'Blood protest' rocks Thai capital

Protesters in Thailand have splashed hundreds of litres of their own blood outside government headquarters in a "sacrifice for democracy" after their demands for new elections were rejected.

The action came after thousands of Red Shirt protesters loyal to Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed prime minister, queued to donate blood in a bid to throw 1,000 litres of it outside the building in Bangkok on Tuesday.

"The blood of the common people is mixing together to fight for democracy,'' Nattawut Saikua, one of the protest leaders, said.

"When Abhisit [Vejjajiva, the Thai prime minister] works in his office, he will be reminded that he is sitting on the people's blood."

Riot police allowed protest leaders to pour blood over the gates of the building, which was quickly cleaned up by a medical team provided by the government.

Jugs of blood

Following the demonstration, Red Shirts rode on lorries and motorcycles to the nearby headquarters of the governing Democrat party, where they splashed several more jugs of blood.

The group claims that the current government is illegitimate and is propped up by anti-democratic forces in the Thai military and elements within the traditional ruling class.

But the government has shown no sign of heeding pressure to call elections, which Thaksin's allies would be expected to win.

Panitan Watanayagorn, a government spokesman, said authorities will allow the protest as long as it remains peaceful.

"If they want to throw it and have a photo op and have us clean it up later, I think it's fine," he said.

Panitan said health authorities were looking into whether "throwing blood on the streets violates health measures".

Abhisit has not entered his office at the government headquarters since anti-government protests began on Friday.

Over the weekend, as many as 100,000 Red Shirts converged on Bangkok to demand that Abhisit dissolve parliament by a deadline of midday on Monday and call new elections.

Security blanket

Abhisit has rejected the ultimatum and imposed a security blanket across Bangkok.

"A decision cannot be made between protesters and the government, because it is related to the whole country," he said on national television on Tuesday.

He said that "dissolution must happen on the condition that it will make the country move forward".

A joint session of both houses of parliament on Tuesday was postponed due to the lack of a quorum, with some legislators fearing for their safety, according to a Thai parliamentary official.

In 2008 the compound around government headquarters was occupied for three months by anti-Thaksin activists known as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) or, more popularly, as the yellow shirts.

Thailand has been in constant political turmoil since early 2006, when protests against Thaksin paved the way for a bloodless coup removing him from power.

In 2008, when Thaksin's political allies came back to power for a year, thousands of Yellow Shirt protesters took to the streets, occupying the compound of the prime minister's office and laying siege to Bangkok's two airports for a week.

Thaksin himself has addressed his supporters through video messages, urging them to continue their struggle in a nonviolent fashion.

In a message on Monday, Thaksin, who is living in exile, called for politicians, soldiers, policemen, judges and members of the bureaucracy to join the Red Shirt cause.

Fonseka faces Sri Lanka tribunal

Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka's former military chief, has appeared at a military tribunal facing charges of involvement in politics while still head of the army, and with violating military procurement procedures.

A three-member panel of army generals began hearing the court martial at a naval headquarters in the capital Colombo on Tuesday.

It was held behind closed doors, with no access to observers or media.

"The proceedings are under way at the naval headquarters in Colombo," a source told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

"General Fonseka is present and he has raised a preliminary objection to the three-member panel trying him."

Fonseka was arrested on February 8 after being accused of plotting a coup two weeks after losing the presidential election to Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent.

However, the two separate courts martial he is due to face will not tackle that accusation

If convicted of the charges that he engaged in politics while still head of the army and that he violated military procurement procedures he could reportedly face up to five years in jail.

'Political trial'

Damien Kingsbury, a professor of International Relations at Deakin University in Melbourne and a specialist on Sri Lankan politics, told Al Jazeera that "despite Sri Lanka having a democratic system, it's one that is very deeply circumscribed by these types of events".

"This is clearly a political trial, and it's probably just a show trial and it has three purposes.

"One is revenge against Sarath Fonseka for standing against Rajapaksa and for undermining his claim for being the victor against the Tamil Tigers.

"Secondly, it's meant to be a demonstrator to the opposition and thirdly it's meant to cow the oppositon to ensure that those who oppose Rajapaksa do so in a cautious manner."

Fonseka's supporters say the charges are politically motivated and an attempt to prevent him from standing in next month's parliamentary polls.

"This must be important for people in authority but for us this is a joke," Anoma Fonseka, the former army general's wife, said.

"For the entire world, this is a joke. We can't expect any justice from this court martial. They have brought trumped-up charges."

Fonseka's supporters have called for nationwide protests demanding his release.

Unconstitutional

On Monday, Sri Lanka's former chief justice accused the government of acting unconstitutionally by prosecuting Fonseka behind closed doors using military law, rather than using the normal legal system which allows open hearings.

"The arrest detention of General Sarath Fonseka is contrary to articles 13-1 and 13-2 of the constitution, the code of Criminal Procedure, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Sarath Silva told reporters in Colombo.

"It is also contrary to the Army Act and the Chief of Defence Staff Act."

