By Sukree Sukplang and Ambika Ahuja
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai anti-government protesters stepped up security at their base in a ritzy Bangkok shopping centre on Saturday, a week after bloody clashes with security forces killed 24 people.
Under leaden skies, thousands of protesters gathered to commemorate the deaths as medical supplies, sanitary facilities and foodstalls were set up at the base that the "red shirts" have pledged to turn into a "final battleground" to oust Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Abhisit said he would crack down on the protesters who he calls "terrorists," and on Friday put his army chief in charge of security operations at the expense of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban after a bungled attempt to arrest red shirt leaders.
However, he indicated that there would be no immediate attempt to dislodge the protesters, calling for patience.
"There has been more talk of crackdown and possible attempts to take us in, so we have to make sure we are not infiltrated," protest leader Nattawut Saikua said, adding that the red shirts had no plans to march on Saturday.
The red shirts back former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and want Abhisit to quit and call snap elections, something the Oxford-educated premier has refused to do.
The political crisis in Thailand has hit tourism, a mainstay of Southeast Asia's second largest economy, hard and caused a selloff in the stock market which has given up almost all of this year's gains as foreign investors have sold heavily.
Protesters held a Buddhist ceremony to mark last weekend's clashes and dozens of monks chanted on the protest stage as leaders gave them alms and flowers, asking for blessings on behalf of their late comrades.
Although Bangkok was quiet seven days after the bloody clashes in which 19 protesters and 5 soldiers were killed and more than 800 people injured, few expect a peaceful or fast resolution of the conflict.
Supporters of the government came out in thousands to express their disapproval of the red shirts on Friday.
Adding to the risk of clashes, an anti-Thaksin protest group known as the "yellow shirts" who in 2008 occupied Bangkok airport said they would meet on Sunday to discuss their next move.
GOVT LOOKS TO ARMY
Abhisit made a rare appearance on national television on Friday from a fortified barracks on the outskirts of Bangkok, putting army chief General Anupong Paochinda in charge of security operations.
The move appeared to bind Anupong, who retires in September, into the government after he had expressed reluctance to use force, calling for the crisis to be resolved with "political solutions."
"A lot of people are losing patience and they are blaming the government for its failure to end this," said Sombat Thamrongthanyawong of the National Institute of Development Administration.
"At the same time, the government cannot do anything without the army's wholehearted backing to go in and crack down. So it's a continued paralysis that undermines the government's popularity and credibility," he said.
The risk of further instability sent Thai stocks down 3.25 percent on Friday. The market has now lost almost all its gains this year.
Hotel occupancy rates are less than a third of normal levels in Bangkok, according to a tour operator body. and the government's 4.5 percent economic growth forecast for this year may be in peril.
(Writing by David Chance; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
