Thai Forces Clash With Red Shirt Protesters

(April 9) -- Thai soldiers and riot police used tear gas and water cannons against anti-government protesters today, marking the first use of force during month-long demonstrations aimed at seeking new elections.

The protesters, known as Red Shirts, climbed over barbed wire barricades and stormed into the compound of a satellite television station that was ordered closed down Thursday as part of a state of emergency declared a day earlier.

The security forces withdrew after the brief clash, which ended with some of those on each side shaking hands and the protesters in control of the compound.

Thai authorities have mobilized tens of thousands more security personnel to contain mass rallies which have highlighted Thailand's deep rift pitting Bangkok's ruling elite against the mainly poor and rural

Christophe Archambault, AFP / Getty Images

Thai authorities have mobilized thousands more security personnel to contain mass rallies. Here, a Buddhist monk joins protests Friday in central Bangkok.

Officials later announced that the People Channel would return to the air, in what was described as a significant victory for the Red Shirts. Fifteen people were reported injured, including 11 protesters and three soldiers.

Although the protests, now in their 28th day, have shut down large commercial areas of Bangkok since April 3, both sides have clearly been doing their best to avoid direct clashes.

The Red Shirts are demanding new elections after a military coup forced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office in 2006.

Thaksin, a business tycoon who is now a fugitive living in Dubai after being convicted of fraud, was widely supported by people in the mostly rural north of Thailand but opposed by the largely middle class in the capital city of Bangkok.

The protesters are demanding that the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down and that new elections be held. Abhisit, who was born in England and attended Oxford University, was elected to office by Parliament after a previous pro-Thaksin government was dissolved by court order on charges of electoral fraud.

To most Red Shirts, Abhisit is seen as representing the country's elite and a puppet of the military, which has staged a number of coups over the years in Thailand. Abhisit declared the state of emergency after protesters stormed the Parliament building on Wednesday, forcing legislators to flee.

Before the People Channel was closed down, Abhisit repeated his vow not to use force against the demonstrators. "What the government wants is peace and happiness," he said. "It is the manipulation of information that is creating hate."

At the satellite station today, about 30 miles north of Bangkok, a Red Shirt leader, Jatuporn Prompan, declared from the back of a truck that led the way into the compound, "We want our TV back. You cannot shut our eyes and ears."

The channel was turned off after being accused of "distorting information," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.