Riot police in place to confront Thai protesters

Riot police moved into place around the Thai capital's commercial district Tuesday to prevent thousands of anti-government demonstrators from staging convoys through 11 main roads that authorities have declared off-limits.
Protest leaders have vowed to defy a government order to vacate the commercial heart of Bangkok and not to enter the main thoroughfares as they try to pressure Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to relinquish power.
"We will teach the government a lesson _ that every road belongs to the people," said one of the protest leaders, Nattawut Saikua.
Meanwhile, business leaders have called for an end to the crisis, predicting even greater shocks to the economy and tourism if it persists.
More than a dozen shopping malls were set to close their doors for the fourth day in Bangkok's luxury shopping district, which includes five-star hotels like the Four Seasons, the Hyatt and InterContinental. Guests at the hotels there were checking out in greater numbers.
"The protests have hit thousands of entrepreneurs as well as their staff and employees because (the area) is a prime shopping and tourist location," said a joint statement by three leading business associations in the district, which estimated losses in the area since the occupation began at up to 900 million baht ($28 million).
The "Red Shirt" protesters, mostly farmers from impoverished provincial areas who have characterized their movement as a class war against the Bangkok elite, have sworn not to let up their pressure until Abhisit steps down and calls new elections. Abhisit has offered to call elections by the year's end, but the protesters want quicker action.
The movement _ known formally as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship _ contends that Abhisit came to power illegitimately in the years after ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was removed in a 2006 coup on corruption allegations. The group is made up largely of Thaksin supporters and pro-democracy activists who opposed the putsch.
On Monday, some protesters pushed their way into the Election Commission, in anger that the body has yet to decide whether the ruling Democrat Party violated laws on financial donations, which could lead to the party's dissolution. No violence was reported and all protesters _ inside and outside the building _ left the area after the Election Commission agreed to rule on the allegation on April 20 rather than the scheduled April 30.
Government opponents charged last year that the party received a 258 million baht ($8 million) donation from a Thai conglomerate _ well beyond the limit set for individuals or companies.
Late Monday, a Civil Court rejected an injunction sought by the government to order protesters out of the shopping district. The court ruled the government needs only the special security law it has already invoked to ask the protesters to leave. But demonstrators have ignored orders to disperse.
So far, the government has refrained from using force against them despite pressure from segments of the Bangkok population fed up by business losses and disruption to daily life.
Allies of Thaksin _ whose policies of cheap health care and low-interest village loans benefited the rural poor from which many of the protesters are drawn _ won the first elections after the coup but two resulting governments were forced out by court rulings. A parliamentary vote brought Abhisit's party to power in December 2008. The Red Shirts say his rule is undemocratic and that only new elections can restore integrity to Thai democracy.
Abhisit must call new elections by the end of 2011, and many believe Thaksin's allies are likely to win _ which could spark protests by Thaksin's opponents.
Thaksin, a multimillionaire convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges, is a fugitive abroad and encourages the Red Shirts with frequent messages. His six years in office were riddled by accusations of nepotism and an erosion of democratic institutions.