Thousands march on Thai prime minister’s office

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of protesters marched
on the office of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on
Tuesday, vowing to surround it until he quits.

The march, billed as the final showdown by an
extra-parliamentary coalition accusing Thaksin of corruption
and abuse of power, began after an all-night rally next to
Bangkok’s Grand Palace which was attended by around 40,000
people.

Many stayed all night and the crowd swelled rapidly as the
march began under a watchful police presence after a powerful
indirect appeal from revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej not to
allow the protest to descend into violence, as others in the
past have.

At 8 a.m. (0100) police estimated the crowd at 70,000.
Large numbers of police were at Government House, where the
cabinet was due to meet at 8.30 a.m. (0130 GMT).

Chamlong Srimuang, the ascetic general who led a 1992
“people power” uprising against a military government in which
about 50 people were killed, said there would be no trouble
this time.

“We will march peacefully,” he told the rally, to chants of
‘Thaksin, get out’. “You can be assured that nothing will
happen. Do not be afraid.”

His blue-clad “Dharma Army,” or the Army of Buddha’s
Teachings — barefoot and carrying the red, white and blue Thai
flag — led the way out of the rally ground to Government House
about 5 km (3 miles) away.

Thaksin, who called snap elections on April 2 to defuse a
campaign fueled by the tax-free $1.9 billion sale by relatives
of the business empire he founded, would not be at the cabinet
meeting. He was to chair it by video-link from the provinces.

He said he would declare a state of emergency if necessary,
which could bring troops onto the streets of a country with a
long and relatively recent history of military intervention.

“We are prepared to declare a state of emergency if
required,” he told reporters on the campaign trail in the
northeast.

ROYAL SIGNAL

Previous rallies by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, an
extra-parliamentary coalition which accuses Thaksin of
corruption and abuse of power, have been peaceful, even
festive.

But 6,000 Thaksin supporters headed from northern Thailand
to Bangkok in tractors and trucks, fanning fears that yet again
a Thai political confrontation could turn into street violence.

Such fears clearly penetrated the royal palace and led to
the screening on all six Thai television channels on Sunday of
footage of the King, a constitutional monarch, talking in 1992
to the then prime minister and Chamlong as they knelt before
him.

Suchinda Kraprayoon, then head of a military-led
government, quit after the audience and peace returned to
Bangkok’s streets.

Military chiefs have been going out of their way over the
past few weeks to stress that they have no intention of
intervening and that the era of coups is over.

The anti-government campaign took off in late January when
the tax-free sale of the telecoms business empire Thaksin
founded outraged Bangkok’s middle classes.

Thaksin hit back against what he says is “mob rule” by
calling elections three years early and accusing the three main
opposition parties of betraying democracy by boycotting them.

But the People’s Alliance for Democracy, adamant Thaksin
must go, and the government, adamant he must stay, appeared to
be on a collision course.

(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak and Nopporn
Wong-Anan)