By DPA,
Bangkok : Thai troops Wednesday stopped a caravan of protesters heading from Bangkok to a neighbouring province by erecting road barriers and shooting rubber bullets. About a dozen people were injured, including one soldier.
Hundreds of troops and police blocked the protest convoy in Anusornsathan district, near Bangkok’s old Don Mueang Airport.
Soldiers shot rubber bullets, injuring between 10 and 20 people, according to television reports. One soldier was also shot in the head but his condition was not immediately known, media reports said.
“We don’t know his condition yet,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanyakorn said.
Protest leader Jatuporn Prompan ordered the convoy of about 2,000 followers of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) to retreat to their main protest site at Ratchaprasong intersection in central Bangkok, where they have been camping out since April 3.
They had been heading to Pathum Thani province to protest against the arrest of 11 UDD followers Monday.
The caravan was led by Kwanchai Praiphana, one of 24 protest leaders who faces an arrest warrant for defying emergency law, which Bangkok has been under for the past six weeks.
It was the UDD’s first attempt to take the initiative since the weekend, when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed to take tougher measures against the protest movement.
After 48 days of demonstrations that have blocked off sections of the capital, Abhisit is under growing pressure to clear out the protesters from a posh shopping district, or meet their demands to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
In a televised broadcast Sunday, the prime minister, flanked by army chief General Anupong Paochinda, vowed to restore stability to the capital through stricter security measures.
Monday, authorities arrested 11 UDD followers in Pathum Thani for setting up a checkpoint to prevent police and army reinforcements from entering Bangkok.
The 11 men where sentenced to 15 days in jail but were released after an opposition politician posted their bail. It was one of the first cases in which the authorities dared to arrest UDD protesters, who have the support of a wide swathe of society.
The UDD protest, which claims to be fighting for a new election to set up a pro-poor government, began March 12. The demonstration initially used only peaceful tactics but has grown increasingly confrontational as the government stepped up measures to end it.
A bloody confrontation April 10 claimed 25 lives, including five soldiers, and left more than 800 wounded.
Abhisit has alleged that “terrorists” working within the UDD used military weapons such as grenade launchers against the troops. Of the 20 civilians killed in the melee, many had been shot, either by snipers or soldiers.
April 22, five grenades were launched at government supporters on Silom Road near the site of the UDD’s protest, killing one woman and prompting more government accusations of terrorist tactics by the demonstrators.
The Foreign Ministry Wednesday repeated earlier government charges of a plot within the UDD movement to overthrow Thailand’s revered monarchy. It said the protest was linked to “networks operating through various means such as the internet and other media who conduct activities and disseminate messages or information verging on subverting the country’s monarchical institution and calling for a change in Thailand’s present political regime.”
UDD leaders insisted there is no-anti monarchy plot, saying their goals are simply to seek new elections.
They accuse Abhisit of coming to power illegitimately through a parliamentary reshuffle in December 2008 that was orchestrated by the military and the bureaucratic elite.