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Thai Govt denies involvement in deadly attack

South East Asia Correspondent Karen Percy

Story Added : 20th November 2008

Thailand Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat says his Government is not behind a deadly grenade attack in Bangkok which killed a protester.

More than 20 people were taken to hospital for treatment after the explosion.

The People's Alliance for Democracy has blamed Mr Wongsawat's Government for the death of a 48-year-man who suffered shrapnel wounds to the neck.

The police were allowed into the compound for a brief inspection of the site and they say a grenade was launched several hundred metres from a nearby office building.

It landed inside the Government house compound where protesters have camped out for the past three months.

The protesters are vowing to step up their campaign to force the Government out and will stage a mass rally on Sunday.

They say the Government is a proxy for convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Somchai was Thaksin's brother-in-law, until Thaksin's divorce earlier this month.

The protesters do not trust the police after deadly tear gas attacks in October, when the anti-government movement surrounded the national parliament.

Government supporters also say they are not responsible, despite recent threats that attacks would begin as of Wednesday, now that a six-day truce agreed to for the funeral of Princess Galyani, the king's older sister, is over.

If the pro-government groups also take to the streets, there are real fears that the violence will escalate.

Story Added by ABC.
Date Added : 20th November 2008

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