Tens of thousands of opposition supporters protest in Thailand
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters protest in Thailand
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Sunday, 14, Mar 2010 10:09
By Richard James.
Tens of thousands of supporters of the deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra have taken to the streets of Bangkok calling on the current government to step down.
Leaders of the demonstrations have allegedly given the government until Monday to call fresh elections.
Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, has declared he will not step down and some 50,000 police officers and soldiers have deployed to control the protests.
Bangkok police claim around 45,000 protestors from the north and north-east of the country arrived at the rally site on Saturday night with as many as 100,000 people expected to attend in the protests in total.
The al-Jazeera news agency quotes one supporter of Mr Thaksin as saying: "We will declare our demands to the government, that it must step down and dissolve the house.
"If our demands are not met then we will step up our campaign on Monday but I can reassure everyone that it will be peaceful."
The opposition supporters, known as the 'Red Shirts', are expected to spread out across the capital in the coming days and attempt to paralyse the city if their demands are not met.
Thailand has been in political turmoil since 2006 when anti-Thaksin protestors, known as the 'Yellow Shirts', started demanding the then prime minister stand down over corruption accusations.
Mr Thaksin was eventually forced out by a coup, but when his allies returned to power in 2008, opposition protestors effectively closed down the country - occupying the prime minister's office for three months and gaining control of Thailand's two main airports.
The former PM now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai and last month Thailand's supreme court ordered almost £1 billion of his frozen assets to be seized.
The court ruled Mr Thaksin had abused his power for personal gain and ordered the seizure of 46 billion baht (£923 million) from the £1.5 billion frozen after he was overthrown in the 2006 coup.