Negative Blogs

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — With the assistance of the Brazilian Navy, the Rio police are carrying out a mega raid in one of the city’s largest shantytowns, Vila Cruzeiro, to arrest the criminals responsible for the crime wave that has been devastating the city since last weekend.

A total of 350 policemen, as well as 30 marines, are participating in the raid. Four police armored vehicles, nine Navy M113 armored personnel carriers and a helicopter are providing support to the officers. A local TV station managed to film dozens of criminals trying to escape the shantytown through a back entrance.

The crime wave started on Sunday. Since then, at least 55 vehicles, including buses and trucks, were set on fire. The criminals also shot at several police cabins. The attacks left the city in complete chaos, the bus lines stopped circulating and schools and shops were closed in several neighborhoods.

According to the police, the attacks show the despair of the criminals, who have been losing territory with the establishment of permanent police units in several shantytowns in the past year. The criminals want to incite panic in the population, the police stated.

Since Sunday, at least 23 people died in the several police operations in Rio’s shantytowns. At least 176 people were arrested, and over 30 weapons were seized, including rifles and grenades.

By xinhuanet.com

Police from the Special Operations Battalion enter the Vila Cruzeiro slum with M113 war tanks, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 25, 2010. Police raided gang-ruled slums and said a number of suspected criminals died in gun battles on Wednesday as authorities tried to stop a wave of violence in the Brazilian city. (Xinhua/Agencia Estado)

Riot police clashed with protesting workers barricading the ancient Acropolis on Thursday, using tear gas to clear the entrance to one of Greece’s most famous landmarks.

Up to 100 Culture Ministry workers had shut down the Acropolis on Wednesday morning, complaining they were owed up to 22 months’ worth of back pay. The protesters barricaded themselves inside, padlocked the entrance gates and refused to allow any tourists in until their demands were met.

Police in riot gear arrived Thursday morning after a court order said the protesters were hindering access to an ancient site and its 2,500-year-old marble temples.

“Riot police and violence won’t break the strike,” the protesters chanted, clinging to the entrance gates.

But police used a side entrance to break into the site, then used pepper spray to clear the protesters and journalists covering the standoff from the main gate. At least one protester was led away in handcuffs to a waiting police bus.

Dozens of bemused tourists who had arrived early Thursday morning to visit the ancient site looked on as the standoff unfolded, occasionally snapping pictures of the riot police.

“We know the workers have a right to protest, but it is not fair that people who come from all over the world to see the Acropolis should be prevented from getting in,” said Spanish tourist Ainhoa Garcia shortly before the clashes broke out.

Greece is in the midst of a tough austerity program that has cut public workers’ salaries and trimmed pensions in an effort to pull the country out of a severe debt crisis. The austerity plan has led to a series of strikes and demonstrations as workers’ unions protest the cutbacks.

Guards and workers at archeological sites have long been complaining they are owed months of back pay, and have shut down the Acropolis before in protest, though usually only for a few hours at a time.

But authorities often are sensitive to protests at the emblematic ancient site, particularly as the country largely relies on tourism for revenue.

Visitors who had travelled from far-flung countries were unimpressed by the protest.

“We think this is a shame. We will not recommend that people come to Greece,” said Veronica Traverso, a tourist from Argentina standing with a friend outside the padlocked gates. “We are not to blame for Greece’s troubles.”

Traverso said she had only two days to spend in Athens and was due to leave the city in a couple of hours — her hopes of visiting the Acropolis dashed.

By cbc.ca

Police use tear gas to disperse workers outside the archeological site of the Acropolis hill in Athens on Thursday. (Panagiotis Tzamaros/Icon/Reuters)

General David Petraeus, the top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the Afghan Taliban’s momentum has been reversed in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as well as near Kabul.

The top commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan said Monday that Taliban momentum has been reversed in areas that had been its stronghold.

Gen. David Petraeus also said that US forces would not begin an “exodus” from Afghanistan in July 2011, the deadline for beginning the withdrawal of US forces.

His remarks come after a deadly summer for US troops in Afghanistan, with casualties at their highest rates since the invasion in 2001. The US is in the middle of an attempt to turn around the war, as it did in Iraq, with a troop increase. President Obama ordered an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan last fall, for a total of 100,000, and the number of foreign troops in the country is scheduled to peak in the coming weeks.

