Thai leader bows to protest demands, raising hopes for end to Bangkok demonstrations

Hopes raised for end of protests in Thailand

BANGKOK — Thailand’s deputy prime minister met with police investigators Tuesday in a bow to demands by protesters that he face possible criminal charges before they end their two-month-old occupation of Bangkok’s prime commercial district.

The Red Shirt protesters said Monday they would continue their crippling demonstration in central Bangkok until the prime minister and his deputy, Suthep Thaugsuban, surrendered to police to face possible charges for deadly street violence.

No criminal charges are pending against either Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva or Suthep, who has led the government’s security response to the protests that erupted March 12, but both expressed willingness to meet with police.

Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, has blamed Suthep for violence during protests that has left 29 people dead and hundreds injured.

“The day Suthep turns himself in to police is the day we the Red Shirts go home,” Nattawut told cheering crowds in an announcement late Monday at a makeshift stage erected weeks ago in the protest zone

Suthep arrived at the headquarters of the Department of Special Investigation early Tuesday, raising hopes that the demonstrations might soon end.

The Red Shirts include the rural and urban poor as well as pro-democracy advocates. Many are supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist leader who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and charged with corruption and abuse of power.

The protesters say Abhisit’s coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military.

Abhisit last week offered a reconciliation plan including the dissolving of Parliament and early elections on Nov. 14, a year ahead of schedule. The Red Shirts agreed in principle but said they needed some more assurances before dismantling their barricades in the heart of Bangkok.

Late Monday, Nattawut announced that the Red Shirts accepted Abhisit’s plan but went on to list a number of demands, including that Suthep face charges for a deadly April 10 clash between soldiers and protesters.

More than two dozen Red Shirt leaders already face a variety of charges, ranging from violating the terms of a state of emergency to weapons violations and assaults on government officials. The most serious charges, related to disruption of public transport services, infrastructure and telecommunications, are covered by terrorism statutes and are punishable by up to 20 years in jail and 1 million baht ($31,000) fines.

Nattawut also demanded that the TV channel of the Red Shirts — formally the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, or UDD — be allowed back on air before they end their protests. The government has shut down the channel’s satellite link and dozens of websites that it says have incited hatred in the country.

Some Red Shirt leaders retorted later that they would not accept Abhisit and Suthep turning themselves into the DSI — Thailand’s FBI — which has been very active in publicly linking the protesters to alleged “terrorists” who have carried out armed attacks.

They want the men to deal with the regular national police, who are generally considered more sympathetic to the protest group.

However, such remarks from the stage by protest leaders do not always reflect the group’s formal position.

The Red Shirt leaders also emphasized their desire that there be no “double standard” in pursuing justice, arguing that any measure applied to them — such as denial of bail — also be applied to their adversaries on the government side.

“It’s a negotiating tactic: ‘If we get prosecuted, you too must be prosecuted,’” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

Overall, he said, the situation is moving in a positive direction because at least both sides are negotiating — rather than fighting in the streets.

Despite hopes that the prolonged protests would end without further bloodshed, two attacks Friday night killed two policemen and wounded 13 people. The violence occurred just outside the protest occupation zone in Bangkok’s prime commercial district, where upscale shopping centers and hotels have been shuttered for weeks.

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Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker, Denis D. Gray and Grant Peck contributed to this report.