Thaksin "red shirts" gather again in Bangkok

Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:41pm BST

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* 12-day state of emergency lifted on Friday

* Protesters want government to quit


(Recasts with protest)

By Panarat Thepgumpanat

BANGKOK, April 25 (Reuters) - About 3,000 supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gathered in Bangkok on Saturday for their first rally in the capital since violent street clashes two weeks ago.

Security was tight with 450 police monitoring the crowd of red-shirted protesters at Sanam Luang, a public square near Bangkok's Grand Palace.

"The protest is going well so far. No violence," Police Major General Suporn Pansuea told Reuters.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ended a 12-day state of emergency in the capital on Friday, saying he wanted to foster reconciliation after the street clashes which killed two people and dented investor confidence.

"Lifting emergency rule doesn't mean the government will give up monitoring the situation," Abhisit told reporters on Saturday.

A leader of the pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) said the rally would be peaceful and end around midnight.

"Our request is the same. We want the Prime Minister to quit," Somyos Prueksakasemsuk said.

The UDD plan more rallies in the provinces before returning to Bangkok for a large demonstration in May, he said.

Abhisit, who was elected in a December parliamentary vote with the help of former Thaksin allies, has refused to call an election analysts say his Democrat party would likely lose.

Instead, he has promised constitutional reforms as a way out of the political crisis, but there are doubts it will be enough to heal the deep political rifts in Thai society.

The crisis is a battle between the "yellow shirts" -- royalists, the military and urban, middle-class Thais who back Abhisit -- and the "red shirt" supporters of Thaksin, whose power base is mainly drawn from millions of rural and urban poor who loved his populist policies.



BOTCHED ASSASSINATION

The street violence two weeks ago was the worst Thailand had seen in 16 years, forcing the cancellation of a summit of Asian leaders. The volatile situation was compounded by an attempted assassination of "yellow shirt" leader Sondhi Limthongkul.

Thai media reported on Saturday police want to question five soldiers over a possible connection to the attack on Sondhi.

A senior police official denied the reports, which followed last week's confirmation by Thailand's army chief that some of the bullets used in the April 17 attack were from the military.

Sondhi, who was wounded in the head after gunmen riddled his car with automatic rifle fire, did not speak to reporters as he left hospital on Saturday.

Army chief Anupong Paochinda has denied speculation by Sondhi's colleagues that military personnel may have been involved in the assassination attempt.

Bangkok's deputy police chief, Major General Pongsan Jaimon, rejected the reports that police were looking for five soldiers.

"How do you know this when I don't know?," he asked reporters. "We have to suspect all related people, including influential people, soldiers or whoever".

Sondhi is a co-founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which led a street campaign against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra before he was ousted in a 2006 coup. The PAD occupied Bangkok's airports last year to protest a pro-Thaksin government that was later dissolved by the courts. (Additional reporting by Arada Therdthammakun and Sinthana Kosopradit; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Matthew Jones)

 

 

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Article from REUTERS UK: http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKLP235029

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