Thai "Red Short" Protests Intensify

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Bangkok braced on Sunday for more unrest a day after the Thai government rejected a peace overture from demonstrators offering to end increasingly violent protests in return for early polls. The red-shirted supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra told thousands of supporters to expect a crackdown and rescinded their offer to end a three-week occupation of Bangkok's main shopping area if the government called elections in 30 days. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is sticking with an offer to call elections in December, a year early. The "red shirts" returned to their previous demand for immediate polls. More>>

• Thai protesters want Parliament dissolved in month
• Thailand turmoil shuts down scores of businesses
• Professor shuts Web guide to Thailand "girl scene"
• Angry protests in America are all the rage
• US aims to begin handing control to Afghans

Thais reject talks after deadly clashes

Jocelyn Gecker (AP)

Red Shirts (supporters of former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra) clash with armed paramilitary government forces in Bangkok with 19 dead and over 800 injured (AFP/Nicolas Asfouri). Below, on Khao San Road, a mecca for Western tourists, tourists have been caught up in Thailand's worst political violence in nearly two decades (AFPTV).

BANGKOK – Both government and protesters mourned their dead Sunday after a night of savage street fighting that left 21 dead, but neither side appeared ready to compromise to end the political stalemate that has bedeviled Thailand for five years and threatens more violence. At least 874 others were injured when security forces tried to crack down Saturday. The crack down was on demonstrators who have been staging a month of disruptive protests in the Thai capital, seeking to have Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajva dissolve Parliament and call new elections. It was the country's worst political violence in nearly two decades. Bullet casings, pools of blood, and shattered army vehicles littered the streets near a main tourist area where soldiers had pitched nighttime battles with the protesters. More>>

• Thai protesters reject talks after deadly clashes
• Pope's ivory tower past adds to his detachment
• Skirmishes renewed at UN climate conference
• Ousted Kyrgyz leader: I'm not to blame for deaths
• Euro governments offer Greece euro30 billion backstop

Thai army attacks protesters and kills 15

Anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters clash with Thai security forces in central Bangkok April 10, 2010. Thai troops fired rubber bullets at opposition demonstrators as they cracked down on the biggest confrontation in the month-long campaign for new elections, witnesses said (Reuters/Damir Sagolj).

(WQ) Who are the Red Shirts? Red Shirts is shorthand for the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship. Their struggle to restore democracy in Thailand and wrestle power away from a dictator (Abhisit Vejjajiva) who seized control in a military coup. Even Buddhist monks have joined in the struggle. Perennial protests went sour as Vejjajiva, tiring of their growing popularity and disruptions in the capital Bangkok, told paramilitary forces to clampdown on public demonstrations.

Thai soldiers attack demonstrators Saturday (4/10/10) in Bangkok. The deployment came after protesters were pushed back by water cannons and rubber bullets from the headquarters of the 1st Army Region(AP/David Longstreath).

Thai army pulls back from protest clashes; 15 dead

BANGKOK – Thai soldiers and police fought pitched battles Saturday night with anti-government demonstrators in streets enveloped in tear gas, but troops later retreated and asked protesters to do the same. Ten people were killed, including a Japanese journalist, and more than 500 wounded, according to hospital officials.

The army had vowed to clear the "Red Shirt" protesters out of one of their two bases in Bangkok by nightfall, but the push instead set off street fighting. There was a continuous sound of gunfire and explosions, mostly from Molotov cocktails. After more than two hours of fierce clashes, the soldiers pulled back.

Anti-government demonstrator play into the hands of violent soldiers and police during clash Saturday, April 10, 2010, in Bangkok (AP/Wason Waintchakorn). PHOTOS

Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd went on national television Saturday night to ask the protesters to retreat as well. He also accused them of firing live rounds and throwing grenades during the fighting. "The security forces have now retreated to a certain extent from the Red Shirts," Sansern said. He said a senior government official had been asked to coordinate with the protesters to restore peace and urged them to back away to avoid more violence. More>>

Live on TV: Thai PM vs. anti-gov't protesters

BANGKOK – Thailand's prime minister met his political opponents on live television Sunday to try to defuse a crisis that has produced huge demonstrations and sent him fleeing to live at an army base, but the protest leaders said new elections are the only answer. More>>

Video: Protests (Reuters) - Video: Red Shirts vow to topple Gov't (AP) - Video: Thai environment campaigners battle business (AFP)

Thailand protesters oust army from the streets

Supporters of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra gather on a road during a Bangkok rally, Mar. 27, 2010. "Red Shirt" protesters raised tensions on Sat. with threats to expel thousands of troops guarding PM Abhisit Vejjajiva (Reuters/Kerek Wongsa).

BANGKOK (AP) – Protesters in Thailand claimed a symbolic victory Saturday after forcing soldiers to retreat from parts of Bangkok's historic district, raising tensions in what so far has been a nonviolent bid to bring down the government.

• Slideshow: Thailand

Riding motorcycles and piled into pickup trucks, more than 60,000 red-shirted protesters clogged traffic and traveled in a noisy parade to the Bangkok Zoo, Buddhist temples, and a half dozen other locations being used by soldiers as temporary camps.

