Blast Kills 1, Wounds 23 at Thai Prime Minister's Office

Paramedics transport an injured man to a hospital after a grenade attack on protesters at the Government House in Bangkok November 20, 2008. A grenade attack on protesters occupying the Thai prime minister's office killed one person and wounded 23 on Thursday, the most serious assault on the three month sit-in at the compound, police and protest leaders said. The Bangkok Post said an M-79 grenade had exploded near the main stage of the protest, which began in late August to force the elected government from power. REUTERS/Stringer

Thursday, November 20, 2008
By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service

BANGKOK, Nov. 20 -- An explosion at an anti-government protest site in central Bangkok early Thursday killed one man and wounded 23 others, prompting a leader of the demonstration to call for a mass rally against the government on Sunday.

Police said they believe the explosion was caused by a grenade. It exploded about 3:30 a.m. at Government House, the prime minister's office complex that demonstrators have occupied since late August. The explosive landed on the canvas of a large marquee, showering those who were sleeping below with shrapnel.

"It landed on the roof, otherwise many more people would have been injured," said Kamron Trongma, who was nearby when the explosion happened.

Police told news services that a 48-year-old man received shrapnel wounds to the chest and neck area and was killed. Some of the others who were injured were taken to hospitals.

The demonstrators, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy, have vowed to bring down the government, which they accuse of being a proxy for controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The current prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

The dispute between the predominantly urban, middle-class demonstrators and the government, which was voted into power last year with the backing of millions of Thailand's rural poor, has paralyzed the country's political process and gouged deep political divisions between the rural and urban populations.

The demonstrators have ruled out any compromise, vowing to maintain their protest until the government is forced out of office.

In the wake of the attack, media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul, the protesters' most influential leader, called on supporters to gather Sunday for a major rally against the "killer government."

He accused the police of cooperating with whomever attacked the protesters Thursday.

"Without police cooperation, they could not have access to such weapons," he said.

Thursday's death is the fourth associated with the current protests. In early September a supporter of the government was killed in a clash with demonstrators. Last month a protester died after she was hit in the chest by a tear gas grenade fired by police trying to clear demonstrators from barricades around the nearby parliament building. On the same day, another protester was killed in an explosion in a car.

Thaksin, who became a billionaire in the telecommunications industry, has fled Thailand, where he faces a jail sentence after being convicted in October of charges of breaching conflict-of-interest laws. His whereabouts are not known because he left his home in Britain recently after his visa there was revoked.