Pro-Thaksin protesters ring Thai Parliament

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-29 14:12

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thousands of supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded Thailand's Parliament on Monday, daring lawmakers to pass through their ranks to deliver a speech outlining the new government's key policies.

Supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gather Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008, near the Royal Palace in Bangkok to listen to speeches. Demonstrators are calling for a march on Parliament sparking fears of a replay of the political unrest that paralyzed the government in Thailand for months culminating in an eight-day seizure of the capital's airports. [Agencies]

"If they (lawmakers) want to go in, they have to walk through us, including the prime minister," one of the protest leaders, Chatuporn Prompan, told reporters outside the Parliament compound where demonstrators spent the night.

The demonstration sparked fears of renewed political turbulence, which paralyzed the previous government for months and climaxed with an eight-day seizure of Bangkok's airports. But the earlier protesters had been part of an anti-Thaksin alliance.

The current protest group, which calls itself the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship, is trying to put pressure on the government to dissolve the legislature and call fresh elections.

They plan to remain around the building while the government delivers its policy statement Monday and Tuesday, the group said.

Protesters carried signs reading "Give us back real democracy" and "Government of treason."

The protesters, dubbed the "red shirts" for their protest attire, say new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Democrat Party came to power this month through a virtual coup d'etat.

The court ruling that dissolved the previous government, which was packed with Thaksin allies, and led to Abhisit's selection as prime minister came under pressure from the military and other powerful forces, the group says.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuaksuban told reporters that his party's lawmakers were "not sure whether we can get into Parliament today. For their own safety, I will not let our members walk through this throng of red-shirted guys."

Chatuporn said the protesters were not blockading the building but those who wanted to enter would have to get out of their vehicles and walk through their lines.

Police closed the gates of the Parliament building Sunday in anticipation of the demonstrations. Police lines were reinforced to cordon off the building and Sanam Luang, a field in the historic heart of the capital where the pro-Thaksin group gathered to hear speeches denouncing the government.

Abhisit told reporters that force would not be used against the demonstrators.

An Oxford-educated, 44-year-old politician, Abhisit was formally named prime minister Dec. 17 in what many hoped would be the end of months of turbulent, sometimes violent, protests that had their roots in a 2006 military coup that toppled Thaksin.

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