Armed Thai soldiers are guarding Bangkok's business district today in an attempt to quell the possibility of violent protests in the area.
Thousands of anti-government protesters are reported to be plannng to march to a bank linked to a royal adviser accused of masterminding a 2006 coup.
An army spokesman said today that troops could use force to stop red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra from going ahead with plans to march to the Silom Road office district from a luxury shopping area they have occupied for more than two weeks.
"The operations will start from soft to heavy measures," army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
Analysts say the six-week protest has evolved into a dangerous standoff between the army and a rogue military faction that supports the red shirts and includes retired generals allied with twice-elected and now fugitive former premier Thaksin.
As tensions simmered, the 60-year-old, telecoms billionaire urged Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call snap elections to end the impasse. If Abhisit resists, there would be further crackdowns and possibly a military coup, Thaksin said.
"The political crisis must be resolved by political means, and the only way is for Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call a snap election," Thaksin told Reuters.
Abhisit was due to address the nation on television this evening.
Hundreds of troops converged in the Silom Road area before dawn, erecting barbed wire around the headquarters of Bangkok Bank, Thailand's biggest bank and a red shirt target.
Bangkok Bank's honorary adviser, Prem Tinsulanonda, is accused of masterminding a 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin. The top aide to the Thai monarch is also seen by the mostly poor "red shirts" as a symbol of an unelected elite meddling in politics.
The deployment of troops comes three days after army chief General Anupong Paochinda was appointed head of national security in the wake of several failed security operations, including a clash last week that killed 25 people without ending the crisis.
On Silom Road, also home to Bangkok's racy Patpong district of go-go bars, soldiers stood behind metal barricades facing hundreds of protesters, who had stockpiled poles and clubs behind their lines and built bunkers and barricades with truck tires.
Over the past year Thaksin has enlisted powerful allies to buttress his red shirts, including former army chief Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who government sources said led other current and former generals in providing heavy arms to the red shirts in their bloody April 10th clash with troops.
Chavalit, chairman of the red shirts' parliamentary wing, the Puea Thai Party, has denied involvement in the violence.
He said today that he was seeking an audience with Thailand's ailing 82-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej to try to end the standoff, a move seen as an attempt to draw the revered king into the crisis.
"Without His Majesty's graciousness, I am not sure about the losses that will arise in the next one or two days," he said, referring to possible bloodshed.
Rival "yellow shirt" protesters threatened a massive rally if the government failed to act within seven days, putting the deeply-divided nation on a collision course not seen in recent history.
Groups of yellow shirts cheered the troops in the Silom Rd area today, with some handing flowers to the soldiers.
Reuters