Somyos Prueksakasemsuk, leader of a leftist red-shirt faction and editor of the Voice of Taksin magazine, surrendered to police yesterday morning after the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) issued an arrest warrant against him for violating the emergency rule. Somyos had held a press conference last week to call for further protests after the May 19 bloody crackdown.

Just hours before turning himself in, Somyos told The Nation in an exclusive phone interview that he had decided not to flee "in order to maintain his human dignity".

"We are in a dark period. I will lose my freedom but will maintain my dignity," he said, adding the "government is clearly abusing its power" under the emergency decree.

On a more pragmatic note, Somyos said police had advised him that it would be safer if he surrendered. 

"The cops told me that it would be more difficult if I had to deal with the military ... They said one must know whom one is dealing with. It's safer in jail."

While many key members are either laying low or are on the run, Somyos said the red shirts would re-emerge to fight against the government and the established elite. 

"The [ideological] consciousness will survive. There will be more hatred and they will express it in whichever way they can," he said, adding that he had called for a peaceful demonstration to hold Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Theuksubhan responsible for the 85 deaths and destruction. The protest was to be held on Saturday in Ratchaburi province, which is not under emergency rule, yet an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. 

Somyos claimed that for the past several nights since the government declared curfew, false evidence such as weapons and bombs may have been planted against the movement.

As for the arson incidents in Bangkok and elsewhere, the government should have secured those buildings because they managed to enter the protest site in the early afternoon of May 19, he said.

"What happened took place in a climate of anger [after the bloody crackdown] which caused the loss of many lives. You have to compare that to the shooting down of many people. Police and soldiers could have secured the buildings, instead they merely watched. Some soldiers even said that they were only there to kill, not to look after properties," he said.

With his bank account frozen under the emergency decree, Somyos added that the Voice of Taksin would most likely have to shut down.

In a related development, Assoc Prof Suthachai Yimprasert, a historian at Chulalongkorn University and a fellow political activist who was also calling for new protests, was arrested yesterday.