Petraeus made the remarks in an interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Monday. He said NATO forces had reversed the momentum the Taliban gained in the past several years in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as well as near Kabul. He said NATO forces will regain momentum in other areas as well, but that challenges remain.

“You not only have to reverse the momentum, you have to take away those sanctuaries and safe havens that the Taliban have been able to establish over the course of those years,” he said, adding that “that’s going to entail tough fighting.”

He seemed to warn that the high casualty rates for NATO forces could continue. ”When you take away areas that mean a great deal to the enemy, the enemy fights back. It gets harder before it gets easier,” he said.

The Associated Press reports that two members of the international force in Afghanistan were killed by roadside bombs Monday, one of them American. Four Americans died Sunday in heavy fighting in eastern and southern regions.

In the interview with the BBC, Petraeus also downplayed the July 2011 deadline for beginning troop withdrawal. “That’s a date when a process begins, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not a date when American forces look for an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room,” he said.

He said American forces would begin to transition some of their tasks to their Afghan counterparts on that date, “in those areas where conditions allow it, and at a pace allowed by the conditions.” He also said he would offer the president his “best professional military advice” come July on whether the deadline is appropriate.

Those remarks echoed comments from a week prior that he made during a whirlwind media blitz that included interviews with NBC’s Meet the Press, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, when he said he did not go to Afghanistan to engineer a “graceful exit” and may recommend against any drawdown of troops next summer.

Some critics have have taken the president to task for setting a withdrawal date in Afghanistan. But Agence France-Presse reports that Petraeus, who was the architect of the Iraq “surge,” will try to replicate the strategy in Afghanistan in hopes that Afghan forces will be ready to take on more responsibilities next year. While the strategy in Iraq was to enlist Sunni insurgents to fight against Al Qaeda, in Afghanistan, Petraeus is pushing for the creation of Local Police Forces, “armed men paid by the government to defend their villages,” reports the AFP.

The Taliban may be feeling some pressure, reports The Christian Science Monitor, at least in its effort to maintain the loyalty of Afghans. It recently called for a joint commission to investigate civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

By Kristen Chick

In this still made from a frame grab from high-definition video, a US Army Apache attack helicopter takes off after refueling during a several-hour firefight against the Taliban, in Zhari district, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 20.

Indian security forces opened fire on anti-Indian mobs Friday, killing four people in the latest violence by Kashmiris who want thousands of Indian troops out of Indian administered Kashmir.

Indian administered Kashmir has been in the throes of violent anti-India protests since June 11, which have claimed 55 lives and left scores others wounded. The ongoing protests are part of a so-called “Quit Kashmir” campaign launched by separatist groups against Indian rule in Kashmir.

Authorities said the dead included a 21-year-old man who was apparently shot and a 60-year-old man who was hit in the head by a tear gas shell in two separate incidents.

The 21-year-old died when Indian security forces opened fire on a stone throwing mob that defied curfew restrictions in the frontier town of Trehgam, 74 miles (120 kms) from Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, early Friday morning.

“Twenty-one year old Mudasir Ahmad Zargar died on the spot and two women were injured who were evacuated to hospital for treatment,” local district magistrate Mohammad Shafi Rather told CNN.

He said security forces had to open fire after baton charges and other means of crowd control failed.

Zargar’s body has been handed over to relatives and the burial is likely to take place after the Friday prayers, he added.

“We are enforcing the curfew in the town and its adjoining areas.”

In Pattan, 18 miles (30 kms) from Srinagar on the strategic Srinagar Muzaffarabad road, another mob defying a curfew clashed with Indian security forces, pelting them with stones. The forces responded with baton charges and tear gas.

A tear gas canister hit a 60-year old man on the head who fell down unconscious and was rushed to Srinagar for treatment, according to a senior officer.

Attending doctors said the victim could not be revived. Doctors were, however, unsure as to whether the critical skull injury was caused by the tear gas shell or by a live bullet.

In a third incident, two villagers were killed and two other protesters were wounded when Indian paramilitary troopers opened fire at a mob that attacked their camp near the north Kashmir town of Sopore Friday afternoon with stone and rocks.

“The security forces had to open fire after baton charges and tear gas failed to quell the mob that attacked the camp at Bomai village this afternoon, ” Police Officer Altaf Ahmad said.

Two other people who were critically injured were sent to Srinigar for specialized treatment, he said. Bomai village is situated 36 miles (59 km) north of Srinigar.

