By Brian Lanciault
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand–Gun battles exploded Tuesday between Thai police and anti-government protesters in Bangkok.  Four people were killed and dozens have been wounded as authorities made their most aggressive attempt yet to remove demonstrators from the streets.

In the midst of growing developments in Thailand’s long-standing political crisis, the country’s anti-corruption body announced it would file charges against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra regarding a rice subsidy scheme that has fuelled middle-class opposition to her government.

The troubled rice scheme, now on the verge of collapse, suffered another hit when the Government Savings Bank (GSB) said it would scrap a loan to a state-owned farm bank that could have been used to prop the scheme up in the face of a depositors’ revolt.

The clashes were some of the most intensive between protesters and security forces since efforts to dispose of Yingluck began last November. The military, which has determined to remain neutral unless police lose control, has not publicly commented on the violence.

The protests are the latest episode of an eight-year political saga broadly pitting the Bangkok middle-class and royalist groups against the poorer, and largely rural supporters of Yingluck and her billionaire brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Witnesses reported hearing gunfire and seeing police fire weapons in the Phan Fa Bridge area near the old quarter of the city. Police said they had come under fire from a rooftop sniper and M-79 grenades.

A policeman was killed by a gunshot and several were wounded by a grenade, security officials said.

The Erawan Medical Center said on its website that three protesters had been killed in the gunfight. The Center said 64 people were wounded but did not indicate how many were police and how many were civilians.

Security officials reported earlier that 15,000 officers were a part of the operation, “Peace for Bangkok Mission”, to reclaim protest sites around central Bangkok’s Government House and other government offices to the north of the capital.

Yingluck has abandoned her offices in Government House in response to protesters, led by a former deputy premier, Suthep Thaugsuban, who have also blocked major intersections since mid-January.

Suthep told supporters at an evening rally in Bangkok’s central business district that protesters would gather on Wednesday outside Yingluck’s temporary offices at a Defence Ministry facility in north Bangkok.

“We are not afraid anymore. Tomorrow we will go to the Defence Ministry office… we will chase them (Yingluck and her ministers) out. No matter where Yingluck is, we will follow.”

Police said they arrested 183 people at two protest sites near the Energy Ministry, which had been cleared of protesters, and Phan Fa Bridge.  The protesters were detained for violating a state of emergency declared last month.

The violence began when clouds of teargas poured out near Government House and soon police were crouching behind riot shields as officers clashed with protesters. It was not clear who had fired the teargas and the authorities blamed protesters.

By the afternoon, police had mostly withdrawn from the sites and the streets were quiet. National Police Chief, Adul Saengsingkaew, told Reuters there were no plans to continue the operation on Wednesday.

The protesters are aiming to oust Yingluck, who is understood to be a proxy for her brother Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon-turned-premier, ousted by the army in a 2006 coup.

The military has remained aloof from the latest crisis, but has a long history of intervening in politics, generally in support of the Bangkok establishment that includes the top brass, royal advisers and old-money families.

At the forefront of the protesters’ grievances is the rice subsidy scheme, a populist move to pay farmers an above-market price that has proved hugely expensive and run into massive funding hang-ups.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission announced an investigation last month and on Tuesday said it was summoning Yingluck to hear charges against her on February 27.

“Although she knew that many people had warned about corruption in the scheme, she still continued with it. That shows her intention to cause losses to the government so we have unanimously agreed to charge her,” Vicha Mahakhun, a member of the commission, said in a statement to reporters.

The GSB said on Sunday it had lent 5 billion baht ($155 million) to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, which manages the rice program and has exhausted all of its resources to pay farmers.

Some GSB depositors, either worried that the loan could destabilize the bank or unwilling to see their money used to help the government, have been rapidly withdrawing their cash. On Monday alone, 30 billion baht ($930 million) was withdrawn.

The protests have also sent ripples through the economy. Data published on Monday showed growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of 2013. The baht currency has already weakened after Tuesday’s violence.

Yingluck called a snap election in December and has since led a caretaker administration with limited powers.  The elections were met with similar protests.

The main opposition party boycotted the February 2 election and protesters disrupted the process in Bangkok and the south, the powerbase of the opposition. It may be many months before there is the necessary quorum in parliament to elect a new prime minister.

The government, haunted by memories of a bloody 2010 crackdown by a previous administration that killed dozens of pro-Thaksin “red shirt” activists, has until now largely tried to avoid confrontation.

Tuesday’s fatalities brought the number of people killed in sporadic violence between protesters, security forces and government supporters to 15 since the demonstrations began. Hundreds have been hurt.

For more information, please see:

Wall Street Journal– At Least Four Dead in Bangkok Clashes–18 February 2014

CNN News–Thai police clash with anti-government protesters in Bangkok–18 February 2014

Reuters–Four killed in Thai clashes; PM to face charges over rice scheme–18 February 2014

Globe and Mail–Four dead, dozens injured in Thailand clashes–18 February 2014

Bangkok Post–PM charged for rice graft–18 February 2014

BBC–Thailand police and protester clash fatally in Bangkok–18 February 2014