Thai opposition protesters are continuing demonstrations against Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra a day after clashes with police left four
dead.
Security forces kept a close eye on the protesters as they gathered Wednesday outside the prime minister's temporary office in the capital, Bangkok.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban vowed to keep pressure on Yingluck, whom he said was responsible for the "excessive and unnecessary" violence.
"No matter where Yingluck is going to be, we will go there and fight every day, to expel her every day. We will go every day and everywhere until she can't live in this country, because she is a murder," said Suthep.
Three protesters and one police officer were killed and around 60 people were wounded Tuesday as riot police cleared a protest near the Government House in Bangkok.
Both sides appeared to be using weapons during the conflict. A Human Rights Watch researcher told VOA that militants had M79 grenade launchers and were firing at police.
Police said the protests violated an emergency decree, and have promised to use violence only if necessary in dispersing the weeks-old sit-ins.
Later Wednesday, the government's strategy to deal with the protests faces a key test, when a civil court rules on an opposition request to lift the state of emergency.
The ruling comes after Thailand's National Anti-Corruption Committee announced it will press charges against Yingluck. The commission said the prime minister was aware that corruption costing millions of dollars was involved in a rice-buying program that paid farmers above-market prices, but took no action.
Yingluck was ordered to answer the charges against her next week.
Critics have said the prime minister pressed the rice-buying program to win support in rural areas, which represent the main base of her ruling Pheu Thai party.
At least 14 people have been killed in Thailand since November in a series of small-scale clashes and attacks on demonstrators, in the country's worst political violence since 2010. Yingluck's opponents contend her government is corrupt and controlled by her billionaire brother, exiled ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Yingluck tried to resolve the conflict with early elections this month, but the opposition boycotted the vote and disrupted it in several areas, preventing a definitive result until more polls can be held.
Security forces kept a close eye on the protesters as they gathered Wednesday outside the prime minister's temporary office in the capital, Bangkok.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban vowed to keep pressure on Yingluck, whom he said was responsible for the "excessive and unnecessary" violence.
"No matter where Yingluck is going to be, we will go there and fight every day, to expel her every day. We will go every day and everywhere until she can't live in this country, because she is a murder," said Suthep.
Three protesters and one police officer were killed and around 60 people were wounded Tuesday as riot police cleared a protest near the Government House in Bangkok.
Both sides appeared to be using weapons during the conflict. A Human Rights Watch researcher told VOA that militants had M79 grenade launchers and were firing at police.
Police said the protests violated an emergency decree, and have promised to use violence only if necessary in dispersing the weeks-old sit-ins.
Later Wednesday, the government's strategy to deal with the protests faces a key test, when a civil court rules on an opposition request to lift the state of emergency.
The ruling comes after Thailand's National Anti-Corruption Committee announced it will press charges against Yingluck. The commission said the prime minister was aware that corruption costing millions of dollars was involved in a rice-buying program that paid farmers above-market prices, but took no action.
Yingluck was ordered to answer the charges against her next week.
Critics have said the prime minister pressed the rice-buying program to win support in rural areas, which represent the main base of her ruling Pheu Thai party.
At least 14 people have been killed in Thailand since November in a series of small-scale clashes and attacks on demonstrators, in the country's worst political violence since 2010. Yingluck's opponents contend her government is corrupt and controlled by her billionaire brother, exiled ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Yingluck tried to resolve the conflict with early elections this month, but the opposition boycotted the vote and disrupted it in several areas, preventing a definitive result until more polls can be held.
Link to source: http://www.voanews.com
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