Protesters not yet respond to call for reopening of Government Complex

BANGKOK, January 27 (TNA) - The anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) has not yet responded to the caretaker government's call for its reopening of the Government Complex on Bangkok's Chaeng Watthana Road, where its demonstrators have occupied for about three months. Luang Pu Buddha Isara, a senior monk who leads PDRC protesters at the Government Complex, postponed his negotiation with authorities for the reopening of the building to late Monday afternoon, after a team of the caretaker government's Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) held talks with him for about an hour earlier in the day. Deputy Metropolitan Police Chief Police Major General Adul Narongsak told reporters after the talks that the monk said he would talk with individual government heads to listen to their particular needs of reopening their offices. The deputy metropolitan police chief expressed his hope that Monday afternoon's talks should be successful, insisting, however, that the caretaker government would negotiate and would not crack down on demonstrators. In response to Sunday's violent incident in which a protest leader was shot dead in front of the Sri Iam Temple in the capital's Bang Na area and many others were injured during their protest against advance voting, National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew, meanwhile, ordered a quick investigation and the arrest of the gunman, demanding that concerned officers report investigative progress to him within seven days. Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-Ocha expressed sorrow for the violence, which resulted in casualties, saying he does not want to see any repeated violent incident in the Thai society and urging the CMPO to step up security at violence-prone locations during ongoing domestic political protests. The army chief called for concerned parties not to use the case to further stir unrest to worsen the situation. Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Narong Sahametapat acknowledged, in the meantime, that the Ministry of Public Health is working together with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)-run Erawan Emergency Medical Service Center to have medical personnel to be on a standby as the CMPO is reclaiming protest sites this week, including the Government Complex, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), the Department of Consular Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. Dr. Narong said the medical personnel have also been ordered to be on alert in response to reports that protesters would seize the Provincial Hall of Bangkok's suburban Samut Prakan Province. Regarding to Sunday's violent incident, in Bang Na area, the senior health official confirmed that one person was killed and 13 others were wounded, raising the death toll from ongoing three-month anti-government protests to 10 and the injuries to 579 since the first violent clash erupted in front of Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University on November 30, 2013.(TNA)