BANGKOK – A leader of Thai anti-government protests that ended in a bloody crackdown in May said his supporters were unlikely to regroup in the second half of the year, citing fears for their safety.
Jatuporn Prompan, an opposition member of parliament, is the only main leader of the red shirt movement to be released on bail after protesters were forced out of a Bangkok shopping district they occupied for nearly two months, calling for prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to quit.
Attempts to break up the protests unleashed violent clashes in which 90 people were killed and almost 2,000 wounded in April and May, raising fears for stability in southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.
“I don’t think we should or could gather any time soon. Under the current climate, it would lead to more deaths and could also compromise the fate of those who are in police custody,” Mr Jatuporn said.
Eleven other leaders who face terrorism charges have been denied bail, while others have gone underground. They are accused of instigating violence in connection with gunmen who mingled with protesters and occasionally battled security forces on the streets, raising the prospect of a country sliding into a civil war. Protest leaders, including Mr Jatuporn, have denied any links to the gunmen or the arson that followed the final crackdown.
Mr Jatuporn said a state of emergency imposed in April made any attempt to regroup difficult.
The government extended the emergency yesterday for another three months in Bangkok and 18 of the country’s 76 provinces.
“With this, authorities have power to arrest us on various grounds,” said Mr Jatuporn, who said he sleeps in a different place almost every night for safety reasons. “I tell our supporters to bide their time. Just keep breathing and stay out of harm’s way.”
Mr Jatuporn said he had to be careful in his comments as his bail could be withdrawn but added “continued suppression of dissent” would only radicalise the public.
“It will only precipitate the fall of the government,” he said, adding he was certain his opposition Puea Thai Party, allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup and later found guilty of corruption, would win the next election in 2012. – (Reuters)