Red-shirts step up the pressure

Neither side appeared willing to end a political stalemate which

exploded on Saturday when protesters and security forces clashed on the streets of Bangkok for several hours, resulting in the worst bloodshed seen in Thailand in almost two decades. Both sides claim to be fighting to preserve democracy.

"Red Shirts will never negotiate with murderers," protest leader Jatuporn Prompan announced from a makeshift stage. "Although the road

is rough and full of obstacles, it's our duty to honour the dead by bringing democracy to this country."

The anti-government protesters are made up of mostly poor and rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who have massed in the city dressed in red shirts over the past month.

On the other side is the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whom the red shirts see as a symbol of the ruling elite they say orchestrated the 2006 military coup which removed Mr Thaksin from power amid corruption allegations.

The Thai stock market plunged four per cent when it opened for business yesterday amid fears of more unrest as tens of thousands of

demonstrators came out in a massive motorcade.

Like a gigantic red snake, the line of pick-up trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles wound its way through the main roads of Bangkok. They carried 11 coffins with bodies of those killed in Saturday's violence, said Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader.

Four soldiers and 17 civilians were killed, including a Thomson Reuters news agency cameraman. Both sides accuse each other of firing battlefield weapons during the confrontation.

"These are the heroes of democracy," a protest leader shouted from a loudspeaker mounted on top of a truck yester day. "We want to see shame on Abhisit's face. We want him to take responsibility for this slaughter of innocents," said one woman.

The procession started at Phan Fa Bridge, located in the historic section of Bangkok and one of the two bases of the protesters. It drove through the modern commercial heart of the city along Phetburi Road, Rama IV Road and past the vegetable and meat market of Klong Toey.

The disruptive protests began a month ago, taking the protesters' demands – for Mr Abhisit to dissolve Parliament and call new elections –to a new level.

Unconfirmed reports in local newspapers said political parties in the coalition government were pressuring Mr Abhisit to compromise with the "Red Shirt" protesters by dissolving Parliament in the next six months instead of by the end of the year, as he had earlier proposed.

The protesters see the Oxford-educated Mr Abhisit as a symbol of an elite impervious to the plight of Thailand's poor and claim he took office illegitimately in December 2008 after the military pressured Parliament to vote for him.