The Thai capital was gripped with its worst political violence in decades during the so-called Red Shirt occupation of downtown Bangkok, culminating in a military crackdown Wednesday that sparked a rampage by supporters who threw grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, including the country's stock exchange.
Most of the Red Shirt leaders have surrendered to authorities, but their treatment in custody has generated widespread criticism of the police after photos circulated on the Internet of the men looking relaxed and smiling for group shots in a spacious seaside house on a police base south of Bangkok that was used for their detention.
The men also had been allowed to keep their mobile phones and had been sending texts for days after being detained.
Police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told a news conference Saturday that police decided to put the leaders in the house because there were not enough rooms elsewhere and were more secure than other facilities.
But following the criticism, Kobsak Sabhavasu, secretary-general to the prime minister, said police officers have now been told to detain the leaders separately and to prohibit them from using communication devices.
Thai authorities have heightened security in many areas of the country since Wednesday's crackdown in Bangkok in which at least 15 people died. Many analysts believe the Red Shirt movement, which supports ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, could foment unrest throughout the country for months or even years to come. Thaksin, who lives in exile after his 2006 ouster in a military coup and subsequent conviction for corruption, has said he supports the Red Shirts' cause.
Police in rural Thailand are so on edge about the violence that rocked Bangkok that they even arrested teenagers accused of playing with fireworks.
The teenagers were arrested for breaking a nighttime curfew that has been set in 24 provinces including Bangkok.
Police later found that they had fireworks, according Manager, an online media outlet, and its affiliated ASTV television station.
Police in Chonburi province, where the youths were reportedly arrested, could not be reached for comment.
The government, meanwhile, stressed national reconciliation on Saturday but it would not commit itself to an early election date demanded by "red shirt" protesters.
Troops continued their search for explosives in the upmarket commercial area the "red shirts" occupied from April 3 until they were dislodged by troops on Wednesday,.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva highlighted a reconciliation plan in an address to the nation on Friday but made no mention of the November election he had proposed at the start of May as a way of ending the protests peacefully. Elections are not due to be called until the end of 2011.
"He does not rule out an early election," government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told Reuters on Saturday. "It depends on how much progress we make on the reconciliation road map. The prime minister will decide on the election date later."
Any red shirt leaders not facing charges for offenses allegedly committed during the unrest would be welcome to take part in the process, he added.
A 6 sq-km (2.3 sq-mile) area extending out from the ritzy shopping district was still under military control but government spokesman Panitan said soldiers would pull back from Sunday and allow people and cars into the area again.
However, even as he spoke, a grenade was reported to have gone off in the area near the Central World shopping mall badly damaged in Wednesday's rioting.
A deputy governor of Bangkok said he understood no one had been injured. The grenade may have been set off as troops searched the area.
A curfew remains in force overnight on Saturday.
Financial markets, which were closed on Thursday and Friday, are likely to open on Monday, although a final decision is yet to be taken on the stock market. A fire broke out in the Stock Exchange building during the protests.
Schools outside the central zone ringed off by soldiers will begin the new term on Monday, a week late. Those inside will have to wait another week.
The elevated Skytrain and underground railway system were still closed on Saturday and traffic was clogged in downtown areas as drivers tried to find a way round the cordoned-off area.
The military crackdown began before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding nearly 100. Erawan Emergency Medical Center said 53 people had died and 415 were wounded in the flare-up of violence from May 14.
During the operation, security forces discovered four cars with explosives near the main protest camp site.
"The most lethal vehicle that we found with a car bomb on the 19th (of May) was the one near the Saensaeb bridge at Chidlom. It had explosives that, if triggered, would have a destruction radius of up to 500 meters," government forensic expert Pornthip Rojanasunant said on Saturday.
A dozen bank branches suffered arson attacks in the rioting. The top banks reopened branches in shopping centers on Saturday after a two-day holiday declared by the central bank for security reasons. Full service resumes on Monday.
The protests have decimated tourism, which accounts for 6 percent of GDP and employs at least 15 percent of the workforce.
The bars in Khao San Road in Bangkok were virtually empty, the throngs of backpackers that normally make the area a bustling tourist center having deserted the capital after the protests.
The curfew has meant even the city's notorious girly bars are boarded up at night, their neon lights dead.
Occupancy rates at luxury and budget hotels have plunged.
"It is tragic. I really didn't dream that we would ever have a situation like we just experienced. It will take some time before we build back confidence," said Richard Chapman, general manager of the 420-room Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit Hoel, where occupancy has fallen to 30 percent from 80 percent earlier in the year.
The red shirt protesters who rioted in Bangkok come mainly from the rural and urban poor. They want new elections, saying they are disenfranchised by an urban elite that wields all the power and holds a disproportionate share of the country's wealth.
They say Abhisit lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a controversial parliamentary vote in 2008 with tacit military support.
The government says the protesters were manipulated by the movement's figurehead, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and now lives in self-imposed exile to escape a prison term for abuse of power.
