Thai PM blames violence on "terrorists"

"If we cannot find a political solution to this conflict, I think we need to dissolve parliament," Thailand's army chief General Anupong Paochinda said in a televised message on Monday.

However, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made no mention of this in his televised address. He instead focused on the deadly violence that took place at the weekend.

The prime minister said "terrorists" had infiltrated the opposition movement using military weapons to attack the troops and civilians, turning the conflict into a bloody one.

"Once we can separate innocent protesters from the terrorists, we will make sure that the terrorists take responsibility for the tragedy," he added.

Abhisit ordered troops to crack down on thousands of anti-government protesters on Saturday. At least five soldiers died in ensuing battles with the Red Shirts, some of whom were reportedly armed with military weapons.

Overall, the fighting around the Phan Fa Bridge area in the old part of Bangkok claimed at least 21 lives, including that of a Japanese journalist, and left over 850 injured.

Conflicting reports about use of live ammunition

Although witness reports and the casualties have reportedly suggested otherwise, the government insisted that no live ammunition had been used against the protesters by troops that were armed mostly with tear gas, batons and rifles loaded with rubber bullets.

"We are finding from the early investigations that the tear gas fired into the officers was of a type that we do not have in the military and is not used by officers. We also found several hand launch grenades, M76s and M67s, which officers do not have," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.

A caravan of Red Shirts paraded the bodies of two victims through the streets of the capital on Monday. They said the prime minister was a tyrant and once again called for the immediate dissolution of parliament.

Jatuporn Prompan, one of the anti-government movement's leaders, made it clear the Red Shirts did not want to enter talks with the government. "We will not talk with killers. What else is there to talk about?"

"We want people in Bangkok to know what happened to the Red Shirts because the government and the army control the news," said one of the protesters.

While Sean Boonpracong said that the violence had been "unfortunate. This type of dispersal will not solve the problems. The root cause has to be taken care of and power has to be returned to the people."

act/DPA/AFP
Editor:Disha Uppal