Thailand's 'red shirts' open to talks

via CAAI News Media

Posted By MARTIN PETTY AND BILL TARRANT, REUTERS

Thai protesters occupying Bangkok's main shopping district for two weeks said on Wednesday they are open to talks but they also took steps to prepare for a clash with armed troops threatening to forcibly evict them.

While the demonstrators in Bangkok fortified their base with bunkers built of sharpened bamboo poles and tires, nearly a thousand protesters in northeastern Khon Kaen province seized an 18-car train carrying soldiers.

The comments on talks signalled some flexibility in a tense six-week confrontation that prompted the central bank on Wednesday to say interest rates would not start rising from a record low until the political situation was clearer.

The protests have frightened away tourists following a deadly clash on April 10 between the army and the demonstrators that killed 25 people and wounded more than 800.

Interviews with leaders of the mostly rural and working-class "red shirt" protesters indicated they may bend on their demands for a snap election.

Kwanchai Praipana, a red shirt leader from their stronghold in northeast Thailand, said he would propose to the group's leaders they consider a three-month timeframe for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call elections.

"The government has the upper hand and maybe we should show some flexibility," he told Reuters next to a stage of the rally site, where about 15,000 people have gathered in an area of department stores that have closed their doors for two weeks.

Talks between Abhisit and the protesters collapsed last month after two rounds when the red shirts rejected an offer to dissolve parliament within nine months -- a year early. It is unclear if Abhisit would agree to a three-month timetable.

In recent days he has shown no sign of compromise.

Government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn said Abhisit would be willing to hold talks with the protesters only if they agreed not to escalate tensions -- a vague requirement that could suggest their rally must end before negotiations can resume.

He declined to elaborate or to comment on the protesters' insistence talks be conducted through a third party.

The offer of talks comes two days after hundreds of armed troops converged on a road in the financial district, just an intersection away from the shopping area controlled by the protesters. Some troops have guns trained on the protesters from atop a foot-bridge after the army said it might use force.

"They've seen the signs that the noose is tightening around their necks -- there's not much appetite to become martyrs," Federico Ferrera, a political science professor at National University of Singapore, said of the protesters.

By nightfall, hundreds of pro-government demonstrators taunted the red shirts at the financial district intersection, held back by a thin line of riot police, as troops looked on.