Thai "red shirts" stay put despite PM's ultimatum
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai anti-government protesters showed no sign of ending their two-month rally in Bangkok despite Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's warning that security forces were ready to act if they did not quit by Wednesday.
Thousands of "red shirt" protesters remained in a fortified camp in an upmarket shopping district in the centre of Bangkok.
Music and speeches had blared from powerful loudspeakers on their stage through the early hours of Wednesday as leaders tried to keep their supporters awake and alert. Most nights the volume is turned down a little until dawn.
Abhisit has offered an election on November 14 -- just over a year before one is due -- to try to end a movement that began in mid-March with a demand for an immediate poll. Twenty-nine people have died in clashes and more than 1,000 have been wounded.
The protesters, mostly supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006, have accepted the election date but are now pushing other demands, in particular wanting a deputy prime minister to be charged in connection with a bloody clash with troops on April 10 in which 25 people died.
Abhisit's tone has hardened in the past two days and late on Tuesday he told reporters the cabinet had decided the security forces needed to "take measures" quickly.
"This may affect people in the area, not just protesters but also people who work there and people who live there," he said.
"So we ask that the protesters make a gesture by going home tomorrow. Other issues can be discussed later if they are sincere about reconciliation."
ECONOMY SUFFERING
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij forecast on Wednesday the economy would grow 4.5 to 5.0 percent this year but said the unrest could shave 0.3 point off the range.
The stock market was flat, much the same as elsewhere in Asia, but analysts said the short-term outlook was bearish.
"The political endgame is changing ... The less friendly tone from the government and the prime minister's deadline for the protesters to leave are going to trigger some selling and keep the market mood subdued," said Kiatkong Decho, a strategist at CIMB Securities (Thailand).
Foreign investors have turned negative since violence flared in April and have sold 17.4 billion baht ($539 million) in Thai shares in the past five sessions, cutting their net buying so far this year to 21 billion baht as of Tuesday.
The authorities are faced with the dilemma of how to dislodge thousands of protesters, including women and children, from a fortified encampment sprawling across 3 sq km (1.2 sq mile) of the central Bangkok shopping district.
"We are not going anywhere until the government shows they will take responsibility for the clash," said 39-year-old protester Panna Saengkumboon. "People lost their eyes, their legs and arms. Others paid for this with their lives."
(Additional reporting by Ploy Ten Kate in Bangkok and Lee Chyen Yee in Beijing; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee)