Thai PM rejects protest calls

A Thai anti-government protester throws a tear gas canister back to the police during an ongoing rally outside Government House in Bangkok yesterday as media lie down on the ground as tear gas shells burst near them outside the building during a demonstration. Photo: AFP

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday rejected protester demands to suspend the country's democratic system and indicated she would not resign amid rolling clashes between security forces and demonstrators bent on toppling her government.
Police used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon against rock-throwing demonstrators as they intensified their defence of key government buildings, after weekend unrest in the capital left several dead and over a hundred wounded.
The protests, aimed at unseating the elected government and replacing it with a "people's council", are the latest outbreak of civil strife to rock the kingdom since royalist generals ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, seven years ago.

Fresh skirmishes broke out yesterday between Thai security forces and opposition demonstrators who have issued an ultimatum for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to quit, a day after the anti-government campaign erupted into deadly violence. Photo: AFP

Bloodshed in the capital in recent days is the worst political violence in Thailand since a deadly 2010 military crackdown on pro-Thaksin "Red Shirts".
In her first televised address since the weeks-long protests descended into violence late Saturday, Yingluck said she could not accede to the demands of the protest leaders because they would breach the country's laws.
"Anything I can do to make people happy, I am willing to do... but as prime minister, what I can do must be under the constitution," she said, adding that she did not "cling to power".
Protesters, led by former opposition MP Suthep Thaugsuban, on Sunday issued an ultimatum for Yingluck's government to be ousted in two days and hand power "to the people" in a secret meeting with the prime minister in the presence of army, navy and air force commanders.