Asia-Pacific

Thai army to meet as troops defend Bangkok bank area

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-04-19 14:46

Soldiers keep watch on an overhead crossing over Silom Road in Bangkok April 19, 2010. [Agencies]

BANGKOK -- The Thai army sent troops to a Bangkok business district early on Monday, a day after vowing to punish protesters if they marched there, raising fears of more violence after 24 people died in bloody clashes a week ago.

Army commanders were due to meet later in the day for what was billed as a regular meeting, but one that would give the military the chance to show a united front after reports of splits in the ranks and as rumours of a coup.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made army chief General Anupong Paochinda head of national security on Friday, replacing a deputy prime minister, after admitting efforts to control a five-week protest movement aimed at forcing an early election had failed.

The stock market fell 6.8 percent last week, when trading was restricted to Monday and Friday because of a three-day holiday, and further falls were expected on Monday.

"Overall sentiment remains weak, especially with increasing political risk, which will add to the pressure on the market," said Globlex Securities analyst Chakkrit Charoenmetachai.

Bond yields fell as investors switched to the relative safety of government debt and bet that the Bank of Thailand would not raise interest rates on Wednesday because the political unrest could deal a blow to the economic recovery.

Red-shirted supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday they would take their protest to the business district this week, two blocks away from their main base in an upmarket shopping area, in defiance of an emergency decree.

Witnesses said hundreds of troops had been deployed on Monday to Silom Road, where Bangkok Bank has its headquarters.

The country's biggest bank is a target of the red shirts because Prem Tinsulanonda, a former army chief and prime minister and the top aide to Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is an honorary adviser. The red shirts accuse Thailand's elite of conspiring to topple Thaksin and governments allied to him.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and fled into exile ahead of a graft conviction.