Troops Jail Thai Protest Leader; Violence Grows : Politics: Bangkok toll put at 15 dead, 500 wounded as pro-democracy forces continue street confrontations.

Army troops Monday arrested the leader of monthlong demonstrations against Thailand’s beleaguered government and repeatedly opened fire to disperse hundreds of his pro-democracy followers. But the tough action failed to quell two days of violence in Bangkok, and pitched street battles raged early today.

Prime Minister Suchinda Kraprayoon, who has been the target of protests since his appointment last month, went on national television and blamed the pro-democracy demonstrators for instigating violence “to achieve their political aims.”

Suchinda said the government had “no other choice than to use military force” to halt the violence, and he promised to return the nation of 55 million people to peace as soon as possible.

Estimates by newspapers and news agencies placed the casualty toll in the violence, which started Sunday night, at more than 15 dead and 500 wounded. Some Thai newspapers said that more than 100 people were killed in heavy fighting Monday night. Several of the injured were reported to be foreigners.

The bloodiest fighting took place shortly before midnight outside the capital’s Royal Hotel, where many demonstrators had taken refuge to avoid withering police and army fire.

Angry protesters commandeered city buses and tried to crash through police lines, and the troops cordoning off the area opened fire with machine guns on the buses, which were packed with young protesters.

The army then chased the demonstrators through the narrow streets, firing directly into the crowds in an effort to disperse them. The streets were littered with what appeared to be dead and seriously wounded people. The death toll appeared certain to rise sharply.

A makeshift hospital was set up in the lobby of the Royal Hotel, where doctors performed emergency operations until police arrived and arrested many of the Thais there. They were taken away in army trucks to an unknown destination.

The tough measures provoked an angry response from a growing crowd of demonstrators, who went on a rampage through nearby streets that contain many of the government’s office complexes. Buildings housing the government Public Relations Department and another belonging to the Lottery Department were set on fire.

Dozens of cars, fire trucks and city buses were also set ablaze. Protesters drove gasoline-filled vehicles into barricades, causing huge, fiery explosions.

For the first time, the violence spilled into parts of the city away from the protest site, located near the Democracy Monument. Motorcycle gangs rampaged through quiet areas of the business district, smashing police booths and looting some shops.

The street battles followed the arrest Monday afternoon of Chamlong Srimuang, the popular former governor of Bangkok who has spearheaded the opposition against Suchinda since last month.

Chamlong was taken from his command van, handcuffed and driven away in a jeep to an undisclosed military camp. The government announced that six other leaders of the demonstrations had also been detained.

After Chamlong’s detention, hundreds of demonstrators were hauled away in army buses. Police stripped the protesters to the waist and handcuffed them with plastic bracelets.

The violence began Sunday night when a crowd estimated at up to 200,000 people clashed with police during a demonstration demanding Suchinda’s resignation. Their chief objection to the former general is that rather than being elected to office, he was appointed to the job by military-backed political parties. Protesters set cars and trucks afire and looted a police station.

It was the worst violence in the country since 1976, when troops broke up a university demonstration, killing 46 students.

Suchinda declared a state of emergency early Monday morning in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, a move that banned gatherings of more than 10 people. But the measure was widely ignored.

A coalition of opposition parties held a news conference and appealed to the government to stop using violence to suppress the demonstrations. “Stop the provocation, stop banning news reporting, stop distortion of the truth,” said Chavolit Yongchaiyudh, leader of the New Aspiration Party.

One of the first casualties of the political strife was the Thai press, which had been among Asia’s most unfettered.

At 1:30 a.m. Monday, after the imposition of Suchinda’s state of emergency, an Interior Ministry spokesman appeared on national television and read an order to newspapers that they must “refrain from publishing articles or any other documents which carry content detrimental to national security, safety or inciting public unrest.”

The order caught many newspapers on deadline and left their editors perplexed about how to proceed.

The Bangkok Post, Thailand’s leading English-language daily, was so pressed for time that it blanked out its editorials and some news columns with news about the violence.