Bangkok braced for bloodshed as Red Shirts vow no surrender

[ChangoLoa]

Source: Times

Hospitals in Bangkok are preparing for bloodshed tonight after anti-government Red Shirt protesters ignored an ultimatum to abandon their occupation of central Bangkok, but there were faint signs of a last minute compromise between the two sides.

The chief negotiator for the Government told a senior protest leader that the Royal Thai Army will stop firing on Red Shirts if they withdraw to their main camp in the Ratchaprasong district of central Bangkok. “If they call their people back to Ratchaprasong there will be no single bullet fired by the soldiers,” said Korbsak Sabhavasu. “”If he is serious about solving the problem he is capable of doing it. He can simply call back his people.”

The contact between the two sides came as leaders of the Red Shirt demonstration promised to die rather than give in to the authorities.

An aeroplane dropped leaflets urging protesters to leave immediately and warning that anyone caught inside the area faced two years in prison. But after the 3pm deadline passed, several thousand people remained in the protest area, which has been sealed off and fortified with towering barricades of rubber tyres and bamboo poles.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7128691.ece

[maddezmom]

1. Thai protesters agree to talks to end violence

(Reuters) - Thai anti-government protesters agreed on Tuesday to talks brokered by a Senate leader to end Thailand's deadliest political crisis in 18 years, but analysts doubted the negotiations would halt the spiraling violence.

Troops have surrounded thousands of anti-government demonstrators in the fortified camp they have occupied for six weeks in central Bangkok, as soldiers armed with assault rifles skirmish with protesters on several major roads in the capital.

"We have agreed to take a new round of talks proposed by the Senate because if we allow things to go on like this, we don't know how many more lives will be lost," Nattawut Saikua, one of the "red shirt" leaders, told a news conference.
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But analysts say that while the proposal is positive, it is unlikely to lead to a peace deal.

The government has not responded and a group of 40 other senators with more pro-government leanings called on the red shirts to surrender and enter the court process

more:http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64C0L620100518