Eerie calm returns to Bangkok

Thailand's capital experiences a brief respite after clashes between government soldiers and anti-government protesters.

Chamlong Srimuang, right, and Chaiwat Sinsuwong, the protest leaders, meet the press after their release from jail in Bangkok yesterday.

BANGKOK // Thailand's capital experienced a brief respite yesterday after violent clashes between government soldiers and anti-government protesters this week left at least two dead and hundreds wounded, but some analysts warned it was the calm before the storm as a monthlong political crisis showed no signs of abating.

In an apparent concession to the protesters, who have held a sit-in at the seat of government in Bangkok for more than six weeks, officials said they would resume negotiations with the demonstrators who are calling for the administration of Somchai Wongsawat, the prime minister, to resign. Also, treason charges against all nine of the top leaders of the street protests were thrown out by the Thai appeals court yesterday, although they will face several lesser offences.

Two of the movement's leaders, who were arrested over the weekend, were released on bail yesterday, and immediately returned to head the demonstrations. The other seven leaders are out on bail and have all reported to the police. This may take some of the steam out of the protests, at least for the time being, as the city returns to normal after Tuesday's bloody clashes that injured about 500 people.

Troops are still patrolling the streets and the police are guarding the prime minister's residence, but the riot police that fired tear gas at the protesters with such brutal results are now unarmed. Although for many people it was business as usual yesterday, the food and fruit sellers who usually pack the capital's narrow pavements were not optimistic that the calm would last. "Business has not been good since the demonstrators captured the government offices [nearly two months ago]," Purichai, who sells Thai pancakes near the parliament, said. "If it starts again, I will be ruined and my family will have nothing to eat."

Most people did not want to talk about politics. "We have had enough of this," said Naritchai, 20, a college student. "No one seems to care about the poor people - food and fuel prices are rising almost every day; the government doesn't do anything to help us, and the protesters just make the situation worse." When the violence erupted, it was some of the bloodiest the people of Bangkok had seen for 16 years. "Bloodbath in Bangkok", screamed the headlines on the front page of the daily English-language newspaper, The Nation. Few doubt that the concessions made yesterday will result in an impasse in the current political deadlock.

Anupong Paojinda, the army chief, has warned that divisions within Thai society need to be addressed to prevent a repeat of the clashes. The street violence marked the start of a more intense struggle between the embattled Thai government and the thousands of protesters, who accuse politicians of corruption and elitism. Nearly three years after the foes of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, initially took to the streets to oust him and his government, there seems to have been little progress. Mr Thaksin was toppled by a military coup in Sept 2006, and he and his family are currently in exile in England.

However, the demonstrators believe that the new government, elected to power in December last year, is merely a puppet of Mr Thaksin and have vowed to stay on the streets until the government resigns and fresh elections are called. "We will stay here until we win," said Wasant, one of the demonstrators, who has been here since the start of the protest some six weeks ago. Most analysts and commentators believe Thailand has never been so divided and polarised. Politically this seems to fall along a geographic fault line - the south and Bangkok against the north and north-east of the country - but the main rift is between those who oppose Mr Thaksin and those who support him.

The prime minister yesterday said he would appoint two independent bodies - one to investigate the violence earlier this week and another to monitor the needs of those who were injured. "Both committees will be composed of independent and neutral people, not government officials," Mr Somchai said. The government's overtures, however, are unlikely to be heeded by the demonstrators. "Dialogue doesn't really suit the PAD, as it deprives them of their power," said Prof Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"This latest turn of events was intended to galvanise the movement and were meant to deliberately provoke the authorities." Mr Somchai's government is unlikely to survive much longer. Although the government is adamant it has no intention of calling a snap election, it may not be long before Mr Somchai has to give in - but with his party's huge unpopularity, it is unclear if he will return. [e-mail]