Sunday, 14 March 2010

Day of anti-government protests passes quietly in Thailand

Supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra take to the streets Friday in Bangkok. AP

via CAAI News Media

Concerns remain, though, about proposed ‘Million Man March’ on Sunday

Thanyarat Doksone

Bangkok — The Associated Press
Published on Friday, Mar. 12, 2010

A day of anti-government protests around Thailand passed peacefully Friday, though concerns remained about possible violence when demonstrators converge in the country's capital for a “million man march” Sunday.

There had been fears of gridlock on the roads in Bangkok, but the city instead saw lighter than usual traffic as many school and businesses closed in anticipation of possible trouble. Gatherings of the so-called Red Shirts at several points in the capital were also smaller than expected, ranging from several hundred to about 4,000 at most.

The Red Shirts, formally known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, comprise followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, along with other people who oppose the 2006 military coup that toppled him.

They seek to have the current prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, call a new election which they believe will allow their political allies to regain power. They believe that Mr. Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional Thai ruling class, who were jealous and fearful of Mr. Thaksin's popularity while in office in 2001-2006.

Thailand has been in a state of constant political turmoil since early 2006, when demonstrations accusing Mr. Thaksin of corruption and abuse of power were launched. In 2008, when Mr. Thaksin's political allies came back to power for a year, his opponents occupied the prime minister's office compound for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week.

Although Friday's crowds seemed low even in comparison to past Red Shirt events, organizers claimed to be pleased.

“Today's gatherings have exceeded our goals in terms of numbers. We expected only 2,000 people to show up at each point, but a lot more have come,” said Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader. “Hundreds and hundreds of cars and motorcycles have come out to the streets. We decided not to waste too much of their energy and dispersed early.”

Thousands of red-shirted protesters on motorcycles and pickup trucks some clogged streets around Bangkok before gathering at scattered rally sites, including the national police headquarters. One group of several hundred rallied outside an army command center on the outskirts of Bangkok where Mr. Abhisit was monitoring the day's events, and then dispersed peacefully.

“As long as there is no justice, Thailand cannot be united,” Jaran Ditthapichai, a Red Shirt leader, told the crowd outside the police headquarters. “We want the power to be returned to the people.”

The Red Shirts have vowed to keep their protest nonviolent — and some in Bangkok carried single stem roses that they handed to policemen. However, the group's last major protest in Bangkok last April deteriorated into rioting that left two people killed, more than 120 people injured and buses burned on major thoroughfares. The army was called in to quash the unrest.

The government, while saying it will honor the right to gather for peaceful protest, has set up roadblocks at all main access points to the capital, and has been stopping and searching cars for weapons. A force of 50,000 soldiers, police and other security was mobilized for the Bangkok area.

To help cope with the problem of too many vehicles entering the capital, the government has even offered to bus demonstrators in from the city's outskirts, where they can park their pickup trucks.

The Red Shirts will again rally in Bangkok on Saturday, though that will mostly be a travel day for demonstrators coming in from far-flung rural provinces. They say they hope to gather 400,000-600,000 people to all come together Sunday on Bangkok's Rajdamnoen Avenue, a venue that has been the site of the country's most important political protests of the past 50 years.

Red Shirt leaders have been vague about how long they hope to keep the protest running, preferring to say they believe the government will step down and call new polls within just a few days.

While violence was avoided at the rallies, a senior police officer nearing retirement after serving more than 30 years in Thailand's violent deep south was killed Friday by suspected Muslim insurgents.

The political jockeying by Mr. Thaksin's supporters and opponents has overshadowed a Muslim separatist insurgency in Thailand's three southernmost provinces. Police said Col. Sompien Eksomya, a district superintendent, was killed after insurgents ambushed the pickup truck in which he was traveling.

Col. Sompien attracted national attention recently when he came to the capital Bangkok to plead with Mr. Vejjajiva to expedite a transfer to a more peaceful province until he retired.

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