Protesters in Bangkok demand House dissolution

As thousands of protesters gathered in Bangkok, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship on Sunday issued a formal statement from the main stage at Phan Fa bridge demanding that the government dissolve the House of Representatives within 24 hours or face mass street demonstrations.

The statement, read by UDD leader Veera Musikhapong, said that since the Sept 19, 2006 coup that toppled the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, the country had been under a dictatorship. "We're asking the government to relinquish power and return it to the people," he said. Veera threatened that the group would spread their protests across the capital in coming days if their demands are not met. He said the present government was in fact a dictatorship under another name and the red-shirts did not believe it could be in the people's best interests.

Faced by pressures from anti-government protesters demanding the ouster of his coalition government, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Sunday that invoking the Emergency Decree by the government would depend on a “necessity and urgency only”. Thanking protesters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) for holding a thus far peaceful demonstration in the capital, Abhisit said during his weekly television and radio address that in an attempt to ease confrontation between security personnel and the protesters, the government had ordered a number of soldiers to be withdrawn from protest sites and replaced by police.

The government has no thought to use force to deal with the red-shirt anti-government protesters, the Prime Minister said in his “Confidence in Thailand with PM Abhisit” regular programme on NBT on Sunday morning. Abhisit was responding to a report that the government was planning to invoke the executive decree on public administration in emergency situations.

The Prime Minister said it was not easy to declare state of emergency because there must be several conditions that can justify the declaration. He did not mind if the protest to be prolonged to one week or even one month, as long as the political activity was peacefully carried out.

Meanwhile, fugitive, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra has left Dubai and is expected to join his daughters in Switzerland, said Panich Vikitsreth, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. Panich told the Thai News Agency that Mr Thaksin was not travelling to Cambodia as reported. He said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has informed Thailand that Thaksin had left Dubai. He added the UAE had acknowledged Thailand's request to ban Thaksin, whose government was ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006, from using the UAE as a springboard in attacking the Thai government.

- Asian Tribune -