More time will be given to the red- shirted protestors in downtown Bangkok to leave the rally area, said the government spokesman Monday afternoon, as the 3:00 p.m. deadline the authorities set earlier had passed.

The Nation online quoted the spokesman, Panithan Wattanayakorn, as saying that the government's main focus now is to convince women, children and elderly people, who are misguided by wrong information, to leave the Ratchaprasong rally site in central Bangkok.

Authorities will set up more checkpoints around the city to prevent more chaos, Panithan said.

The Center for the Resolutions of Emergency Situation (CRES) had issued a deadline of 3:00 p.m. for the Red-shirts to leave Ratchaprasong, though it failed to say what would happen if the protestors did not follow this order.

The situation in Bangkok deteriorated last Thursday as the government tried to seal off the rally zone and the clashes between the troops and protestors in the past four days have claimed at least 35 people's live so far.

Meanwhile, a telephone call from Korbsak Sabhavasu, the prime minister's secretary-general, to the Red-shirts co-leader Nathawut Saikua prompted the leaders to hold an urgent meeting shortly after the deadline passed, according to television reports.

Go to Forum >>0 Comments