In Srinagar, Indian authorities lifted curfew restrictions on the first Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan to allow people to offer congregational prayers in various mosques.

But violence broke out after prayers and police said one person was critically wounded by security forces in clashes in the old city area of Srinagar.

Earlier, thousands of people converged on the historic Jamia Mosque in the old city where prayers were offered for the first time after nearly two months because of curfews and security restrictions.

The chairman of what is known as a conglomerate of moderate separatist groups, the Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, addressed the congregation and asked “India to take concrete steps to solve the dispute.”

The sprawling mosque reverberated with chants of “we want freedom.”

The mirwaiz had been under house arrest and was released Friday morning. Mirwaiz is the title given to the spiritual leader of the approximately 5 million Muslims in predominantly Muslim Kashmir.

India deployed thousands of troops in Kashmir in an effort several years ago to defeat what Indian leaders said was a Pakistan-backed insurgency. While that insurgency has, according to independent observers, largely been beaten, the troops remain.

Kashmiris, who see the security forces as an irritant, have been protesting, seeking self-determination.

By Mukhtar Ahmed

Kashmiri muslim protesters shout pro-freedom slogans during an anti-India protest, in Srinagar on August 12, 2010.

The French government has vowed to restore order after rioting in the eastern city of Grenoble over a shooting by police.

Riots rocked the city’s run-down suburb of Villeneuve on Friday night as people protested at the death of a suspected armed robber during a police chase.

At least 50 cars were burnt and police were fired on.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux promised to restore order when he visited the scene after the unrest.

“There is a simple and clear reality in this country: there’s no future for hoodlums and delinquents because in the end the public authority always wins,” he told reporters.

Nobody was injured in the riots, said police, who arrested two men aged 18 and 20 for setting fire to vehicles and three more for attempted looting of shops, France’s AFP news agency reports.

Correspondents say the unrest in Villeneuve recalls the civil unrest which exploded amid immigrant communities across France in 2005 after two teenagers from a Parisian suburb died as they fled police.

Unease
Mr Hortefeux made a lightning 15-minute tour of the suburb and promised quick action by the authorities.

Residents of Grenoble inspect the damage after a night of rioting in the city
“When I say quick, I mean immediately, that’s how we are going to re-establish public order and the authority of the state,” he told reporters outside police headquarters.

He said he had asked the regional government to use all means to secure the suburb neighbourhood “for now and for as much time as necessary for calm to return”.

While the suburb appeared calm on Saturday, some local residents listening to the interior minister were not totally reassured, AFP reports.

One unnamed shopkeeper told the agency the minister’s visit was reassuring on one level but it could “only stir up the hatred of some people”.

“The minister’s visit only risks aggravating the situation,” said another resident, who also asked not to be named.

According to the police union SGP-FO, violence has been on the rise in recent months in Grenoble, a city of half a million at the foot of the French Alps.

“Police are at breaking point,” said regional union chief Daniel Chomette, who called for reinforcements.

Prosecutor Jean Philippe said police had acted in legitimate self-defence when they were fired on at least three times after a car chase which ended in Villeneuve.

The police fired back, hitting Karim Boudouda, 27, in the head.

A post-mortem was due to be carried out on Saturday on Mr Boudouda, who had three convictions for armed robbery.

He was shot after allegedly fleeing by car with another suspect from the scene of a hold-up at a casino near Grenoble.

More than 20,000 euros (£17,000; $26,000) was taken in the robbery.

By BBC

Interior Minister Hortefeux saw charred vehicles when he visited on Saturday

Police maintained tight security around the summit site, but largely did not intervene as marchers destroyed property. Several protesters were being treated for injuries by fellow demonstrators.

Canadian Police used tear gas to disperse protesters during a massive and violent anti-G20 protest march that saw at least two police vehicles set ablaze, and store and bank windows damaged.

Demonstrators broke the windows of several business establishments, including a Scotia bank, CIBC and a Starbucks.

Protesters also threw bricks at a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) van, breaking its windows.

Toronto Transit Corporation (TTC) streetcars were abandoned on Queen Street.

Two were spray painted with anti-summit graffiti and anarchy symbols.

Police with shields and clubs pushed back a small group of protesters who tried to head toward the security fence around the site of the G-20 summit.

Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.

