Thailand to cut protesters' food, water

Thailand's authorities vowed Wednesday to sever food and water supplies to opposition protesters camped in the heart of the capital as hopes faded for a resolution to the crippling standoff.

The government also urged local residents to leave the area, saying they would restrict access as part of tough new measures against the thousands of "Red Shirt" demonstrators who have paralysed parts of Bangkok.

Embattled Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has demanded the protests end on Wednesday, but the mainly poor and working class movement appeared in no mood to pack up and go home.

Their leaders have vowed to continue their rally until deputy premier Suthep Thaugsuban is charged for his role overseeing a deadly April 10 crackdown, when armed troops attempted to clear part of the capital.

The authorities announced new measures to take effect from midnight Wednesday to make life tougher in the sprawling encampment, cutting off electricity and water supplies as well as telephone and transportation links.

"This is the beginning of measures to fully impose the law," said Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, a spokesman for the government unit set up to deal with the crisis, warning the authorities were ready to disperse protesters if necessary.

"The army is ready, but at this moment I don't want to talk about a crackdown as we want to use measures to put pressure on them."

"To the residents in the area: please leave. After midnight, authorities will not allow anyone to come in," Sunsern said.

The movement has said it agrees to Abhisit's reconciliation roadmap to elections on November 14, but wants to see the government take responsibility for the April 10 incident, in which 25 people lost their lives.

"None of the Red Shirts are afraid of your threats to cut water and power. We will run at soldiers with our two bare hands even if they fire at us with assault rifles," said one protest leader, Weng Tojirakarn.

"We just want Suthep Thaugsuban to publicly surrender himself to police," he said from a stage in the sprawling rally site in the capital where several shopping centres and upscale hotels have been forced to close temporarily.

Abhisit has warned he may scrap the plan for early elections if the protesters do not leave their vast base, which has been fortified with barricades made from piles of fuel-soaked tyres, bamboo poles and razor wire.

"If the situation does not return to normal it will delay the election day, so protesters should go home on the 12th (of May)," he said Tuesday.

The Reds say the government is undemocratic because it came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court ruling ousted elected allies of their hero, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was unseated in a 2006 coup.

Their spirits appeared to be flagging last week as their numbers dwindled and the start of the rainy season made conditions worse in the garbage-strewn protest site.

But their ranks were boosted over the weekend by 5,000 more supporters who arrived from the movement's heartland in the impoverished rural northeast, defying a ban on rallies in the capital, which is under a state of emergency.

"The authorities must implement steps to make protesters suffer and leave the protest site," a ruling party lawmaker, Sirichoke Sopa, told AFP.

"The roadmap still exists, but their demand for Suthep to turn himself in to police is not possible and not practical because he's a political appointee," said Sirichoke, who is close to Abhisit.

Suthep went to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on Tuesday to hear a complaint against him after the Reds demanded he turn himself in to police, but Red leaders refused to disband until a formal case was opened against him.

Twenty nine people have been killed and almost 1,000 injured in Bangkok in a series of confrontations and attacks, in Thailand's worst political violence in almost two decades.

Protest leaders asked a Bangkok court Tuesday for arrest warrants against them to be dropped, but their petition was rejected.