Thai officials on Saturday called an emergency Cabinet meeting in the face of unrelenting anti-government street protests that have raised fears of broader civil unrest across the country, AP reported. With negotiations between the protesters and the government on hold and hopes for a peaceful end to the standoff dwindling, calls have grown for international mediators to be involved. Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayagorn said the Cabinet would meet Sunday morning in a special session. Panithan declined to say what the agenda would be, but it was widely expected to focus on the seven-week crisis that has paralyzed parts of Bangkok. In recent days, pro-establishment protesters have called on the government to declare martial law and crack down on the Red Shirt protesters, whose barricaded camp occupies streets in Bangkok's commercial center. The Red Shirts are demanding the government disband Parliament and call elections, and they said Saturday they would ignore any imposition of martial law. «Even if they announce that we are not going to go home. We are going to stay put,» said Nattawut Saikua, a Red Shirt leader. At least 27 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 wounded in sporadic violence between protesters and security forces. Some officials have expressed hopes the protesters will grow weary and go home soon, but Weng Tojirakarn, another Red Shirt leader, said Saturday that reinforcements were coming to increase their presence in the streets of the capital. «Red Shirts, people from the provinces, are coming in to Bangkok, starting from today. And this time they will stay a long time,» he said. The Red Shirts, drawn mostly from the rural and urban poor, are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, saying he came to power through the connivance of Bangkok's elite bureaucrats and the military. The International Crisis Group think tank said Thailand's political system had broken down and expressed fears the standoff could «deteriorate into an undeclared civil war.» -- SPA
