Police and demonstrators clashin Bangkok

Soldiers are deployed on the streets of the Thai capital as the country's latest political crisis turned violent.

Protesters duck in tear gas smoke outside Bangkok's rear parliament building. As many as 278 people were injured in the clashes, hospital officials said.

BANGKOK // Soldiers were deployed on the streets of the Thai capital yesterday as the country's latest political crisis turned violent. Clashes between anti-government protesters and police yesterday left at least one person dead and as many as 278 injured, including eight Thai policemen who were either shot or stabbed, reports said. In a separate incident, a car bomb exploded outside the offices of the Chart Thai party, a partner in the coalition led by the People's Power Party, killing a bystander. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the deputy prime minister in charge of security, resigned, accepting responsibility for the clashes. For weeks, authorities have tried to appease or ignore thousands of protesters who have occupied Government House for more than two months, calling for the government to resign. But when the demonstrators yesterday tried to block access to parliament, where the prime minister was due to outline his parties' policies for the coming months, security forces were ordered to dislodge them from in front of the road leading to the legislature buildings. Hundreds of riot police clashed with the demonstrators as they tried to clear a path through the crowd so that MPs and senators could enter and leave parliament. Security forces fired volleys of tear gas and lobbed stun grenades into the crowd, who reacted by hurling stones and firecrackers back at police. "It's the start of Black October," said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior political analyst with The Nation, an English-language daily newspaper, in a reference to the military's violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in May 1992, when several hundred students are believed to have died. "I fear worse is yet to come." One woman was killed and two men were severely injured by exploding tear gas canisters, it was reported. Several thousand protesters then regrouped in front of the nearby police headquarters, chanting anti-government slogans, while others fought with police. "It was like a battleground," said Nualnoi, a protester. "We were angry at the government ignoring us and then the police attacked unarmed civilians without warning; it was lucky it did not get out of hand." Major Gen Amnuay Nimmano, the metropolitan police chief, defended his force's actions, saying tear gas was necessary to control the situation, however, he insisted that no rubber bullets had been fired. Mr Chavalit, who had only recently been appointed to the position of deputy prime minister, immediately resigned, taking responsibility for ordering the police to take firm measures to guard the parliamentary premises and to open a way to the building. Though he reportedly also ordered the police to be careful not to provoke the protesters or cause any damage. "But the police actions went against the policy, although police had put in a lot of effort, causing great losses," he said in his resignation letter to the parliamentary speaker. He also said his mission to restore peace to Thai society, as quickly as possible, had failed. Since Somchai Wongsawat, the new prime minister, came into office nearly two weeks ago, the government has taken a more conciliatory approach towards the protesters. Intermediaries have been conveying messages back and forth between the two sides. After Mr Chavalit was appointed, he took charge of the government's mediation efforts with the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the umbrella group leading the protesters. Now he says he is convinced these attempts at dialogue are futile. The PAD is a coalition of businessmen, academics and activists, who accuse Mr Somchai of being a political proxy for the former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law, who was ousted in a military coup two years ago. He and his family are currently seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom. PAD leaders argue that Thai democracy has been undermined by the billionaire Mr Thaksin and his allies. They easily won the last three elections, but only through massive electoral fraud and vote-buying, according to the protesters. The PAD is proposing what it calls "new politics" - which would include most MPs being appointed. "Thai society has never been so divided," said Duncan McCargo, a British academic and author of several books on Thailand. "Although the fault lines appear to be geographic - [the south and Bangkok against the north and north-east of the country] - the main rift is between those who oppose Thaksin and those who support him." The demonstrators have vowed to remain on Bangkok's streets until all of Mr Thaksin's proteges and his influence are expunged from Thailand's political scene. The demonstrators failed to stop Mr Somchai from making his maiden policy speech. In it he called for national reconciliation to end the country's three-year political crisis, pitting Mr Thaksin and his rural base against rivals in the royalist and military establishment, believed by many to be backing the PAD. After his speech, he had to slip out of parliament through a back gate to avoid the protesters. "Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat had to climb over side gates to the nearby Pimanmek Mansion, before boarding a helicopter to the Supreme Command headquarters," a government official said on condition of anonymity. Mr Somchai, however, after meeting the military, said he would not be imposing a state of emergency. Similar street violence last month triggered a two-week state of emergency in Bangkok, but the army refused to enforce it and the measure was withdrawn after it badly damaged the tourist trade and the Thai economy. This latest spate of violence has also rekindled rumours of a military coup, although the army chiefs have insisted that the government needs to handle the situation, and the country's soldiers have no place in politics. [e-mail]