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Shots fired in Bangkok protests Thailand's PM stands firm on election plan
(about 9 hours later)
Shots have been fired in Bangkok in an apparent attack on anti-government protesters that wounded at least two people and raised tensions in Thailand's deepening political crisis. Thailand's government stuck to a plan for a February election on Wednesday despite mounting pressure from protesters who have brought parts of Bangkok to a near-standstill, and said it believed support for the leader of the agitation was waning.
Most of the Thai capital remained unaffected on Wednesday by the latest wave of rallies. But the shooting was the latest in a string of sporadic violent incidents. Bangkok's emergency services office said one man was hit in the ankle and a woman was hit in the arm in the shooting, which occurred on a street leading to an upmarket shopping district that has been occupied since Monday by camping demonstrators trying to oust the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and her government. Some hardline protesters threatened to blockade the stock exchange and an air traffic control facility if Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had not stepped down by a deadline media said was set for 8pm (1pm GMT).
Sompong Pongsattha, a 56-year-old resident who witnessed the attack in the Pathumwan district, said about 30 gunshots were fired from an unknown location toward a protest barricade over the course of about two hours. He said only a few demonstrators were there at the time and the wounded woman had to be carried to another intersection to be taken to a hospital. There was no apparent movement as the deadline came and went.
In another incident over Tuesday night a small explosive device was thrown into a residential compound owned by former Abhisit Vejjajiva, the previous prime minister, shattering windows and slightly damaging a roof, according to police colonel Chumpol Phumphuang and Abhisit's opposition Democrat party. No injuries were reported and Abhisit was not home at the time. The unrest, which flared in early November and escalated this week when demonstrators occupied main intersections of the capital, is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict.
In the west of the city several people poured gasoline on a tour bus that had been used by protesters and set it ablze, police said. The political faultline pits the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier ousted by the military in 2006 who is seen as the power behind her government.
On Tuesday Yingluck insisted she would not quit while the protesters reiterated vows not to negotiate, leaving no way out in sight. "I've stressed many times I have a duty to act according to my responsibility after the dissolution of parliament," Yingluck saod. "I'd like to say right now I am not holding on [to my position] but I have to keep political stability. I'm doing my duty to preserve democracy." Yingluck invited protest leaders and political parties to discuss a proposal to delay the general election, which she has called for 2 February, but her opponents snubbed her invitation.
The protesters are boycotting the February poll because they know Yingluck's party would win as it did in 2011. Instead, they are calling for an unelected "people's council" to amend laws to fight corruption in politics, while an appointed prime minister would help administer the country for up to two years. After the meeting, the government said the poll would go ahead as scheduled, and it derided the leader of the protest movement, Suthep Thaugsuban.
Suthep called on supporters Wednesday to shut down all government offices and cut water and electricity to the private residences of Yingluck and her cabinet "in the next two or three days." He also threatened to "detain" Yingluck, saying: "If they are still being obstinate, then we will capture them one by one because the people are not interested in fighting for years." "We believe the election will bring the situation back to normal," Pongthep Thepkanchana, the deputy prime minister told reporters. "We can see that the support for Mr Suthep is declining. When he is doing something against the law, most people do not support that."
Later on Wednesday the prime minister said elections due on 2 February would go ahead despite intense pressure for a postponement by her opponents. Yingluck had proposed to meet on Wednesday with rivals to discuss a proposal from the election commission for a delay but Suthep and the Democrat party refused to take part. Speakers at protest sites across central Bangkok have given the impression Yingluck is worn out and eager to quit. But she seemed relaxed and cheerful at the meeting, which was held inside an air force base near Don Muang International airport.
After a meeting with members of her cabinet, candidates who registered for the poll and a top electoral official Yingluck said that there was no legal way for the election commission to delay the vote. Her senior officials stressed the caretaker government had no legal powers to postpone or cancel the election and stressed that even an imperfect poll was better than none.
"The ballot box doesn't solve everything, and she knows that. But at least that's the right step," Suranand Vejjajiva, secretary-general to the prime minister, said.
The protesters say they will occupy the city's main arteries until an unelected "people's council" replaces Yingluck's administration.
Thaksin's rural and working-class support has ensured he or his allies have won every election since 2001 and Yingluck's Puea Thai party seems certain to win any vote held under present arrangements.
The protesters want to suspend what they say is a democracy commandeered by the self-exiled billionaire Thaksin, whom they accuse of nepotism and corruption, and eradicate the political influence of his family by altering electoral arrangements.
There was no sign of trouble at the two targets named by hardliners in the protest movement, the stock exchange and the central Bangkok offices of AeroThai, which is in charge of air traffic control communication for planes using Thai air space.
AeroThai said it had back-up operations to ensure no disruption to air travel if its control centre was shut down.
Suthep's supporters have blockaded at least seven big Bangkok intersections and are also trying to stop ministries from functioning, forcing many to remain closed, with civil servants working from back-up facilities or from home.
Yingluck herself has been unable to work from her offices in Government House since late November.
There have been relatively few factional clashes in this upsurge of unrest with the government keen to avoid confrontation. Government supporters said they held protests on Monday and Tuesday in provinces neighbouring Bangkok but had no plans to demonstrate in the city.
"All we ask is that Prime Minister Yingluck does not resign," said Worawut Wichaidit, spokesman for the pro-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship.
"If [Suthep] and his group achieve their goal ... the outcome would be similar to a coup, and we all saw what happened the last time there was a coup," Worawut said, referring to instability and factional strife in the years that followed the last army takeover in 2006.
It is widely thought that, if the agitation grinds on, the judiciary or military may step in. The military has staged or attempted 18 coups in 81 years of on-off democracy, although it has tried to stay neutral this time and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has publicly refused to take sides.
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