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.
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