BANGKOK (Reuters) – Red-shirted protesters emptied bottles of their blood outside the home of Thailand’s prime minister yesterday in a symbolic sacrifice after the government rejected calls for elections.
But the supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra are not letting up in their campaign for new elections.
They promised a city-wide march on Saturday, bringing in reinforcements to cover thousands of protesters who became weary and left after days on the street in the scorching Bangkok heat.
“The government may think this is nearly over — it isn’t,” a protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, told reporters, calling on Bangkok residents to join them.
Twice-elected Thaksin was ousted in a coup in 2006 and later sentenced to two years jail for graft. He fled shortly before his sentence was passed and lives mainly in Dubai. He now has Montenegrin citizenship and arrived there earlier this week, officials in the Balkan country said yesterday.
Honking horns, singing folk songs and waving red flags, protesters converged on Abhisit’s house in an affluent Bangkok neighbourhood where they splashed blood — a few spoonfuls donated by each — on the gates and fences amid pouring rain.
“We have washed Abhisit’s house with the blood of the common people to express our wish,” said Nattawut, as thousands of supporters rattled plastic clappers.
Protesters say the splashing of blood was a “symbolic sacrifice for democracy”. It is also a bid to re-energise a peaceful movement that appears to be waning in numbers.
Thousands of the “red shirt” protesters later yesterday gathered briefly outside the US embassy demanding clarification of comments by Thailand’s deputy prime minister that he had received foreign intelligence suggesting acts of sabotage could take place during the rally.
Citing unnamed sources, local media suggested he was referring to US intelligence, reportedly gleaned from a tapped phone conversation involving Thaksin. US embassy officials declined to comment.
The government has repeatedly warned of possible sabotage, including bombings and assassinations but critics say the government is playing up the fear to discredit the protesters.
Some “red shirts” looked fatigued after days on Bangkok’s streets. Of up to 150,000 demonstrators who massed on Sunday night, many had left. Police said about 30,000 remained yesterday evening, a large number compared with past protests.
The threat of violence remains but clashes look increasingly unlikely. Abhisit has not stayed at his home since Friday and has taken refuge at a military base, keeping a low profile.
He went to the drought-afflicted north on Tuesday and left the capital yesterday for a funeral in the south.
Despite fiery rhetoric by demonstrators on how the mainly rural “red shirts” have been marginalised by the military, urban elite and royalists who back Abhisit, some expressed frustration about the rally’s lack of impact and clear direction.
