Troops on alert as protesters go on march
Tens of thousands of anti-Thaksin protesters began moving from Sanam Luang to the nearby Democracy Monument late last night, prompting officials to put security forces on high alert amid concern the crowd might try to march on either Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's residence or Government House.
As the second day of the mass protest was about to draw to a close, protest leaders decided late in the night to bolster their demand for Thaksin's resignation with a symbolic assembly at the monument in the middle of Rajdamnoen avenue. They also called on Thaksin to resign in five days or face a bigger protest rally on Sunday. The memorial site and its vicinity were the scene of historic popular uprisings and consequent bloody government-ordered crackdowns in October 1973, October 1976 and May 1992 and sources said the move from Sanam Luang by about 30,000 protesters to the monument, though a short distance, was a cause of security concern. Earlier in the night, Snoh Thienthong, the former chief advisor of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party, took to the stage to attack Thaksin for the first time since the Wang Nam Yen faction leader and his family members quit the party last week. Snoh apologised to the people for having made a "wrong decision" by initially supporting Thaksin and helping him succeed in politics. Speaking in northeastern dialect, Snoh drew cheers and big applause from the crowd as he called on the people to stop believing in Thaksin's words and to refrain from voting for Thai Rak Thai candidates. "Don't let him fool you any longer. He has used the people's taxes to fund projects that woo votes for his MPs," Snoh said. He said Thaksin's resignation would not be enough to reverse the damage he had done and that his assets should also be seized. "This is what we must do to someone who plunders the country," Snoh said. The crowd numbers gradually swelled from thousands in the afternoon to about 30,000 as of late last night as more people came to join the demonstration after work. Informed sources said last night that police and the Army were beefing up security as they expected the protesters to move from Sanam Luang to either Thaksin's residence in Soi Charansanitwong 69 or Government House. Police commandos were deployed at both places and paratroopers were also despatched from Lop Buri province to Bangkok to stand by for a possible emergency, the sources said.
|
