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BANGKOK — Thailand's prime minister said Sunday he will send representatives to hold talks with protesters who have been calling for him to step down, but his antagonists want to meet with him personally.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has so far held firm against demands from the so-called Red Shirt movement that he dissolve Parliament and call new elections, though he has said he is willing to consider the idea.
The Red Shirts, formally known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, have been protesting for a week in Bangkok, and on Saturday showed their strength by having as many as 100,000 protesters clog the capital's streets with an all-day winding drive through its major thoroughfares.
Despite tying up traffic, they received an enthusiastic reception from unexpectedly large crowds of onlookers.
The mood soured Saturday night when grenades were tossed at two government-linked targets. At least one person was wounded at the site of a small explosion near the Defense Ministry, but there was no major damage there or at the headquarters of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, where the other blast took place.
Protest leaders during the week disavowed colleagues who threatened violence. No one took responsibility for Saturday night's blasts.
Abhisit, in one of several television appearances Sunday, praised the protesters for avoiding violence, but said talks were needed to wind down tension. He said two Cabinet-level officials would be sent Monday to hold talks that the National Human Rights Commission and several senators have been trying to broker.
"However, the Red Shirts must not set new conditions for negotiations," he said. "And for now, the government will let the Red Shirt rally continue."
A top Red Shirt leader, Jatuporn Prompan, said the group was not interested in talking with anyone other than Abhisit. But other leaders said the group would discuss the matter Sunday night.
Last week the Red Shirts staged a controversial "blood sacrifice" by collecting blood from their followers and splattering it at the gates of Abhisit's office, the headquarters of his ruling party and his private residence.
In their latest bid for publicity Sunday, protesters at their main encampment at a major intersection in the old part of Bangkok took out refrigerated jugs and test tubes of leftover blood and poured it into bowls for artists to paint a mural.
Dozens of artists and supporters used the blood to paint pictures, scrawl poems and write political statements on giant strips of white cloth, which were hung on the walls of a historic fort near their main rally site.
"We'll pass this on to future generations to let them know that we had to sacrifice our flesh and blood to get democracy. In the future, this will stand as a historical record," said the chief artist, Wisa Kantap.
Many paintings used abstract symbols of blood, sacrifice and violence to depict what the anti-government protesters see as an ongoing struggle between Thailand's impoverished, mainly rural, masses and a Bangkok-based elite insensitive to their plight.
The Red Shirts consist of supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption, and pro-democracy activists who opposed the army takeover.
Thailand has been in constant political turmoil since early 2006, when demonstrations accusing Thaksin of corruption and abuse of power began. In 2008, when Thaksin's political allies came back to power for a year, his opponents occupied the prime minister's office compound for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week. Thaksin's allies were later forced out by court rulings.
Abhisit's Democrat Party then rallied the support of enough lawmakers to form a coalition government in December 2008. The Red Shirts believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional ruling class and that only new elections can restore integrity to Thai democracy.
The Red Shirts had billed their protest — which began a week ago — as a "million-man march," but at its peak, it attracted just over 100,000 by most estimates. The crowd fell by as much as half during the work week.
Critics say the protesters are merely pawns serving Thaksin's ambitions to return to power.
Thaksin fled into exile in 2008 ahead of a conviction on a corruption charge that left him with a two-year prison term. He claims he is a victim of political persecution.
