Hundreds of demonstrators wearing red shirts had blood taken to be spilled at Government House in call for new elections
Associated Press
Thai protesters today poured human blood onto the gates of the government headquarters in a symbolic sacrifice intended to emphasise their demand for new elections.
Earlier, hundreds of demonstrators wearing red shirts formed long queues to have blood taken by nurses after protest leaders pledged to collect enough to fill 1,000 standard soft drink bottles for the Government House protest.
A few teaspoons of blood were taken from each volunteer and transferred into dozens of large plastic containers.
They were passed through the crowd of protesters before being delivered to the prime minister's office.
Police allowed protest leaders to approach the gates and pour out the blood, which ran onto under the gates and fences as national television broadcast the images live.
The prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has not entered his Government House office since the protests began on Friday.
"The blood of the common people is mixing together to fight for democracy," Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, told supporters.
"When Abhisit works in his office, he will be reminded that he is sitting on the people's blood".
Weng Tochirakarn, another protest leader, said not all the blood collected had been used immediately.
The rest would be poured outside the headquarters of the ruling Democrat Party and the prime minister's house if calls for new elections were not heeded, he said.
A government spokesman, Panitan Watanayagorn, said the authorities would allow the protest as long as it remained peaceful.
"If they want to throw it [the blood] and have a photo opportunity and have us clean it up later, I think it's fine," he told a briefing of foreign media. He said health authorities were looking into whether "throwing blood on the streets violates health measures".
As many as 100,000 protesters converged on the capital, Bangkok, on Sunday to demand that Vejjajiva dissolve parliament by midday yesterday.
Abhisit refused and blanketed the capital in security, but said the government would listen to what else protesters had to say.
Protest leaders then announced the "blood sacrifice" – a tactic condemned by the Red Cross as wasteful and unhygienic because diseases such as hepatitis and HIV can be spread if needles are reused.
Several Buddhist monks, who are forbidden by law from taking part in political activities, were among the first to give blood.
"I believe [in our leaders] and find their strategies rational and acceptable. If they say that we soldier on, I'm ready," Suriya Laemthong, a 28-year-old demonstrator, said, although, he admitted he doubted that the blood spilling would force the government to step down.
The red-shirted protesters include supporters of the former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and others who oppose the military coup in which he was ousted for alleged corruption and abuse of power in 2006.
They believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other areas of the traditional ruling class alarmed by Thaksin's popularity.
Yesterday, thousands departed from their encampment in Bangkok to besiege the 11th Infantry base on the edge of the capital, where Abhisit has been based during some of the protests.
Abhisit told a nationwide television audience his government did not intend to "remain entrenched" but would not step down.
Protests have so far been peaceful, although embassies have issued warnings of possible violence and the US assistant secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, cancelled a scheduled visit later this week.
For a second successive day, Thaksin spoke to the demonstrators via video, urging them to continue their struggle in a non-violent way.
Thailand has been in political turmoil since early 2006, when anti-Thaksin demonstrations began.
In 2008, when his political allies came back to power for a year, his opponents occupied the prime minister's office compound for three months and seized control of Bangkok's two airports for a week.
The Guardian
