BANGKOK - Thai protesters occupying parts of Bangkok vowed Sunday to fight until victory following a breakdown of negotiations and a televised appearance by the prime minister that offered no solution to the protracted, sometimes bloody crisis. The so-called Red Shirts urged their supporters in provincial areas to confront the security forces, and many of them began setting up roadblocks outside Bangkok to prevent police reinforcements from entering the city. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva spoke in a nationally televised interview alongside the army chief Sunday, in an apparent effort to dispel persistent rumors he had a rift with the military. The broadcast came a day after Abhisit rejected a compromise offer by the Red Shirts ��" who say the current government is illegitimate and are demanding new elections ��" dashing hopes for a peaceful end to the standoff. "We won't go home until we win," a protest leader, Khwanchai Praipana, told supporters following Abhisit's appearance. He said many police and soldiers in the provinces sided with the protesters, and had even asked them to prevent fresh security forces from reaching Bangkok. "Most police based in the provinces don't want to come deal with the Red Shirts in Bangkok," he said. More than 1,000 protesters set up a roadblock overnight along a major highway, deflating the tires of 13 police vans and preventing police reinforcements from reaching Bangkok from the northeast province of Udon Thani, the government said. Another 300 protesters set up roadblocks on the outskirts of the capital Sunday afternoon to stop hundreds of other police from entering the city, police officials said. Protesters in the Nong Kai province also tried to block police from heading to Bangkok, but the security forces changed their route, the government said.
