Thai ‘red shirt’ protesters ruled out negotiations with the government on Sunday and said they would not give up their fight for early elections after clashes with security forces the previous day killed 21 people.
Bangkok was quiet, but with no resolution in sight and the prospect of more violence, analysts said the stock market, one of Asia's most buoyant this year, was likely to take a hit when trading resumed on Monday.
“The time for negotiation is up. We don't negotiate with murderers,” Weng Tojirakarn, a red shirt leader, told Reuters. “We have to keep fighting,” he said, adding the protesters were not planning any action in Bangkok on Sunday “out of respect for the dead”.
The red shirts, mostly rural and working-class supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006, are demanding Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and leave the country, the scene of 18 coups since 1932.Saturday's fighting, the worst political violence in the country since 1992 and some of it in well-known Bangkok tourist areas, ended after security forces pulled back late in the night.
The red shirts, still numbering in the thousands, have occupied two main areas of the capital, a city of 15 million. They made no attempt to come out of their bases on Sunday and troops did not make any move toward them.
Thai political historian Charnvit Kasertsiri said the violence was worrying because there was no outright win for either side and the chance of more fighting was high.
“The public didn't take it lying down and were responding in kind,” he said. “When the government is no longer the only user of force, then it spirals into anarchy.”
Local television said Abhisit had called for a meeting with red shirt leaders later in the day. But the red shirts seemed in no mood to compromise.
