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BANGKOK: Thailand on Wednesday ordered thousands of protesters to leave the main government complex and issued arrest warrants for their leaders, ratcheting up the pressure to end the two-day stand-off.
But as riot police stood by, the demonstrators vowed to stay inside the Government House compound until Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej bows to their demands to step down.
Thailand's Civil Court granted a government request for a ruling ordering five protest leaders and their spokesperson to end the siege, deputy national police spokesman Major General Surapol Tuanthong said on Wednesday.
"The court has issued an order asking the six defendants to stop protesting in Government House and the area around ... the order takes effect immediately," he said.
But members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) swiftly said they would not comply.
"We have discussed this and it is necessary that we have to defy (the order)," Samran Rodphet, one of the protest speakers, told the crowds.
"We have to fight so that our mission will be complete. We would like to ask the mercy from the court to let us do our mission to restore the nation."
The Criminal Court earlier issued arrest warrants for nine members of PAD, but police have yet to act on the warrants and are standing by at Government House.
Surapol said authorities had not decided when to move in and arrest the nine PAD members.
"We have to talk, the senior police will talk about what to do next," he said.
Up to 35,000 demonstrators stormed a state-run television station on Tuesday, besieging at least three ministries and finally invading the grounds of Government House, stepping up a campaign to bring down Samak's administration.
Despite government pleas, the threat of arrest, and even the onset of a tropical rain storm, protest leaders refused to budge.
Hundreds of protesters briefly formed a human shield around the PAD's most vocal leaders - media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul and retired general Chamlong Srimuang - who sat on the ground in t-shirts reading "Fight for the king."
"We are going to wait here and wait for them to come in and get us," Sondhi told AFP TV.
Small scuffles broke out between police and protesters early Wednesday, but for most of the day the police deployed to the compound, some armed with batons and shields, kept away from the demonstrators.
One police officer who refused to be named said 2,000 police were deployed outside Government House, while 500 were inside. Police earlier estimated that 14,000 protesters had flooded the compound.
The PAD movement, which has been protesting since May, says Samak is a proxy running the country on behalf of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and is barred from holding office.
Samak, who won elections last December and formed his coalition government in February, has said he will not resign.
The premier, who was working on Wednesday from army headquarters, said on Tuesday that his approach would be "soft and gentle."
Samak has won praise from Thailand's often-hostile English-language press, with a poll published on Tuesday showing nearly 68 percent of Bangkok residents surveyed did not agree with the Government House siege.
PAD protests in early 2006 helped lead to the putsch that unseated Thaksin, and the entry to government of his ally Samak infuriated the old power elites in the military and palace.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst based at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn university, told AFP the protest could backfire as city residents tire of the disruption.
"They have broken the law and it could be a serious setback for them," he said. "The government has a lot of options - they have time on their side."
Since taking office, Samak has faced his own series of setbacks. Court decisions forced three top government officials to resign, while the ongoing PAD protests have helped push the stock market down nearly 18 percent since May. - AFP/de
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