Talks seek end to protest siege of key Bangkok district
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Leaders of tens of thousands of Thai protesters who have overrun Bangkok's main shopping district will meet with authorities on Sunday for talks following a threat of mass arrests in their bold street-rally bid for elections.
The government said the red-shirted protesters who have seized control of a major intersection in a district of upmarket department stores and luxury hotels could each face up to a year in jail and a 20,000 baht (408 pound) fine if they don't leave.
The Centre for Administration of Peace and Order -- a special government body to keep security during anti-government protests that entered their fourth week on Sunday -- said the protesters had violated a tough Internal Security Act imposed last month.
"The protest at the intersection is no longer legal because it is a major business area, causing a lot of damage socially and economically," Prime Minister's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey told local television late on Saturday.
Sathit said there was no immediate plan to disperse the protesters with force. The government wanted to see their reaction to public announcements on Sunday notifying people they can face penalties if the rally continues, he said.
The more than 50,000 protesters ignored a deadline at 9 p.m. (local time) on Saturday to leave the area where Central World, the second-largest shopping complex in Southeast Asia, and half a dozen other big malls and retailers shut their doors in response to threats by the protesters to stay several days.
The mostly rural and working-class demonstrators have said they will not leave until Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government dissolves parliament and calls elections.
Protest leader Veera Musikapong told Reuters his "red shirts" would remain until at least Monday but they would talk with authorities on Sunday to allow some traffic through.
"We have no choice but to step up civil disobedience until the government listens," he said. "We are here because this area is a symbol of Bangkok elite. We want to show them they cannot rule without consensus of the people."
TOURISM CONCERNS
Backed by Thailand's powerful military and royalist establishment, Abhisit has said a peaceful poll now would be difficult given the tensions and offered last week to dissolve parliament in December, a year early.
The British-born, Oxford-educated economist has urged Bangkok's 15 million people to show restraint.
Analysts say Abhisit would likely lose an election if it were held now, raising investment risks in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy following a $1.6 billion surge of foreign investment in Thai stocks over the past five weeks on expectations Abhisit will survive the showdown.
The "red shirts," supporters of twice-elected and now fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, say Abhisit has no popular mandate and came to power illegitimately, heading a coalition the military cobbled together after courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party that led the previous government.
Abhisit says he was voted into office by the same parliament that picked his Thaksin-allied predecessors.
Seizing an area to oust leaders is becoming a common tactic in politically tense Thailand. In 2008, yellow-shirted protesters who opposed Thaksin's allies in the previous government occupied the prime minister's office for three months and then blockaded Bangkok's main airport until a court expelled the government.
At the centre of the impasse is Thaksin, seen as authoritarian and corrupt before he was ousted in a 2006 coup but a rallying symbol for the poor as the first Thai civilian leader to reach out to rural voters in his 2001 election campaign.
The 60-year-old former telecommunications tycoon often rallies supporters through social networking site Twitter from self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai. On Saturday, he "tweeted" that the "red shirts" should continue occupying the area.
The occupation of one Bangkok's biggest commercial districts has stoked concerns about a rippling impact on tourism and the economy ahead of Thailand's April 13-15 Songkran holidays.
"We have nothing against peaceful democratic protests, but this has affected the normal way of life," said Apichart Singka-aree, director and former president of the private Association of Thai Travel Agents.
"Out of some 100 previously booked flights for Chinese tourists to fly in for the Songkran festival, over 60 have been cancelled. We are trying to save the remaining 30 something flights," he told Reuters.
(Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja. Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)