About an hour later the group, dressed all in black, smashed the windows of a bank, a coffee shop and some stores.

Police maintained tight security around the summit site, but largely did not intervene as marchers destroyed property.

“We have an enormous amount of resources at our hands,” Constable Wendy Drummond who characterised the police response as “measured” said.

The dynamic in the crowd changed around 3 pm as police donned gas masks.

Some parts of the riot line are as many as three officers deep as the crowd chanted: “Let us through!” Several protesters were being treated for injuries by fellow demonstrators amid reports that paramedics faced delays in getting to the area.

By Thehindu

A police car burns after activists and protesters set it on fire along the streets of downtown Toronto during the G20 Summit. Photo:AP

The Afghan Taliban says it has captured dozens of Pakistani soldiers after attacking their checkpoint in a cross-border raid.

Pakistani security sources confirm some troops are missing.

The Taliban says it is holding up to 40 Pakistani troops after its raid in the Mohmand tribal area on Monday.

Afghan officials said eight soldiers had been handed over to the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, but Pakistan’s army said it had no knowledge of this.

Checkpoint ‘over-run’
The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan says that while attacks by the Taliban on border check posts are relatively routine, it is unusual for Pakistani soldiers to be held by the militants in Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman told the BBC that it was in fact holding Pakistani troops on both sides of the border after Monday’s attack.

It said 30 soldiers were being held in Afghanistan and 10 in Pakistan.

The Taliban says it captured the soldiers after over-running the checkpoint.

Local officials in the Mohmand area confirmed to the BBC that about 40 soldiers were unaccounted for.

Pakistani security sources said on Monday an undisclosed number of troops were missing.

An Afghan army commander in Jalalabad told the BBC that 10 Pakistani soldiers had been handed over to the Pakistani consulate, although the Pakistani army said it was not aware of this.

‘Baseless propaganda’
Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban have dismissed the findings of a report which says Pakistan’s intelligence service had a direct role in supporting the insurgents.

In an e-mail sent to the BBC, the Taliban said the report was “baseless propaganda”.

The report, compiled by a London School of Economics scholar, said Pakistani intelligence provided funding, training and sanctuaries to the Taliban on a much greater scale than previously thought.

“The Islamic Emirate considers this report of the London School of Economics as merely baseless propaganda,” the letter said.

The Taliban have also denied reports that their fighters hanged a seven-year-old boy last week on charges of spying in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

“After a full investigation by the Islamic Emirate leadership, it became clear that no event of execution had taken place,” a Taliban statement said.

The Taliban criticised journalists for misreporting the event.

By BBC

The Pakistani army is often atttacked by the Taliban on border areas.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — As violence spiraled out of control in a third day of clashes in southern Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, the Kyrgyz provisional government asked Russia to send in troops.

With the death toll in and around Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, reaching 77 and a state of emergency extending to a second city, the government acknowledged that its efforts to end the violence had been fruitless.

“The situation in the Osh region has spun out of control,” said Kyrgyzstan’s acting president, Roza Otunbayeva. “Attempts to establish a dialogue have failed, and fighting and rampages are continuing. We need outside forces to quell confrontation.”

But Russia, which has a small military base in the north and has been a political patron of this former Soviet republic, said only that it would consider the request.

A spokeswoman for President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said that no decision would be made until at least Monday, when Russia will consult with other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a regional security alliance of former Soviet republics.

“A decision about deploying peacekeeping forces to Kyrgyzstan can only be made collectively with all members of the C.S.T.O.,” the spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said Saturday evening. She also said that Russia was continuing to ship humanitarian assistance, including medicine, to Kyrgyzstan.

It remained unclear what started the violence, which threatens to undermine the already fragile provisional government that took power in April after rioting deposed the country’s president. The interim government has never fully established control in parts of the south, where supporters of the ousted president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, have frequently clashed with those loyal to the new government.

The country is host to an important United States military base on the outskirts of the capital, Bishkek, that is used to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, heavily armed gangs continued to battle on the streets of Osh, burning and looting as they rampaged through the city.

“It was raining ash the whole afternoon, big pieces of black and while ash,” said Andrea Berg, a Human Rights Watch employee holed up her apartment in the city. “The city is just burning. It’s totally out of control.”

The rioters at one point commandeered two armored personnel carriers from troops stationed in the city, said Timur Sharshenaliyev, a spokesman for the government there. Soldiers were able to take only one back.

