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BANGKOK - Thousands of red-shirted supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra flooded back into the streets of Bangkok Thursday in an attempt to step up pressure on the embattled government.
Police said around 8,000 demonstrators gathered for the latest in a series of rallies against current premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, who took office a year ago after protests by rival "Yellow Shirts" drove Thaksin's allies from power.
The demonstration at Democracy Monument in downtown Bangkok was being held to mark Constitution Day, a public holiday which marks the formation of Thailand's first constitution in 1932, organisers said.
They said the rally would highlight their demands for the scrapping of a constitution forced through by a military government in 2007, one year after the army ousted Thaksin in a bloodless coup.
"Today we will celebrate the 77th anniversary of Constitution Day and discuss the constitution and Thai politics," Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan said.
Speakers on a red-draped stage gave speeches to the crowd attacking Prem Tinsulanonda, the top aide to Thailand's revered king, saying that the former army chief and premier had orchestrated the putsch against Thaksin.
Thaksin was scheduled to address his supporters by telephone from abroad later Thursday. The billionaire tycoon has been living in self-imposed exile, mainly in Dubai, to avoid a two-year jail term for corruption.
Around 1,500 police were deployed at the protest site and the same number were on standby, police said.
Thailand remains deeply divided between Thaksin's supporters centred in the country's poor northeast and the Bangkok-based elite linked to the royal palace, military and bureaucracy.
A clause in the 2007 constitution, which allows the banning of political parties if they are found to be involved in vote fraud, was used to topple Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat as prime minister in December 2008.
Somchai's disqualification from office came after the royalist Yellow Shirts blockaded Bangkok's airports, stranding hundreds of thousands of travellers and hitting Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy.
The Red Shirts started their protest campaign shortly after Abhisit took power on December 15 last year. In April they disrupted an Asian summit in Thailand and rioted in Bangkok, leaving two people dead and scores injured.
They called off plans to hold days of protests in late November and early December this year after Thaksin said the protests were too close to the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on December 5.
The 82-year-old king, the world's longest-reigning monarch, has been in hospital for nearly three months, causing concern as he is widely viewed as a stabilising force in a politically volatile country.
- AFP /ls
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