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Red protesters take over Thai capital
Sydney Morning Herald - March 15, 2010
Ben Doherty, Bangkok – Key parts of Bangkok have been paralysed as tens of thousands of anti-government "red-shirt" protesters shut down roads. The government was considering declaring a state of emergency and handing control of the city to the army.
As the so-far peaceful three-day rally reached its zenith yesterday afternoon, the red-shirt leader, Veera Musikhapong, said the protest would continue at least until next weekend unless the group's demands were met.
At midday yesterday he gave the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, 24 hours to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.
He failed to say what action the protesters would take if the ultimatum was not met, but there was speculation that the protesters would march on nearby Government House or even storm the 11th Infantry Regiment headquarters, where security is being co-ordinated and Mr Abhisit is being held in a safe house.
More than 100,000 protesters gathered in the old part of the city of Bangkok, turning the wide boulevard of Ratchadamnoen Road into a sea of red.
Thousands camped out at the site on Saturday night and sat yesterday in wilting heat, listening to scores of incendiary speeches demanding the overthrow of the government.
As the protest numbers built yesterday, demonstrators danced and sang to music pumped from loudspeakers and took pictures of themselves at the city's Democracy Monument.
But Mr Veera told the red faithful that they must save their strength and be prepared for a long fight. He told them they would not be moving until the government acceded to their demands.
Other rallies yesterday crippled transport routes across the city. A column of more than 15,000 protesters, by one police estimate, marched down Sukhumvit Road, an important thoroughfare and tourist road, to join the larger rally.
Red-shirt support is strongest among the rural poor in the north and north-east. Thousands have been pouring into the capital all week, jammed in buses or riding in the back of utilities. Many are supporters of the fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced from power in a military coup in 2006 and later convicted in absentia of corruption.
They argue the current government is illegitimate because it came to power in a "silent coup" in December 2008, after the ruling pro-Thaksin party was dissolved.
But this protest – deliberately kept separate from a recent Supreme Court decision stripping Thaksin of 46 billion baht ($1.56 billion) in assets – has brought urban supporters of the red-shirt movement, members of Bangkok's ever-growing educated middle class, on to the streets against the government.
"This is not a government for the Thai people. We did not vote for this government. We must be allowed to have our say," Somsak, a Bangkok university student, told the Herald.
Mr Abhisit said he would consider declaring a state of emergency, giving the army full control of the situation, but only if the rally turned violent.
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