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BANGKOK : Ousted former Thailand premier Thaksin Shinawatra urged his supporters not to leave him "dying in the desert" of Dubai on Saturday as he made an impassioned address to a rally in Bangkok.
The fugitive politician, who is living in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption, made a 50-minute telephone address to tens of thousands of anti-government protester who gathered despite heavy rain in the Thai capital.
"We come here because we want to see real democracy. We hate injustice and double standards," Thaksin told the cheering red-clad crowd, which numbered 25,000 according to police estimates.
"I am fine and doing some business and travelling around but I am really lonely, I want to go back," Thaksin said. "Why do you have to leave me dying in the desert when I can work for our country?"
Appealing to his grassroots support base in the poorer north of Thailand, Thaksin said the government of premier Abhisit Vejjajiva should wipe out household debt and attacked its record on the economy.
"This government is good for three things: borrowing, hiking taxes and hounding Thaksin," the exiled media tycoon said.
The crowd of "Red Shirt" protesters in the historic quarter of Bangkok made up the biggest anti-government rally since bloody riots erupted two months ago.
Protest leader Jatuporn Prompan said it would organise three more gatherings, without saying when they may be.
"They (the government) hoped that they had wiped out the Red Shirts after the last crackdown but instead we are getting stronger and red over Thailand," said Jatuporn.
He repeated the group's demands to a jubilant crowd -- that Abhisit must dissolve parliament and call fresh elections -- and berated royal adviser Prem Tinsulanonda, whom they accuse of instigating the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin.
The group have said they will stay at the site until dawn on Sunday but have promised a peaceful demonstration.
Police said more than 3,000 officers and 1,000 soldiers were on hand to guard government offices and search the crowd for trouble-makers.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has placed the national police chief in control of security but said he had drafted a document to invoke an internal security law that gives more power to the army in case the rally turns sour.
The Red Shirts stormed a key Asian summit on the Thai coast on April 11, forcing its cancellation, before rampaging through the capital, leaving two people dead and 123 injured, and prompting Abhisit to declare emergency rule.
Protesters clashed with security forces in Bangkok over two days but finally dispersed after troops surrounded them and threatened to move them by force.
British-born Abhisit returned late Saturday from an official visit to China without addressing reporters.
Since Thaksin was ousted, Thai society has been deeply split between his supporters among the largely rural poor and the powerful Bangkok cliques in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
The kingdom has been wracked for months by rival rallies.
Opponents of Thaksin, known as "Yellow Shirts", staged protests last year that led to a nine-day blockade of Bangkok's airports and left more than 300,000 visitors stranded, badly denting the kingdom's tourist-friendly image.
Jatuporn criticised the lack of legal action against the rival protesters.
"The cases against the (Yellow Shirts) are not going anywhere. No one was prosecuted for occupying the airports and Government House," he said. "Where's the justice?"
- AFP /ls
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