NEW PROTEST SITE
Jason Szep and Adrees Latif
BANGKOK --Reuters--
Sun May 16, 2010 2:02am EDT


Hundreds massed in the Klong Toey area, apparently a strategic attempt to distract the army from its main task of clearing protesters from Bangkok's commercial district, a popular tourist and shopping area they have occupied for six weeks. A night earlier, thousands massed in the Klong Toey area, creating a makeshift stage in what could be a new protest site. If the protesters manage to establish control of a new area of the city, this would complicate the military's operation that began on Thursday when a series of checkpoints were set up and renegade soldier Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head.

Many protest leaders now face terrorism charges that carry a maximum penalty of death, raising the stakes in a two-month crisis that has paralyzed parts of Bangkok, stifled Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy and decimated tourism. The protesters, who have adopted red as a protest color and broadly support ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, set fire to vehicles and hurled rocks at troops who set up razor wire across deserted roads on Saturday in the business district. Red shirt leader Nattawut Saikua told thousands still hunkered down in their main encampment late on Saturday that reinforcements were coming. (cont...)