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BANGKOK: Thailand's government offered Wednesday to hold talks with former premier Thaksin Shinawatra in a bid to defuse week-long protests that have reignited the kingdom's political chaos.
Thousands of supporters of Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 amid allegations of corruption, have besieged Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's office in Bangkok for the past seven days.
Fired up by video and telephone speeches delivered by Thaksin from exile, the red-clad demonstrators have demanded that Abhisit dissolve his three-month-old government and call snap elections.
"The government is ready to hold talks with Thaksin wherever to make our country peaceful," Suthep Thaugsuban, the deputy prime minister in charge of security, told reporters.
"But some of his demands are impossible, such as the dissolution of the house," he said, adding that a national reconciliation bill which would clear Thaksin of a jail term for graft was also out of the question.
"I will wait for his reaction this evening," Suthep said.
The rally is the largest and longest of several by the so-called "Red Shirts" since Abhisit took office in December on the back of a controversial court decision that removed Thaksin's allies from power.
Abhisit is currently in London for the G20 economic summit.
Thaksin's supporters quickly rejected the olive branch offered by Suthep, saying that they would instead step up their campaign to topple the government by holding a mass rally in Bangkok on April 8.
"The situation now is beyond negotiation," protest leader Jatuporn Prompan said. "Since we want to topple the government how can we talk with them? It's too late and useless."
Jatuporn said that next Wednesday protesters would also surround the Bangkok home of former premier Prem Tinsulanonda, one of two advisors to the widely revered king whom Thaksin last week accused of masterminding the coup.
Officials said the government was meanwhile studying whether it was legally able to jam the satellite signal broadcasting Thaksin's speeches to his supporters.
"We will discuss how to block the signal because the current situation is affecting national security," said Satit Wonghnongtaey, a minister attached to the prime minister's office.
The government obtained a court injunction late Tuesday ordering the protesters not to obstruct access to Government House, but around 2,000 Thaksin supporters remained camped outside the building the next morning.
Demonstrators -- from the very young to the very old -- waved colourful banners, including one showing Thaksin as Superman. Hundreds of troops wearing helmets and carrying riot shields stood guard behind coils of barbed wire.
There was no immediate reaction from Thaksin himself, who recently said that he was living in Dubai but has not revealed his current whereabouts due to efforts by the government to extradite him.
He was sentenced to two years in jail last year over a land deal involving his ex-wife. He claims the charges are politically motivated.
Thailand has been gripped by unrest since the coup, with Thaksin's allies returning to power in elections in 2007 but then being driven from power late last year after a massive campaign of street protests by his foes.
A royalist anti-Thaksin group called the People's Alliance for Democracy occupied Government House for nearly three months last year and then blockaded Bangkok's airports for nine days in late November to early December.
Thaksin remains hugely popular among the rural and urban poor who benefited from his populist policies but the former policeman is loathed by Thailand's old guard in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
- AFP/yt
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