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BANGKOK : Thailand extended a tough security law Wednesday as protesters massed in Bangkok's main commercial district for a fifth day and vowed to march to parliament and the prime minister's house.
The red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra have been emboldened after the police and army backed down on Tuesday after a tense standoff in the capital's tourist heartland.
The authorities have threatened to arrest the protesters, who are mostly from Thailand's poor and working class and see Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government as elitist and undemocratic.
But so far no arrests have been made and the security forces have refrained from using force to disperse the tens of thousands of protesters, who have disrupted traffic and caused major shopping centres to shut.
The government said it would act if needed to end the protests, but reiterated that it wanted a peaceful resolution to the standoff.
"If it is inevitable, we will act," said Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of security.
The cabinet extended a special security law - which allows authorities to set up checkpoints, impose curfews and limit movement - for another two weeks.
Suthep denied local media reports that it was the army chief who had refused Tuesday to use force to break up the mass demonstrations, which business leaders fear will damage the tourist industry and wider economy.
The Reds threatened to parade by truck, car and motorcycle to parliament and then Abhisit's house, which was targeted by protesters last month throwing bags of their own blood.
The Reds say the government is illegitimate because it came to power with army backing through a parliamentary vote in December 2008 after a court decision ousted Thaksin's allies from power.
Reds leader Nattawut Saikuar urged Abhisit to step down, saying he was unable to govern the country.
"Prime Minister Abhisit cannot carry on his work, so why does he still want to be in office?" he told the crowd from the rally stage.
British-born Abhisit, whose CV includes an expensive education at Britain's Eton College followed by Oxford University, does not have to go to the polls until the end of next year.
But observers say that when he does face the people, his failure to connect with the rural masses means he has dim prospects against the pro-Thaksin forces that have won every election for a decade.
The mainly poor and rural followers of Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms tycoon who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, fervently support the populist policies he introduced before his ouster in a 2006 coup.
They largely dismiss allegations that Thaksin's 2001-2006 reign was marked by corruption, cronyism and grave human rights abuses.
Thaksin sought to rally his supporters on Wednesday morning in a brief message through the micro-blogging service Twitter, praising their "courage, patience and unity."
On Tuesday protesters threw plastic bottles, pushed against police barricades and later took over the streets of central Bangkok on motorcycles and in pick-up trucks, pouring into the capital's financial district.
The military has mounted a heavy security response, deploying 50,000 personnel at one point to try to contain the protests, which drew as many as 100,000 people on the first day on March 14.
But the government wants to avoid a repeat of last April's clashes with Red Shirts that left two people dead, six months after riot police took on the rival Yellow Shirts in bloody scenes outside parliament.
- AFP/il
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