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| Southeast Asia |
| 51 protesters wounded in Thailand explosions |
| 2008-11-30 |
| Attackers set off explosions at anti-government protest sites Sunday, wounding 51 people and raising fears of widening confrontations in Thailand's worst political crisis that has strangled its economy and shut down its main airports. The first blast occurred inside Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's office compound, which protesters seized in August and have held ever since. Suriyasai Katasiya, a spokesman for the protest group, said a grenade landed on the roof of a tent where protesters were resting, rolled down to the ground and exploded. At least 49 people were injured, said Surachet Sathitniramai at the Narenthorn Medical Center. He said nine were hospitalized, including four in serious condition. Twenty-minutes after that attack, two more blasts rocked an anti-government television station but there were no injuries, Suriyasai said. In another pre-dawn strike, an explosive device detonated on the road near the main entrance to Bangkok's Don Muang domestic airport. Surachet and an Associated Press television cameraman said two people were wounded. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts but Suriyasai blamed the government. Tensions were rising as a pro-government group prepared to hold a rally in the heart of Bangkok later Sunday to express its support for Somchai, who is operating out of the northern city of Chiang Mai. Government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua denied rumors that Somchai had left the country, saying he was definitely in Chiang Mai and had no plans to go abroad in the near future. The prime minister has been reluctant to use force to evict the demonstrators from the People's Alliance for Democracy, who on Tuesday night overran Suvarnabhumi airport, the country's main international gateway. The alliance seized Bangkok's domestic airport a day later, severing the capital from all commercial air traffic and virtually paralyzing the government. National police deputy chief Lt. Gen. Pongpat Pongjaroen said police have begun negotiations with the protesters to end the standoff, but alliance leader Chamlong Srimuang denied it. The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges. ... |
| Posted by:ed |