shirted protesters took over sections of Thailand's capital Tuesday, pelting police with eggs and dancing in the streets as they pushed through barricades to press the prime minister to call new elections. Minor scuffles erupted around Bangkok, and a grenade exploded in the parking lot of the ruling Democrat Party's headquarters, injuring two police, party officials said. Dozens of similar unclaimed blasts have targeting government offices since protests started March 12. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva went on national television to say that the protests had broken the law but the government would continue its policy of tolerance to avoid violence. “We are working to ensure that the country returns to normal as soon as possible,” Abhisit said, adding that the government has requested arrest warrants for the protest leaders. “We are confident we can use the law to resolve the problem.” For several hours Tuesday, traffic was stopped along main boulevards in Bangkok's business district before the anti-government protesters retreated to the city's upscale shopping district, where they have been camped since Saturday. Malls there remained shuttered for a fourth day. The protesters, many of them 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. Political turmoil has increased in the years since the coup and deeply divided Thai society.