"We will storm the places where soldiers camp out. We'll shake the fence. We'll cut the barbed wire. We'll march through the barricades. We'll march for democracy!" a leader of the "Red Shirt" protesters, Nattawut Saikua, shouted to the crowd. "This is where we'll end military suppression. This is where we'll create democracy." More>>

Thai monks, like Burmese monks, protest

THAILAND (Mar. 14, 2010) - Large parts of downtown Bangkok have turned red, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters -- part of a "Red Shirt" movement -- are demanding the government's ouster and fresh elections. The Red Shirts are supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's deposed prime minister. They want political change now.

• VIDEO: It got bloody for the Thai Red Shirts in 2009

The demonstrators have warned that they will press ahead with their agitation until their demands are met -- even if it means "paralyzing" Bangkok. Aljazeera's Wayne Hay reports from the Thai capital, where about 50,000 troops have been deployed. Flashback to Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007:

In Thailand, black magic is politics as usual

Robert Horn (TIME.com, Mar. 20, 2010)

A Hindu priest performs a ritual after supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra spilled blood at [coup leader] Abhisit Vejjajiva's offices in Bangkok on March 16, 2010 (AFP/Getty/Christophe Archambault).

BANGKOK - The images were shocking — and strange. On Tuesday, thousands of Thai protesters splattered buckets of their own blood outside the Prime Minister's office in Bangkok as a Brahmin priest in flowing white robes lit incense, chanted spells and cast a curse upon the government.

As theater, it was both effective and mysterious: clips of the blood curse led international news broadcasts, with viewers and analysts bewildered as to what the protesters were trying to achieve. But in Thailand, it was anything but an aberration.

Curses, dark rituals, and black magic have long been part of the political culture of the country and some of its neighbors. And to some Thai analysts, the strange rite was a rare public revelation of a more covert aspect of the ongoing conflict between the country's political movements — a war of the supernatural. More>>

• PHOTOS: 2008 protests in Bangkok
• Thailand’s ousted leader is no longer a billionaire
• Calling for new election, protesters swarm Bangkok
• Thailand’s former Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra

More than 1,000 monks to join Thai protest

(Bangkok Post) BANGKOK, Thailand - Over a thousand Buddhist monks are planning to show their solidarity with the Red Shirt demonstrators today (March 20, 2010). They will also offer temples in Bangkok as a resting place for Red Shirt protesters so they can prolong their rally against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, which was the result of a military coup.

Ven. Phra Panya Panyataro, a Buddhist monk from Surat Thani, Thailand said various groups of people, such as student and trade union leaders, had supported the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) demonstrators, so now it was time for the monks to do so.

Ven. Panya, coordinator of the Buddhist monk network for unity, said all monks who are at Sanam Luang have brought along an identity card and have registered so there were no fake monks [impersonators who are often planted provocateurs] among them. The monks' routine so far had been offering morning and evening prayers for peace and non-violence and walking round Sanam Luang once every day. Sathien Wipromha, a coordinator for the network, said some 1,200 monks had gradually arrived at Sanam Luang since last night to witness the Red Shirt vehicle caravan rally today. More>>

• We encourage these [sex scam] unholy godmen
  On the one hand, Hinduism is a league of religions that has a built-in tolerance. [This is particularly true in India, where Karnataka state plans to probe Swami Nithyananda's sex scandal.] This is typical of revealed religions. But Buddhism and Jainism began as protest/reform movements...
• More Jains embracing ancient "suicide" ritual
  MUMBAI, India - The death of 60-year-old Jain nun Sadhvi Charan Pragyaji on September 11 last year was different from any the tiny town of Bhilwada in Rajasthan had witnessed. Over 20,000 Jains from across the country thronged the hamlet. They did not come in white to mourn the loss but in their finest celebration clothes to mark her death. For she was the only Jain to have survived a Santhara ritual of 87 days. Santhara is the Jain practice of voluntary and systematic fasting to death. Jain texts say it is the ultimate route to attaining spiritual liberation (moksha) and breaking free from the whirlpool of life and death (Samsara).
• Anne Frank told fairy tales in concentration camp, says survivor
• Eva Braun, no dumb blonde, was in Hitler's inner circle: Book
• Jain nun with cancer fasts to death
  Man kills kid, eats brain for epilepsy cure
• Boy Scouts accused of homosexual sex abuse cover-up
• US Army jittery over whistleblower site
• US nuclear secrets accidentally go online
• Dot-com celebrates 25th birthday

Thai Turmoil (slide show)

Protesters riot on the streets of Bangkok
Slide Show (Timesonline.co.uk)

100,000 Buddhists Protest Gov't

Anti-government demonstrators take to the streets of Bangkok, Thailand 4/8/09. All dressed in red, the massive crowd marched through Bangkok's historic northern district, overtaking main boulevards and waving pictures of their leader-in-exile, Thaksin Shinawatra. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (whose supporters wear yellow) rejected calls for his resignation (AP/David Longstreath).

BANGKOK – About 100,000 protesters seeking to topple Thailand's government turned their wrath Wednesday on the 88-year-old top adviser to the country's revered king, accusing him of undermining democracy by orchestrating a pivotal 2006 coup.

Most of the protesters massed near the Bangkok residence of privy councilor Prem Tinsulanonda to demand he step down from his palace job for allegedly engineering the military's ouster of their hero, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. They also demanded that current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva quit his post. Red-shirted protesters clapped and cheered as... More>>

• North Korea holds massive pro-rocket rally