The provisional government passed a decree giving the police and soldiers permission to open fire on rioters to prevent attacks on civilians and government buildings, according to a statement on the government’s Web site.

The authorities also ordered a partial mobilization of military forces throughout the country, indicating the government may fear the spread of violence to other regions.

Yelena K. Bayalinova, a spokeswoman for the Kyrgyz Health Ministry, said that in addition to the killings, nearly 1,000 people had been wounded, most with gunshot wounds.

Meanwhile the violence spread to a second city, Jalalabad, where the government declared a state of emergency on Saturday. At least six people have died in clashes there and dozens more have been wounded, Ms. Bayalinova said.

The recent politically inspired clashes in the region have reopened a historic ethnic fault line there, with gangs of heavily armed Kyrgyz youths clashing with members of the region’s sizeable Uzbek minority. Much of Mr. Bakiyev’s base in the region, his ancestral home, is Kyrgyz, while many Uzbeks support the new government.

Mr. Sharshenaliyev, the government spokesman in Osh, said the military had opened a corridor to allow Uzbek women, children and the elderly to escape across the border, though he said he did not know whether Uzbekistan was prepared to receive them. The Associated Press reported that several children were killed in a stampede at one border crossing.

Uzbekistan said it was “extremely alarmed and concerned” about the situation. The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said in a statement that violence against Uzbeks was being carried out in a manner calculated to provoke ethnic conflict.

The Kremlin said that Mr. Medvedev spoke Saturday with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan about the violence. Russia also sent a plane to Kyrgyzstan to provide humanitarian aid and medical assistance, as well as to evacuate the wounded.

The Kyrgyz government has deployed troops, armored personnel carriers and helicopters. Soldiers with automatic weapons gathered at the Bishkek airport early Saturday morning awaiting transport to Osh, some downing a few vodka shots before they set off.

Russia and the United States have in recent years been jockeying for influence in Kyrgyzstan, and deploying soldiers there could help solidify Russia’s foothold. Russia has frequently chafed at the American military presence in what it considers its sphere of influence.

Russia appeared to support the protest movement that led to Mr. Bakiyev’s ouster, and it has sought closer relations with Kyrgyzstan’s new authorities.

Officials of the provisional government frequently travel to Moscow for talks with high-ranking Russians, including Mr. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

Under Mr. Bakiyev, the Kyrgyz government appeared to favor the United States. Mr. Bakiyev incensed the Kremlin when he reneged on a tacit agreement to close the American base in exchange for more Russian aid.

The provisional government took control after riots forced Mr. Bakiyev from power on April 7. In those riots more than 80 people were killed when the police and presidential guards opened fire on demonstrators, who had gathered in Bishkek to protest government corruption and rising utility prices.

The new government, though unelected and made up of an uneasy alliance of political forces, quickly established control over the capital and the north of the country, but not in the south.

The south of Kyrgyzstan is part of the Ferghana Valley, a fertile strip of land that has a long history of interethnic strife and includes parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Similar violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Osh in 1990 left hundreds dead and only abated when the Soviet government sent in troops.

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

Armored vehicles rumbled through Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, on Friday. Gangs of youths had stormed the city, attacking stores and houses.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan say at least 26 people have been killed and at least 400 others wounded in riots in the southern city Osh, the country’s second largest city.  The region has been volatile since April, when President Kurmanbek Baiyev was ousted in a deadly uprising by his opponents.
But it is unclear exactly who is behind the latest violence during which rioters smashed windows with steel bars, torched cars and looted business.

All international organizations, schools and public offices in the area have shut their doors said Human Rights Watch Central Asia researcher Andrea Berg, who is in Osh.

“It’s rather calm in the last hour or so and it definitely became calmer since the late morning, let’s say around 10, 11, but we had shootings here the whole night and during most of the morning” said Berg. “People are basically pretty much busy protecting their homes, protecting their children, helping neighbors and so on.”

Interim President Roza Otunbayeva said the conflict is being fueled by various factions who want to destabilize the country. She blames the unrest on groups who want to disrupt an upcoming constitution referendum on reducing presidential powers.

The interim government promised to hold the referendum this month and national elections in October after April’s deadly uprising that toppled then-President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Mr. Bakiyev fled Kyrgyzstan after his overthrow. The interim government is seeking his extradition from Belarus on charges of mass killings. Kyrgyz authorities accuse him of ordering security forces to open fire on protesters during the revolt.

