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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai Government Supporters Gather in Bangkok |
| 2008-12-01 |
| Thousands of supporters of Thailand's beleaguered government rallied in the capital on Sunday afternoon, bringing a new and combustible element to a political stalemate that is edging closer to open violence. The demonstration came on the same day that 50 anti-government protesters were injured when a grenade was fired into one of their protest sites in central Bangkok. Four people were seriously injured in the early-morning explosion. It took place in the prime minister's compound, which has been occupied for months by anti-government forces. The pro-government protesters, calling themselves the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship, rallied in Bangkok and vowed to remain until anti-government demonstrators vacate the country's main airports, which they seized last week. Analysts fear that if the red-shirted government supporters and the yellow-shirted, anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy should clash, there could be widespread violence. "The red-shirts have been fairly restrained," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. "The danger is that they have a lot of pent up anger and if they start to let it out, there will be no boundaries to what they could do." For the past six months, the PAD's predominantly urban, middle-class protesters have paralyzed Thai politics as part of their campaign to force the resignation of the government led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. They believe that Somchai is a stand-in for Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law and predecessor as prime minister, who was removed from office in a military coup in 2006 amid accusations of corruption and abuse of power. Somchai, whose party won a convincing victory in elections last year, has refused to step down. But he has been forced to run his government from the northern city of Chiang Mai to avoid disruption from the protests. |
| Posted by:Fred |