PM to retake Bangkok site

BANGKOK (AFP) – THAILAND’S embattled prime minister vowed to clear Bangkok’s commercial heart of anti-government Red Shirt protesters as he appeared on television on Sunday in a show of unity with his army chief.

But Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did not say when security forces would retake the Red Shirts’ vast protest site, occupied for three weeks and fortified with barricades made from truck tyres and sharpened bamboo poles.

Adding to the tension, the rival Yellow Shirt group, who are backed by the country’s elite, plan to meet on Monday upon the expiry of a deadline they set a week ago for the government to deal with the Reds. They have threatened to tackle the Reds themselves, heightening fears of factional violence.

The Straits Times