<p> “The Thai political system has broken down and seems incapable of pulling the country back from the brink of widespread conflict,” the Brussels-based conflict resolution group said in a report on Friday.<br /><br />“The standoff in the streets of Bangkok between the government and Red Shirt protesters is worsening and could deteriorate in undeclared civil war.”<br /><br />Thailand should consider help from neutral figures from the international community, drawn perhaps from Nobel peace laureates, to avoid a slide into wider violence, it said.<br />Clashes between the military and the red shirts, made up of mostly rural and urban poor, have killed 27 people and injured nearly 1,000 in a seven-week-old drive to force early elections. Dozens of mysterious explosions have hit the capital, including grenade attacks on April 22 that killed one and wounded scores.<br /><br />Bangkok anxiously awaits an army operation to eject the red shirts from their tent city, fortified with ramshackle barriers of tires and bamboo poles, which could lead to a bloodbath.<br /></p>
<p> “The Thai political system has broken down and seems incapable of pulling the country back from the brink of widespread conflict,” the Brussels-based conflict resolution group said in a report on Friday.<br /><br />“The standoff in the streets of Bangkok between the government and Red Shirt protesters is worsening and could deteriorate in undeclared civil war.”<br /><br />Thailand should consider help from neutral figures from the international community, drawn perhaps from Nobel peace laureates, to avoid a slide into wider violence, it said.<br />Clashes between the military and the red shirts, made up of mostly rural and urban poor, have killed 27 people and injured nearly 1,000 in a seven-week-old drive to force early elections. Dozens of mysterious explosions have hit the capital, including grenade attacks on April 22 that killed one and wounded scores.<br /><br />Bangkok anxiously awaits an army operation to eject the red shirts from their tent city, fortified with ramshackle barriers of tires and bamboo poles, which could lead to a bloodbath.<br /></p>