About 12,000 “Red Shirt” protesters loyal to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok yesterday as the Thai capital braced for the biggest rally since bloody riots two months ago.
Police said the red-clad crowd began to gather from mid-afternoon in the historic quarter of the city, as they estimated up to 50,000 people could turn up despite heavy rains.
The group has said it would stay at the site until dawn today to demand that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the House and call fresh elections.
PHOTO: AP
“I think hundreds of thousands of our red shirt protesters across the country will turn out for today’s demonstration,” protest leader Jatuporn Prompan told reporters.
The leaders promised a peaceful demonstration, but the government has vowed to take a tough stance on any trouble and police said more than 3,000 officers and 1,000 soldiers were on hand to guard government offices.
“The situation at the rally site so far is peaceful and orderly. The police are searching for weapons and are on alert for [any instigators of violence],” police commander Colonel King Kwaengwisetchaicharn told reporters.
Many of the protesters at the site held up placards with slogans attacking the government and pictures of their hero Thaksin.
But Jatuporn complained to reporters that “fake red shirts” had infiltrated the rally to incite unrest.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has put the national police chief in control of security, but said he had drafted a document to invoke an internal security law that gives more power to the army in case the rally turns sour.
Major General Suporn Phansua said that police estimated between 30,000 and 50,000 protesters, mostly from Bangkok and surrounding provinces, would attend.
Thaksin, living in Dubai to escape a jail sentence for corruption, was due to telephone the rally later last night.
“Thaksin ... will talk about the government’s failure to solve the economic crisis and may rebut the government’s allegation [that the red shirts] plan to incite violence in the city,” Jatuporn said.
The Red Shirts stormed an Asian summit on April 11, forcing its cancelation, before rampaging through the capital, leaving two dead and 123 injured, and prompting Abhisit to declare emergency rule.
Protesters clashed with security forces in Bangkok over two days but finally dispersed after troops surrounded them and threatened to move them by force.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS