Saturday, 7 August 2010

Thai 'Yellow Shirts' plan Bangkok protest

The Yellows mounted a siege of Bangkok's two main airports in 2008 that stranded hundreds of thousands of tourists
BANGKOK — Thailand's royalist "Yellow Shirts" said Friday they would join a weekend rally in Bangkok to accuse the government of ceding territory to Cambodia, in a show of strength for the nationalistic movement.

At least 2,000 people are expected to attend the protest outside Government House on Saturday in defiance of an emergency decree in the capital, organisers said.

Thai authorities warned the protesters to stay away and said they would deploy the police and military to manage the situation if necessary.

"We will not allow any protest in the area under the emergency decree," said Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, spokesman for the government unit overseeing security in the capital.

"We also have officers to take care of the situation," he said, adding that the Yellows' view would be taken into account and they "don't have to come in large numbers".

The Yellows, formally called the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), have previously allied themselves with the current Thai political leadership but the spat is the latest sign that relations have soured.

Key PAD figure Sondhi Limthongkul on Friday accused Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of "lying to the entire Thai nation" about the territorial issue.

The PAD has criticised the governing Democrat party of signing up to a deal with Thailand's neighbour in 2000 that the Yellows believe paved the way for recognition of a Cambodian land claim.

The group has demanded that Thailand tear up the memorandum of understanding, eject Cambodian citizens from the disputed 4.6 square kilometre (1.8 square mile) area and try to regain control of the Preah Vihear temple.

Relations between the neighbouring countries, which have previously been strained because of Cambodia's refusal to deport fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have been further tested by the dispute.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday dismissed a Thai compromise proposal for the temple as "a dream".

The Yellow Shirts, who are backed by the Bangkok-based elite, are a force to be reckoned with in Thailand's colour-coded political landscape.

The group's rallies in 2006 helped trigger the coup that unseated Thaksin, the hero of the mostly poor and working class "Red Shirts", who were behind violent protests in Bangkok in April and May.

The Yellows also mounted a siege of Bangkok's two main airports in 2008 that stranded hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists and helped to topple a government allied to Thaksin.

Many Red Shirt leaders are in jail for their roles in the Bangkok protests and the movement has complained that the lack of charges filed against the Yellows showed a double standard of justice.

This week prosecutors again postponed a decision over whether to indict individual Yellow Shirts over the airport siege.

Under a state of emergency imposed in Bangkok in April in response to the Red Shirt protest, political gatherings of more than five people are currently banned in the capital.

Red supporters plan a small demonstration of their own in Bangkok on Sunday to protest at the May crackdown on their rally, during which about 90 people died and nearly 1,900 were injured in clashes between troops and protesters.

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