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| Southeast Asia |
| More protests vowed |
| 2010-04-06 |
| [Straits Times] JUBILANT red-shirted Thai protesters vowed on Monday to keep up their efforts to overthrow the government after a court declined to issue a legal order to evict them from Bangkok's tourist hub. Tens of thousands of supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra paralysed the capital's main shopping and luxury hotel district for a third day and also briefly stormed the offices of the election commission. Loud cheers rang out among the Red Shirts after a Bangkok court dismissed the government's request for an injunction to force the protesters out of the tourist district, where they have halted traffic and caused stores to close. They are demanding immediate elections, accusing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government of being undemocratic because it took office in 2008 through a parliamentary vote after a court stripped Thaksin's allies of power. 'It's clear that Abhisit cannot do everything in Thailand,' Reds leader Jatuporn Prompan told the cheering crowd. 'Our demonstration is constitutional and we will continue to press for House dissolution to return power to people,' he said. But it was not a clear-cut victory for the protesters because the court also said that the government already had power to evict the Reds under a tough emergency security law, so a legal injunction was not necessary. The government has already announced a ban of the mass rally in the tourist heartland but had sought the backing of the judiciary to evict the protesters. The authorities said they would continue to press the Reds - mostly from the country's rural north - to leave the area, but added they wanted a peaceful end to the standoff. |
| Posted by:Fred |