Media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul, who has led the prolonged movement to oust Thaksin, said on Tuesday night that a number of officials at the ministry would dress in black yesterday to demonstrate their support for the movement.

The ministry yesterday expressed its concerns over the reports, saying that as a state institution its officials needed to remain politically neutral.

"Some individual officials might have done so [to express their political stance] but

it is unfair for anybody at the ministry to exploit their

position for political gain," said the ministry's deputy spokesman Kiattikhun Chartprasert.

"We need to be neutral

as our officials have to con-duct elections overseas," he said.

Kiattikhun also rejected a report that the ministry's permanent secretary Krit Garnjana-Goonchorn reprimanded the group of 20 officials for their move.

Ministry sources said that a large number of officials had intended to dress in black on Friday to show their disapproval of the caretaker prime minister, but had later backtracked.

"We had planned to do so, but ultimately decided not to as we didn't want to become a political decoy," an official said on the condition of anonymity.

"We really wanted to exercise our freedom of expression, but we are not willing to take sides in personal conflicts," he said, noting that nobody had forced them to make the decision to back down.

Those who had initially agreed to dress in black reportedly included a number of young officials and at least two seniors at the level of director-general.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation