Thai PM calls for unity as bustle returns to Bangkok

Published on Saturday 22 May 2010 02:56

THAILAND'S prime minister yesterday made an emotional appeal to the country to heal the political wounds that divide it.

•Thai workers clean roads inside the Red Shirts anti-government protestors camp at the Lumpini Park in Bangkok. Pic: AFP

Claiming that order had been restored after a spasm of violence, prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the focus had shifted from securing the country to restoring normal routines, particularly in Bangkok, where a two-month confrontation between his government and Red Shirt protesters who want him to resign left at least 84 dead.

"We will continue to move swiftly to restore normalcy and we recognise that as we move ahead there are huge challenges," Mr Abhisit said in a televised address.

But one of his senior advisers said the rifts are increasing pressure on him to call elections to prove he has a public mandate.

Bangkok remains in a state of emergency and under a nighttime curfew through the weekend, its first since a pro-democracy uprising against a military government in 1992.

But with the sound of gunfire and explosions silenced, a major bank and department store chain announced it will open 92 branches nationwide from today. The curfew in Pattaya, a popular beach resort, was lifted yesterday.

In Bangkok's Chinatown, many of the gold and food shops reopened and the streets were teeming with life and traffic.

Troops and police in the capital conducted searches of high-rise buildings and hotels to check for bombs or boobytraps left behind by the demonstrators, whose main encampment in an upmarket commercial quarter of Bangkok was cleared in a bloody military operation on Wednesday that left 15 dead.

Thai media reported that grenades were found in front of an office building, along with a gas container attached to a lorry parked near a bridge. If it had detonated, the reports said, it could have caused the bridge to collapse.

Pornthip Rojanasunand, director of Thailand's forensic science institute, revealed that a body had been found in the Central World shopping mall, one of dozens of buildings set alight as the demonstrators retreated after the crackdown.

Mr Abhisit said: "We can certainly repair damaged infrastructure and buildings, but the important thing is to heal the emotional wounds and restore unity among the Thai people.

"Fellow citizens, we all live in the same house. Now, our house has been damaged. We have to help each other."

Other senior officials acknowledged that although the violence was subsiding, the larger problem was far from solved.

"It is only the beginning of a difficult healing and reconciliation process that the country and its people need to go through," finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said in Tokyo.

"Our term ends in 2012. It is, in my opinion, highly unlikely that the government will choose to stay for the full term."

King remains silent on unrest

REVERED King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only monarch most Thais have ever known and Thailand's unifying father figure, has remained silent through the political mayhem.

The 82-year-old king, in hospital since September, is undergoing physical therapy after a bout of pneumonia.

He has previously intervened to defuse crises in his 63-year reign. But not this time.

"It could be difficult for the king to intervene without appearing to favour one side, potentially compromising his authority," said Danny Richards, analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. "Worse would be if a royal initiative failed to stop the violence."