Bangkok: Thai troops armed with assault rifles moved into Bangkok`s central business district on Monday morning to stop thousands of anti-government protesters and threatening to march down the capital`s "Wall Street”.
The government had earlier declared Silom Road, a thoroughfare studded with bank headquarters and office buildings, off-limits to the protesters who have camped in the capital`s main shopping district nearby for weeks.
Troops initially blocked entry into the road, popularly known as Thailand`s Wall Street, but then pulled back almost half its 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) length to protect a key target of the protesters, the headquarters of the Bangkok Bank which was barricaded by barbed wire. Many of the demonstrators, who had earlier faced-off against the troops across an intersection, also pulled back.
The so-called "Red Shirts" claim the bank has close ties to the government. They have protested in front of the building previously on a smaller scale.
Earlier in the morning, soldiers also patrolled the city`s most famous bar strip, Patpong Road, and an entertainment area for Japanese tourists, which are just off Silom. Some took positions atop buildings after searching for possible snipers and along a skywalk running several hundred meters (yards) above the road.
A small contingent of riot police stayed at the entry to Silom as neatly dressed employees walked past to their offices. Some businesses along the road were shuttered.
As Thailand`s traditional New Year holiday ended, protest leaders had called for a mass rally Tuesday on Silom in their bid to oust Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. That has raised concerns of more clashes after savage fighting a week ago killed 25 people.
The military declared the city`s main shopping boulevard unsafe Sunday because of large crowds of anti-government protesters, and soldiers were sent to nearby high-rises to watch for any violence.
The warning by Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd was another blow for Thailand`s vital tourism sector, which accounts for 6 percent of the economy and has steeply declined since the protests began March 12.
Sansern said military checkpoints were being set up at entry points to the capital and within Bangkok to try to prevent more "Red Shirt" protesters from reaching the main rally site. The area contains upscale shopping malls and five-star hotels that have been under virtual siege. At least six malls remain closed.
"The protest area is unsafe. Authorities need to control it by sending security personnel into the surrounding high-rise buildings," Sansern told a news conference. He said soldiers would help "prevent people with ill intentions from infiltrating the area."
The government accuses "terrorists" armed with guns and other weapons of orchestrating the earlier violence and says weapons were stolen from the military that have not been returned.
The protesters consist mainly of poor rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists who opposed the military coup that ousted him in 2006.
They believe Abhisit heads an illegitimate government because it came to power through a parliamentary vote after disputed court rulings ousted two elected, pro-Thaksin administrations. The conflict has been characterised by some as class warfare, pitting the country`s vast rural poor against an elite that has traditionally held power.
Bureau Report
