Thai government declares protest violence mostly quelled!
BANGKOK, Thailand - May 21, 2010 - The Thai government declared Thursday it had mostly quelled ten weeks of violent protests in the capital while buildings smoldered, troops rooted out small pockets of resistance and residents attempted a return to normal life.
But a nighttime curfew was extended in Bangkok and 23 other provinces for three more days, and earlier troops and die-hard protesters exchanged sporadic fire in parts of the city. A major military operation the day before, in which at least 15 people were killed and 96 wounded, had cleared a large portion of a protest encampment that had been set up in the center of the capital for six weeks.
Taking one of the final sanctuaries of the so-called Red Shirts, a special police unit police led more than a thousand people - many of them women and children - from a Buddhist temple in the heart of the former protest zone. Six bodies were found on its grounds.
The police first got approval of the temple's abbot, but many of the women feared they would be jailed or abused by the police and cried or clung to each other as they were led out. Others remained defiant.
"We won. We won. The Red Shirts will rise again," shouted one woman.
Three more Red Shirt leaders surrendered to authorities Thursday, with one of them pleading for peace. Five protest leaders gave themselves up the day before and were flown to a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation.
"I'd like to ask all sides to calm down and talk with each other in a peaceful manner. Please dissolve your anger. We cannot create democracy with anger," Veera Musikapong said after being taken into custody Thursday.
Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kawekamnerd said the situation in the capital was mostly under control.
But explosions were heard late Thursday afternoon - possibly the military exploding ordnance they had confiscated - and a branch of Siam City Bank was set afire. It was Thursday's first reported arson attack after 39 buildings were torched the day before.
