Bangkok in caos

BANGKOK: The streets of Bangkok looked like scenes from a revolution, with no authorities in charge.

In front of the city's biggest luxury mall Sunday, anti-government protesters danced atop two armored personnel carriers they had forced to a stop, waving flags and shouting "Democracy."

The red-shirted crowd swarmed around the vehicles and asked for the keys from the unhappy soldiers inside.

"Sorry, can't find them," came a muffled reply. The protesters eventually drifted off and the APCs drove away.

The encounter reinforced that three years of turmoil between alternating governments and protesters opposed to them seemed ready to peak again.

As night fell, demonstrators demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva controlled many streets in the center of the capital.

Police vans at some intersections were abandoned and looted.

Before dawn Monday, a group of soldiers in combat gear attempted to clear a major Bangkok intersection blocked by protesters, in the first serious clash since chaos erupted a day earlier.

After firing hundreds of rounds from automatic weapons, the soldiers stopped firing and watched as demonstrators regrouped.

It was unclear if soldiers fired in the air or at protesters but at least 70 people were hurt.

The incident appeared to be an isolated one, taking place several miles (kilometers) from the main encampment of thousands of protesters outside the prime minister's office.

The security breakdown became obvious Saturday when a huge force of soldiers and police made only a feeble effort to stop unarmed protesters from breaking into a meeting of Asian leaders, bringing proceedings to a halt and forcing the VIPs to flee by helicopter and boat.

"It is unclear whether Saturday's security failure was due to a broken chain of command, divisions within the Thai military, or a cynical willingness to risk national humiliation in order to have a pretext to crack down hard on the red shirts," said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

The situation deteriorated Sunday, after Abhisit declared a state of emergency for Bangkok and surrounding areas.

The protesters mobbed Abhisit's car just minutes after his televised declaration. Dozens of police in riot gear stood just yards (meters) away, while a handful of security personnel tried to fend off the crowd.

Nor did military police and members of the elite paramilitary Border Patrol Police nearby intervene.

Abhisit's car made a getaway, but others were not so lucky. The crowd trapped at least two other official cars, smashing them with whatever was at hand - flagpoles, staves, flowerpots.

"The government can no longer ignore what is happening," Abhisit said later. "In the previous days we had some limitations but now we have to take action quickly before the situation escalates, which will only bring more loss and confrontations."

But the fruitless efforts to keep the peace are inspiring Thais to wonder who is in charge.

The same was true last year, when police and the army failed to take decisive action against yellow-shirted protesters on the other side of the country's political divide who occupied the then-prime minister's offices for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week.

Back then, though, the army was in league with the protest movement, which was aiming to force out governments allied with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had been ousted by a 2006 military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.

That was all supposed to change when Abhisit came to power in December in a deal brokered in part by the commander of the army, always a key political player.

But Thaksin's backers last week proved their ability to turn the tables, when they were able to bring an estimated 100,000 followers onto the streets.

They followed that up by having taxi drivers block a major intersection and let Bangkok's notoriously congested traffic back up. The blockade ended when they decided to leave; police hardly lifted a finger against them.

"The government and the army are afraid of overreacting," said Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "They know they would lose the battle if they perpetrate violence."

"Deep down, some government and military leaders also suspect some police have sympathy for Thaksin," he added.

Thai history shows that a tactical withdrawal of support at a key moment can often reap big rewards, especially should a coup bring a shift of power.

But when too many players are involved, the results can be hard to predict.

"It remains to the seen if the security forces can control the situation. It is unlikely anyone can because there are so many splits and so many power brokers," said Charnvit Kasetsiri, one of Thailand's most prominent historians.

"No one seems to be in charge within the establishment, the government and the military." - AP