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Demonstrators hold portraits of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during an anti-government protest outside the Government House in Bangkok - Source: Reuters
Thousands of protesters marched on Thailand's seat of government
to demand that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down,
adding to his troubles as the economy slides into recession.
Leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship
(UDD) planned a three-day siege of Government House in what
appeared to be a bid to embarrass the government as it prepares to
host a weekend summit of Southeast Asian leaders.
"The leaders of this government have toured many countries to try
to win foreign recognition, but they have learned that this is a
dictatorship in disguise," UDD leader Jakrapop Penkhair told the
crowd from a makeshift stage.
UDD leaders pledged not to cause trouble or storm the Government
House compound, which was occupied for three months last year by
the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a rival protest
group that played a key role in the ousting of former Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 coup.
Abhisit, who led his cabinet to Hua Hin on Tuesday to inspect the
summit venue, plans to return to his office on Wednesday.
Some 2,000 police and soldiers armed with batons and shields
guarded the compound in old Bangkok.
"I still have a positive view that there won't be any violence and
that we can enter to work," Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban
told reporters.
UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan said if the police disrupted the
rally at Government House, protesters would move to the summit at
Hua Hin, some 200 kms from Bangkok.
At Government House thousands of UDD protesters attempted to push
through lines of riot police.
Some waded through rolls of barbed wire placed to slow the
marchers.
No election
Host Thailand cancelled the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) meeting late last year after PAD cadres occupied Bangkok's
main airports in a street campaign that helped to push the
pro-Thaksin government from power.
Abhisit, who leads a shaky coalition government after winning a
parliamentary vote for prime minister in December, has refused to
call an election while his government struggles to revive an
export-driven economy battered by the global slowdown.
Thailand's economy suffered its biggest contraction in memory in
the fourth quarter of last year after exports collapsed due to the
global economic slowdown.
The state planning agency said on Monday the economy would probably
shrink in 2009, reinforcing expectations of a big Bank of Thailand
interest rate cut on Wednesday.
Broadly speaking, the UDD opposes the 2006 coup that removed
billionaire Thaksin, now in exile.
The PAD played an integral part in the putsch that removed him,
as well as the political upheaval that forced out two pro-Thaksin
governments last year.
The UDD accuses Abhisit of being a stooge of the army and the PAD,
a charge he denies.
It wants Abhisit to sack Foreign Minister Kasit Piromyas, who was a
regular speaker at PAD rallies, and to prosecute PAD leaders for
their occupation of Government House and Bangkok's two airports
last year.
Analysts say the outlook for political stability remains bleak as
long as there is no end to the rift between Bangkok's royalist
military and business elite, who accuse Thaksin of corruption, and
rural voters who loved his populist policies.
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