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Thai PM says confident to restore order

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-20 00:55

BANGKOK -- Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said late Wednesday he was confident that order will be restored in the country after troops cracked down on protesters.

The prime minister also said in a televised announcement that firm action will be taken to crack down on arson that has spread through Bangkok and other areas in an aftermath of the dispersal of the protesters in the capital earlier in the day.

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"Please rest assured that the government, officers and I are confident and determined that we can overcome the problems," he said.

Thailand's "red-shirts" leaders early Wednesday afternoon called an end to their two-month-odd rally in Bangkok, hours after the troops carried out a dispersal operation that has left 5 dead and 49 injured.

As the "red-shirts" leaders announced to end the rally and turned themselves in to the police, numerous arson cases and violence were ravaging Bangkok, reminding people that the political crisis in Thailand is not far from ending.