File photo shows supporters of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra during a protest in Bangkok. Thousands of pro-Thaksin protesters have rallied outside the house of royal adviser Surayud Chulanont to rally against alleged judicial double-standards. (AFP/File/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)
by Thanaporn Promyamyai Thanaporn Promyamyai
via CAAI News Media
BANGKOK (AFP) – Thousands of supporters of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra rallied Monday outside the house of a royal adviser to protest against alleged judicial double standards.
Around 10,000 people chanted slogans saying that the home of ex-premier and privy councillor Surayud Chulanont in the Khao Yai Tieng forest, 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Bangkok, was built illegally in a national park.
The protest is the first by Thaksin's so-called "Red Shirts" in 2010, and is apparently aimed at building support for big new anti-government rallies promised by the movement later this month in the capital.
Thaksin, who is living abroad to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption imposed in 2008, gave a speech via video-link to the rally saying that the deeply divided kingdom needed justice for reconciliation.
"We came here today because we cannot stand unfair treatment. We will fight until the truth is revealed. We will fight fairly," Thaksin said. "We will not give up until there is justice in this society."
Police said around 10,000 protesters had gathered and that there were about 1,500 police officers guarding Surayud's house.
"Surayud's house is encroaching on the forest," core Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan told reporters earlier, adding that forestry department officials had "failed in their duty" by allowing Surayud to build there.
Another Red Shirt leader, Suporn Attawong, said that people who trespassed in the forest normally faced legal action but Surayud had escaped censure because he was part of Thailand's powerful establishment.
Surayud headed the military administration that ran the country from after the 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin until elections in December 2007 that were won by Thaksin's allies.
Support for Thaksin is strongest in Thailand's impoverished rural northeast, where the forest is located, while the billionaire tycoon remains loathed by the Bangkok-based cliques in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
The Red Shirts are pressing for the resignation of current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who took power in December 2008 following the collapse of the previous pro-Thaksin government.
They have held a series of protests, which turned violent last April when they derailed a major Asian summit hosted by Thailand and then rioted in Bangkok, leaving two people dead and 123 injured.
Monday's rally comes a day after Abhisit's embattled coalition government faced fresh pressure when the deputy public health minister resigned after being implicated in a corruption scandal.
Manit Nopamornbodee was the second minister to quit over the case, which involves a 2.6-billion-dollar healthcare scheme, following the resignation of public health minister Witthaya Kaewparadai on December 29.
The Thai government is also locked in a drawn-out diplomatic stand-off with neighbouring Cambodia over Phnom Penh's appointment late last year of Thaksin as an economic adviser.
Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong Monday hit back at comments made by Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in a newspaper interview that the two countries could not normalise relations until Cambodia revoked Thaksin's job.
"It (the appointment of Thaksin) is the sovereign right of Cambodia. Thailand has no right to interfere in this issue," Hor Namhong told AFP.
Both recalled their ambassadors in November and expelled senior diplomats, while diplomatic tensions soared further when Phnom Penh refused to extradite Thaksin during his first visit to Cambodia.
The two countries have fought a series of gunbattles in the past year over land surrounding a disputed temple on their border.
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