Sep 18, 2009BANGKOK, Sept. 18 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Thai government tightened security Friday in an area of Bangkok where a security law was imposed ahead of an antigovernment rally planned for Saturday.
Several hundred police were deployed in the Dusit section of the city, which includes Government House, the Royal Plaza and the office of the Metropolitan Police, to maintain order.
About a hundred police were also posted at the residences of Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council, both in Bangkok and in northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province, after the protesters vowed to march on his residences.
Prem has been accused by supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of being behind the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin.
According to army spokesman Sansern Kaewkumnerd, up to 7,000 unarmed police, soldiers and civilian officers will be deployed in the restricted areas to deal with an expected 30,000 protesters.
The operation is to be led by the police with the other personnel under their direction.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban said, "We don't want to see people's blood, but if the situation is out of control, I have full authority to use an emergency decree."
Suthep will be in charge of rally precautions again while Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva attends the U.N. General Assembly and the G-20 Summit in United States from Sept. 22-27.
The Thaksin supporters have set the Royal Plaza as the site for their rally Saturday against Abhisit and his coalition government.
The rally is also to mark the third anniversary of the coup that toppled Thaksin.
In addition, Thai troops at the Thai-Cambodian border also tightened security to deal with the People's Alliance for Democracy, an anti- Thaksin group that has been protesting in the border areas since Thursday calling for Cambodian soldiers and villagers to leave a disputed part of the border.
PAD vowed to move into 4.6 square kilometers of land that is claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia.
Cambodia earlier this week accused Thai soldiers of burning a 16-year- old Cambodian boy alive after he was detained for illegal logging in the border area.
The Thai military has denied the charge.
The Thai-Cambodia border area has been the site of heightened tension since July last year when Cambodia detained three Thais in a disputed area near Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple, itself at the center of a bitter 50-year dispute.
Thailand occupied the area of the temple in 1949 when Cambodia was a French protectorate, but Cambodia won possession through an International Court of Justice ruling in 1962 and then got World Heritage recognition for it last year, touching off the latest border dispute.
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