Officials in Rajapaksa's government have accused Fonseka of plotting a coup and the assassination the president, although those accusations will not form part of the court martial.

Former close allies, Rajapaksa once referred to Fonseka as a "national hero" for his role in leading the Sri Lankan military in its final victory over Tamil Tiger rebels.

The defeat of the Tigers in May last year brought an end to more than two decades of bloody civil war.

But the two men fell out shortly after over who should take credit for the victory.

Fonseka has refused to attend the preliminary hearings for the courts martial and reports say he will also stay away once the case begins on Tuesday.

However officials at his Democratic National Alliance party said that he would be represented by a team of lawyers.

Pictures show Mubarak's recovery

Images of Egypt's president have appeared for the first time since he underwent surgery in Germany over a week ago.

Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for nearly three decades, was said to be recovering well following the operation on his gallbladder, which had sparked concerns over the state of his health.

Egyptian state television released the video on Tuesday of Mubarak, 81, talking to two doctors.

"He was upbeat and in very good spirits as usual," Dr Markus Buechler, head of his medical team, said.

"His resolve and willpower ... was very obvious this morning as he looked forward to going back to his normal life."

An Egyptian government spokesman said Mubarak would address the nation by the end of the week.

A statement by Egyptian authorities said he left intensive care at the Heidelberg hospital last Wednesday, and that tests showed he did not have cancer.

Speculation over health

The release of the video comes after a swirl of rumours and speculation over his health, after a marked lack of pictures following his surgery on March 6.

Amr El-Kahky, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Egypt, said news of Mubarak's improvement gave a boost to Cairo's main stock market index, which bounced back from a six per cent loss over the past two days.

Mubarak, who has never appointed a vice-president since he took over in 1981, handed powers temporarily to his prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, before the operation.

He has not said whether he will run again for a sixth six-year term in the 2011 presidential election.

Many Egyptians believe that if he does not, he will try to hand power to his politician son, Gamal, 46. Both Mubaraks deny any such plan.

In 2005, Mubarak allowed multi-candidate elections which he won overwhelmingly, but election observers said at the time there were irregularities in the polls.

In parliamentary elections the same year, police closed down polling stations and judges who oversaw the election said some results were rigged in favour of government candidates.

Opposition groups in the country command little power, but dissidents have been galvanised by a new reform group founded by Mohammed ElBaradei, the former head of the UN nuclear agency.

Last month, ElBaradei flew to Cairo to a rapturous welcome from supporters and formed the National Association for Change.

He has said he is prepared to run against Mubarak in the 2011 presidential election.

Iraq election race tightens

Iyad Allawi, the head of Iraqiya, a cross-sectarian bloc, has pulled ahead of Nouri al-Maliki, the current prime minister, after a count of 80 per cent of the votes cast in last week's national polls.

However, the early results do not mean that Iraqiya is winning the race.

Al-Maliki's State of Law bloc leads in Baghdad, which accounts for a fifth of Iraq's 325-member Council of Representatives, as well as six other provinces, with Allawi leading in five of the 18.

The results announced by Iraq's electoral commission on Tuesday showed that Allawi had a narrow lead of about 9,000 votes over al-Maliki's bloc.

The country's proportional representation system makes it unlikely that any single group will clinch the 163 seats needed to form a government on its own, and protracted coalition building is likely.

Once the electoral commission announces the final poll results, the country's supreme court will have to certify them - after hearing appeals - within about a month of the election.

'Neck and neck'

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said that now that 80 per cent of the vote had been counted it was possible to see a pattern emerging, and showed the race would be "neck and neck".

"It would be a safe assumption to make that many Shias are voting for a party that includes Sunni on the ticket," she said.

"Perhaps we are seeing the beginnings of a unifying trans-sectarian voting pattern in Iraq. Perhaps we are seeing the public reach across the sectarian divide.

"There are still the overseas votes to come in that are thought to be in favour of Allawi. If they are neck and neck right up to the 100 per cent domestic vote, that could tip things in favour of Allawi."

Our correspondent said another dimension to the election, and something that "might have the Kurds rather worried", is that one of the five provinces in which Allawi is scoring ahead is Kirkuk.

"The constituency that backs Allawi is absolutely vehemently opposed to anything other than Kirkuk remaining a part of Iraq," she said.

Al-Maliki's coalition is ahead in oil-rich Basra and Karbala, two of Iraq's three biggest provinces, which have Shia Muslim majorities.

His State of Law is also holding on to leads in Baghdad, whose 70 seats account for more than a fifth of Iraq's 325-member Council of Representatives, as well as Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Muthanna.

Claims of fraud

Since the March 7 election, the counting process has been fraught with claims of fraud, mostly from the opposition.

The IHEC has also been criticised for being chaotic and slow in releasing the results.

Meanwhile, violence continues to claim lives around the country.

Eight Iraqis were killed and 11 others wounded when two bombs exploded in separate attacks five minutes apart in the town of Mussayab on Tuesday, police said.

The bombs were attached to two cars carrying passengers on the main street of Muassayab, which is about 60km south of Baghdad.