters who rioted in Bangkok come mainly from the rural and urban poor. They want new elections, saying they are disenfranchised by an urban elite that wields all the power and holds a disproporionate share of the country’s wealth.

“Let me reassure you that this government will meet these challenges and overcome these difficulties through the five-point reconciliation plan that I had previously announced,” Abhisit said in his televised address.

The plan, first announced on May 3, offers political reforms, social justice and an investigation into political violence.

The “red shirts” say Abhisit lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a controversial parliamentary vote in 2008 with tacit military support.

The government says the protesters were manipulated by the movement’s figurehead, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and now lives in self-imposed exile to escape a prison term for abuse of power.

The military crackdown began before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 100. Erawan Emergency Medical Centre said 53 people had died and 415 were wounded in the flare-up of violence from May 14.

Troops Patrol Bangkok As PM Talks Reconciliation

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