Since April, supporters and opponents of the Bakiyev government have taken turns wresting control of government buildings across the country.

In addition to the recent jockeying among political factions, ethnic tensions have long been simmering between the region’s Uzbek and Kyrgz communities. But Berg of Human Rights Watch said the root of the current discord is the absence of a legitimate government.

“Everybody from the local [community] that I’ve talked to today says that as long as there is no new parliament and no new government, the violence and the clashes will continue because the interim government doesn’t have any legitimacy.”  Berg adds, “This of course allows all kinds of forces - be it criminal forces, be it political forces - to use the momentum for their purposes.”

Both the United States and Russia have military bases in the former Soviet Republic. Since the April coup, officials from both countries have said they are watching the situation with concern.

By Kate Woodsome

A man looks at a vandalized Kyrgyz building in the streets of Osh, 11 Jun 2010

Anti-government Red Shirt protesters have ignored an ultimatum to abandon their occupation of central Bangkok, as the leaders of the demonstration promised to die rather than give in to the authorities.

Helicopters dropped leaflets warning that anyone caught inside the area faced two years in prison.

But almost two hours after the 3pm [9am UK time] deadline, several thousand people remained in the protest area, which has been sealed off and fortified with towering barricades of rubber tires and bamboo poles.

Weng Tojirakarn, a senior Red Shirt leader, said: “If you insist on brutality, we will stay here persistently, and we will tell our people, ‘Do not be afraid. Stay here, do not fight back, and let them shoot us.’”

Satit Wonghnongtaey, a minister attached to the office of the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, said: “The operation [to disperse] will be executed as soon as possible. The authorities will do everything possible … including broadcast radio messages, police loudspeaker trucks and leaflets.”

But both sides still held out the faint possibility of a compromise, suggesting that even at the moment of greatest tension a peaceful solution was being discussed behind the scenes.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, spokesman for Mr Abhisit, said: “The Government is ready to go forward with negotiation when the situation is defused, when the protest ends, violence ends and attacks on authorities end.

“We insist they have to be sincere to make every effort to return the country to normality … This sincerity must be reflected by their action to bring back peace.”

Earlier, doctors announced the death in hospital of Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a militant supporter of the Red Shirts. He was suspected by many Thais of organising a covert militia to fight off attempts to break up the demonstrations. General Khattiya was shot in the head last Thursday during an interview with an American reporter by an unidentified sniper.

Red Shirts in the central stronghold in the Ratchaprasong district wept as a song was sung to honour him and at least 36 other people killed in the past five days, as armed soldiers have attempted with mixed success to create a perimeter around the Red Shirt area.

Supplies of food, water and tires for constructing barricades are still entering Ratchaprasong. A new protest base has been established to the south-east at the Bon Kai intersection beneath one of Bangkok’s elevated expressways. Young men continued to play a dangerous cat and mouse game with soldiers along the Rama IV road in front of it, throwing fireworks and petrol bombs and ducking down side alleys when the soldiers fired their rifles.

The Government has frozen 106 personal and business bank accounts of leading Red Shirts and of companies associated with Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister whose ejection from power in a 2006 coup was the beginning of the protest movement. The Reds are demanding that Mr Abhisit, whose party was repeatedly defeated by Mr Thaksin, step down and call a general election.

The authorities have been encouraging women and children to move from the protest area to the sanctuary of a nearby Buddhist temple, but the suggestion appears to have been largely ignored. Rojanee Cheepacrarat, a 57-year old volunteer nurse at one of the medical and first aid stations in the protest area, said: “My children are worried about me, but I am not afraid.

“I smile at the soldiers – I call them my sons. They are innocent, and they are scared – it is just their officers who tell them to shoot.”

There have been reports of splits among the protest leaders, with some of them favouring a compromise to bring an end to the confrontation, but Dr Weng insisted that they were united. He also called for direct intervention by foreign governments to pressure the Government.

“Let all the civilised countries of the world know [the truth of what is happening],” he said. “We cannot walk out of here, because they will shoot us with snipers.

“People all over the world are a brotherhood. How can they let their brothers be killed by this government?”

By Richard Lloyd Parry, Bangkok

A fainting woman among the guests led to safety out of the Dusit Thani hotel in Bangkok after an explosion and shots were heard nearby.