BANGKOK, Thailand - April 20, 2010 - Thai protesters are threatening today to fortify their sprawling encampment in Bangkok's upscale district before venturing out to 'wage a big war' to topple the government they decry as illegitimate.
Soldiers in full combat gear guarded other nearby sections of the capital in an increasingly tense standoff that has shuttered five-star hotels and glitzy shopping malls and threatens to damage Thailand's image as a tourist paradise.
Key protest leader Nattawut Saikua canceled a rally that had been planned for today.
He said that thousands of protesters were instead shoring up their defenses while guards, some with bulletproof vests, set up new checkpoints in the areas they now occupy.
Red Shirts were seen sharpening hundreds of long bamboo rods and piling them into tall stacks, part of an arsenal of crude weaponry that also included broken up pavement stones.
The 'Red Shirt' protesters - who are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva call early elections - have been occupying the tony Rajprasong district for more than a month and now are camping in nearby main roads covering several city blocks.
Red Shirt security details are manning checkpoints fortified by barbed wire, controlling traffic into and out of the protest zone.
Security forces moved into nearby Silom Road yesterday to deter any Red Shirt incursion into the central business district, where several major banks and corporations have their headquarters.
