hailand's leaders appealed for national reconciliation with opposition protesters yesterday as the government faced an estimated $1.2 billion (£840 million) bill to restore Bangkok's shattered city centre.
ndirect losses to the Thai economy would be many times more the cost of rebuilding and restoring services in central Bangkok and other battle scared sites. Lost tourism receipts and a drop off in foreign investment are certain to be the knock-on consequences of the country's worst political upheaval in decades.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, reached out to Red Shirt sympathisers after the opposition movement was driven out of a Bangkok stronghold by the army.
"Fellow citizens, we all live in the same house. Now, our house has been damaged. We have to help each other," he said.
"We can certainly repair damaged infrastructure and buildings, but the important thing is to heal the emotional wounds and restore unity among the Thai people."
G4S, the global security firm, warned the Red Shirts, who have demanded fresh elections and the return of Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled prime minister, would re-emerge in a different form. "There are elements within the (Red Shirts) that believe political change can only be achieved through radical means," it said. "The country is still far from ending this crisis."
A British man who was filmed apparently taking part in opposition rallies and calling for buildings to be burnt to the ground, yesterday denied that he had carried out acts of arson.
Jeff Savage, 48, an NHS worker from London, admitted he was present when ringleaders decided to burn down a television station. The blaze trapped 100 people.
Thai police said Mr Savage, who has a Thai wife, was wanted for questioning and could face the death penalty.
With calm restored by the army crackdown, the economic impact of two months of demonstrations and subsequent riots, was revealed. Officials said restoring the 35 burnt buildings alone would cost $1.2 billion.
Korn Chatikavanij, the Finance Minister, told Asian leaders in Tokyo that tourism generated as much as a fifth of all Thai jobs. The news from Thailand would have a "disastrous" effect on arrival numbers, which were already 30 per cent lower since the start of the year.
He said: "With the events that took place over the past several weeks, and the pictures of these events flashing across TV screens across the world, it is going to have a very disastrous impact on tourism."
Thailand's exports based economy has proved remarkably resilient through the crisis and, until the latest events, growth was projected at more than 5 per cent. Mr Korn said that figure would now fall short but said he still expected some growth.
Even so the impact of the crisis was bound to cost more than the disastrous 2004 Tsunami, which wiped out a string of prominent resorts, including Phuket.
Sukumbhan Paribatra, Bangkok's governor declared that seven capital districts as disaster zones in the wake of the protests.
No foreign investor has pulled out of Thailand in the wake of the disruption but the British bank Standard Chartered, which announced thousands of new jobs across Asia yesterday, left Thailand off its expansion list and said it could not predict the future outlook.
Businessmen who stood helpless as looters and arsonists destroyed their livelihoods said employees would be laid-off.
"I have nothing left. I have to wait for assistance from the government," said Wanchai Lertsanehwong in the ruins of his clothes shop in a burned out cinema complex. "I feel very sad about what happened. It was the worst violence I've ever seen."
