BANGKOK—Bangkok awoke to the smell of smoke with embers still burning here Thursday, after the worst violence in nearly 20 years scorched this normally peaceful city, leaving the anti-government Red Shirt movement in disarray and its leaders behind bars.

But there was still discontent in the air: reports of rioting and burning began filtering in from the countryside.

The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejijiva extended a Bangkok 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew to 23 provinces —about a third of the total — many in the north where the Red Shirts enjoy broad popularity.

How the Abhisit government deals with that discontent will begin the next chapter in a once unified country whose deep divisions been rich and poor, the enfranchised and disenfranchised have been laid bare in recent weeks.

At least six people died in Wednesday’s clashes as heavily armed government soldiers swept into the Red Shirts’ protest site in armoured personnel carriers and crushed their shelters, sending many supporters running for their lives.

Among the dead was an Italian journalist. Among the severely wounded was Canadian freelance journalist and Thailand analyst Chandler Vandergrift, from Calgary, who was hit by shrapnel from a grenade and had to undergo emergency neurosurgery.

Vandergrift had been caught in the crossfire deep into the protest zone as soldiers were trying to root out a sniper from a high building overlooking the site.

Doctors said Wednesday night that his condition had stabilized following surgery, he had been moved into intensive care and his next 24 hours would be crucial.

As he underwent surgery, outside on the streets of Bangkok following the surrender of key Red Shirt leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua, some followers refused to heed their advice to stand down and instead went on a fiery rampage, setting alight 27 buildings, including offices of the city’s main electrical grid, Bangkok’s largest department store, a cinema and the Bangkok Stock Exchange.

As the curfew came into effect, soldiers were instructed to shoot any looters and arsonists who came into the sites of their high-powered rifles.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Abhisit took to national television overnight to urge calm.

“I am confident and determined to end the problems and return the country to peace and order once again,” Abhisit.

Many protesters were supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist billionaire who was ousted by the military in 2006 coup.

From his unknown exile post abroad, Thaksin warned that the crackdown could spawn guerrilla warfare.

“There is a theory saying a military crackdown can spread resentment and these resentful people will become guerrillas,” he told Reuters.

Not all in the protest site support the former prime minister. Many interviewed in recent weeks emphasized that the battle was about democracy and fairer treatment – especially for Thailand’s rural poor.

But expressions of that resentment were already on fiery display Wednesday.

There were reports of arson in seven different provinces, including three town halls that had been set alight, a dark harbinger of broad discontent that could still flare.

Thai political analyst and historian Charnvit Kasetsiri told a television reporter Wednesday that the violence was the “most widespread and most uncontrollable” Thailand has ever seen.

A lot of anger was directed against the local media as well for what Red Shirt supporters felt was biased coverage of their grievances over more than two months of protests.

Of six television stations, five are controlled by the government, including two under the direct ownership of the Thai military.

Much air time was allotted to government claims of there being “500 terrorists” who had infiltrated the Red Shirt movement, together with reports of a mysterious, heavily-armed “black shirt” faction on the loose in the anti-government ranks.

Shady videos with military voiceovers purporting to tell what the videos showed were repeatedly aired on government and army controlled television stations throughout the week.

A news blackout was imposed Wednesday and local TV ran only programs of dancing and flag-waving Thais, interrupting them for government statements.

By afternoon the English-language Bangkok Post came under siege as vandals set fire to vehicles in their parking lot, and the government’s Channel 3 also came under attack with news anchors calling for troop and police patrols to come to the station.

Out on the battlefield, foreign journalists came under other kinds of attacks.

Canada’s Vandergrift was one of three foreign writers injured in Wednesday’s clashes. A Dutch and an American journalists were less seriously hurt.

Chief government spokesperson Panitan Wattanayagorn declared the military operation a success by early Wednesday night.

The government’s declaration of victory capped a day of wild gun exchanges and rocket fire at the protest site, as soldiers unleashed their military might to root out Red Shirt snipers holed up in high rises overlooking the site.

As the military used armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers to crush shelters inside the Red Shirts camp, its leaders called for calm and surrender.

“We cannot resist against these savages anymore,” Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompam said from a stage inside the protest zone.

The crowd booed, but Prompan pleaded: “Please listen to me: Brothers and sisters, I will use the word ‘beg.’ I beg you. We have to end this for now.”

But rather than douse the defiance, some set off on a rampage.

It was clear that while the government of Prime Minister Abhisit succeeded in crushing the protest that sought to dissolve his government in favour of fresh elections, it had not crushed the desire for change.

Earlier in day — shortly after 8 a.m.— Thai troops broke down barriers at the main Red Shirts protest site and hundreds moved out to secure the site as protesters ran for cover.

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Clouds of thick black smoke had risen above central Bangkok by about 7:30 a.m. as protesters set alight massive piles of garbage and tires trying to obscure the attacking soldiers vision.

There were approximately 3,000 to 5,000 protesters at the site as the day began, including women and some children. Under direction from their leaders, most dispersed.

The anti-government Red Shirts — formally called the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship — had occupied three-square kilometres in the heart of Bangkok for weeks, paralyzing parts of the city.

When protests began March 14, they had been peaceful. But a botched attempt by the military to clear the site April 10 left 21 dead at the site.

With Wednesday’s toll, more than 70 have now died and more 2,000 have been injured.

The ongoing bloodshed has delivered a body blow to tourism, a mainstay of the country’s economy. Thailand markets itself as, “The Land of Smiles.”

That might have been unalterably as a result of this week’s events.

“This is D-Day,” one soldier told an Associated Press reporter near the site in a prelude to the violence.

Earlier in the day troops had assembled at least armoured protection vehicles near the Dusi Thani Hotel across from the Red Shirts’ camp and from there breached the site’s main barrier shortly after.

Two Red Shirt protesters were shot in an immediate gun battle. Meanwhile, elsewhere, government troops used water cannons.

Protestors had continued their defiance all week, telling the Star in interviews at the site that they had no intention of backing down – even if government troops entered the camp to crush their movement with live ammunition.

By Wednesday morning some had hardened.

“I have no plan to flee. I am here to fight for better Thailand. I don’t mind dying for my country,” 54-year-old protester Saman Niyakul from Ubon Ratchathani province told a Reuters reporter as he prepared a homemade rocket. “There are too many double-standards and that’s what I cannot stand. We have to fight that.”

Protesters accuse the government of ruling in the interests of the country’s moneyed and well-connected elites – especially those intertwined with the country’s royalty.

Protesters have been demanding the dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections since protests began March 14.

But the Abhisit government made clear Tuesday there would be no talks on a peace deal until the protesters left the site.

Wednesday morning soldiers began firing from crouching position on the tracks of an elevated light rail system that runs over the encampment.

Local media also reported that an advisor to Thailand’s Prime Minister called on the Red Shirts protesters to surrender.

Its leaders complied. But some of their followers resisted.

Since Thursday more than 40 have been killed and more than 300 have been wounded since a renegade general who supported the Red Shirts was shot in the head by a sniper – triggering a wave of violence.

The vast majority of the dead have been civilians, many picked off by government snipers – a fact that had been widely condemned by international human rights groups.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs is advising Canadians against all travel to Bangkok. It mentions the “significant violence, death, and injury” from the large-scale disturbances.

“A state of emergency remains in effect. The security situation is very volatile with extreme risk for further civil unrest, violent clashes, and attacks,” the department said in a statement.

“Canadians currently in Bangkok should avoid all non-essential movement, exercise extreme caution, follow the advice of local authorities, closely monitor local media, and, if violence erupts, remain indoors.”



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