By Ambika Ahuja
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai "red shirt" protesters ruled out negotiations with the government on Sunday and said they would not give up their fight for early elections a day after clashes with security forces killed 21 people.
Bangkok was quiet, but with no resolution in sight and the prospect of more violence, the stock market, one of Asia's most buoyant this year, is likely to take a hit when trading resumes on Monday.
"The time for negotiation is up. We don't negotiate with murderers," red shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn said. "We have to keep fighting," he said, adding the protesters were not planning any action in Bangkok on Sunday "out of respect for the dead".
The red shirts, mostly rural and working-class supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a coup in 2006, want Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and leave the country, the scene of 18 coups since 1932.
Saturday's fighting, the worst political violence in the country since 1992 and some of it in well-known Bangkok tourist areas, ended after security forces pulled back late in the night.
The red shirts, still numbering in the thousands, have occupied two main areas of the capital, a city of 15 million under a state of emergency since Wednesday. They made no attempt to come out of their bases on Sunday and troops did not make any move toward them.
Thai political historian Charnvit Kasertsiri said the violence was worrying because there was no outright win for either side and the chance of more fighting was high.
"The public didn't take it lying down and were responding in kind," he said. "When the government is no longer the only user of force, then it spirals into anarchy." A government spokesman said there was a line of communication open with the red shirts but conditions were not right for formal talks.
"As long as they are still breaking the law, that makes it difficult," spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said. "We are not opposed to talking if it will solve the problems".
The red shirts seemed in no mood to compromise.
"There is no turning back now," said Nida Singjaroen, 36, a farmer from eastern Surin province. "We are fighting till the end. We want an answer on what happened to our people and we want Abhisit to show responsibility. He should be ashamed".
"TOURISM TO BE HIT"
Foreign investors have been plowing money into Thai stocks this year but the outbreak of violence since the middle of last week caused them to pause. The stock market is open on Monday but closed from Tuesday to Thursday for the Thai New Year.
"Tourism will be the very first sector to be hit and the Thai stock market should react negatively on Monday. The heavy foreign buying we have seen in the past month will hold back until the political situation is clearer," said Kasem Prunratanamala, head of research at CIMB Securities (Thailand).
There was tension outside Bangkok as well.
Thai media said around 500 red shirts had again forced their way into the grounds of a Thaicom satellite earth station north of Bangkok, a flashpoint on Friday when the authorities blocked an opposition TV station.
Other reports said an M79 grenade was fired at the headquarters of army-owned Channel 5 TV station in the northern province of Phayao early on Sunday.
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters forced their way into government offices in two northern cities, raising the risk of a larger uprising against the 16-month-old, army-backed government.
"There is no precedent for something so massive, prolonged and disruptive on the part of the underclasses," said Federico Ferrara, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore. "The people who are leading the protest now are people whose right to participate in government has never been fully recognized, hence the coups that have removed governments elected by the provincial electorate."
THAKSIN ALLIES
The protesters say Abhisit lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote following a court ruling that dissolved a pro-Thaksin ruling party. Thaksin's allies would be well-placed to win fresh elections.
The twice-elected Thaksin, in self-imposed exile since 2008 when he was sentenced to jail for graft, was despised by many of the Bangkok elite but is popular with the poor for policies like cheap healthcare and microcredit grants to villages.
More than 870 people were wounded on Saturday as troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators, who fought back with guns, grenades and petrol bombs near the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok's old quarter, one of the two bases for the month-old protest.
Four soldiers were among those killed.
Abhisit expressed regret to the families of the victims and said the army was only allowed to use live bullets "firing into the air and in self-defense".
Among those killed was Reuters TV cameraman Hiro Muramoto, a 43-year-old Japanese national. Japan's Foreign Ministry urged the Thai government to investigate Muramoto's death.
Additional reporting by Damir Sagolj, Warapan Worasart, Viparat Jantraprap and Jason Szep in Bangkok, Kevin Krolicki in Tokyo; Writing by Nick Macfie
Reuters Canada
