Abhisit Vejjajiva Defends Deadly Crackdown

Thailand’s Prime Minister defended on Saturday the deadly Army crackdown on the Red Shirt protesters besieging the capital, saying there was no turning back as clashes raged in the center of Bangkok.

“The government must move forward. We cannot retreat because we are doing things that will benefit the entire country,” Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a national broadcast, striking a defiant tone that made it clear he was in no mood for a compromise.

The spiraling violence has raised concerns that Thailand was teetering toward instability. The political uncertainty has spooked foreign investors and damaged the vital tourism industry, which accounts for 6 per cent of the economy.

The demonstrators on Saturday accused government snipers of picking people off with head shots. The Army says it is not shooting to kill, but protesters crawled along sidewalks to slowly drag away bodies of three people near the city’s Victory Monument traffic circle in the Ratchaprarop area on Saturday.

“The situation right now is getting closer to civil war every minute,” a protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan, said. “We have to fight on. The leaders shouldn’t even think about retreat when our brothers are ready to fight on.”

The televised comments were Abhisit’s first comments since the latest violence began on Thursday after a Red Shirt protest leader was shot and seriously wounded by a sniper’s bullet.