Thailand on the edge
After tensions escalated in Bangkok, we look at the future of the divided country.
On Saturday, 21 people were killed and more than 800 injured when the Thai military attempted to contain red shirt protestors.
Each side has blamed the other for Saturday’s violence, which was the worst the country has seen in almost two decades, and neither the government nor the protestors seem willing to back down.
The government says it is committed to restoring order and will carry out an independent investigation into all the fatalities.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s election commission says it has found the ruling party of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, guilty of misusing poll donations and called for it to be disbanded.
General Anupong Paochinda, the country’s influential army chief, has called for new elections to be held and believes dissolving parliament may resolve the country’s political crisis.
But who is fuelling the latest unrest? And what lies ahead for this divided country?
Inside Story, with presenter Hamish McDonald, discusses with Sean Boonpracong, a spokesman for the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), which is leading the protests in Bangkok, Pravit Rojanaphruk, a political analyst at the newspaper The Nation, and Tim Forsyth, a Thailand and Southeast Asia specialist at the London School of Economics.
This episode of Inside Story aired from Monday, April 12, 2010.