Clearing operations turn violent in Thai protest

Thai police attempting to clear a protest camp in Bangkok on Tuesday, February 18 had to retreat after shots were fired. It is unclear who fired the shots but police claim the protestors had weapons and ammunition. The clashes left at least one policeman dead and several others injured. At least 44 people were hurt, according to emergency services. The Thai authorities have vowed to clear intersections used as protest camps by opposition groups; but have pledged to carry out the operations ‘slowly’ and ‘peacefully.’ But demonstrators rejected a police demand to leave the area around the office of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra within one hour, a day after they poured buckets of cement onto a sandbag wall in front of a gate to the compound. “The government cannot work here anymore,” said a spokesman for the anti-government movement, Akanat Promphan. Protests began in December 2013, with opposition leaders calling for a shutdown of Bangkok, similar to the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States. Despite elections held on February 2, a political compromise seems hardly likely in the coming weeks.


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