Thai premier cancels Australian trip as mass protest looms

Mar 8, 2010, 8:02 GMT

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday cancelled a planned trip to Australia and New Zealand this week amid mounting concerns about a mass anti-government protest planned in Bangkok.

Abhisit had initially planned to visit Australia and New Zealand on March 13-17, despite a purported 'million-man' protest to be staged in the Thai capital on March 14.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has threatened to mobilize between 500,000 and 1 million people to descend on Bangkok between March 12 and 14, hoping to force the government to resign and call for a new election.

The mass demonstration has raised fears of fresh violence in the streets of Bangkok, or at the very least a horrendous traffic jam.

Deputy Prime Minster Suthep Thaugsuban, who handles security, said the cabinet will on Tuesday be asked to announce the enforcement of the Internal Security Act in Bangkok from March 11 to 23, to allow the government to ban protestors from sensitive areas and put joint army/police companies on full alert to suppress any violence.

'The UDD has many different groups and we are worried that their leaders will not be able to control them all,' Suthep said. 'Some UDD factions may want to break the law with acts of sabotage and attacks on the homes of some VIPs,' he said.

Suthep added that authorities would not allow the UDD to paralyze Bangkok's already notorious traffic by using tens of thousands of trucks to take protestors to the capital. The demonstrators will be forced to park their vehicles outside the capital and the government will provide transportation into the city.

The UDD, a movement that groups supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra with those seeking a more democratic, egalitarian Thai society, has vowed to put Abhisit in the difficult position of calling for a crackdown on the protest or resigning.

'We will try to force Abhisit to choose between suppression [of the demonstration and dissolution of parliament,' UDD leader Jaran Ditthapichai told a press conference last week.

The group has claimed it would avoid violence in its protest.

'If Abhisit chooses to suppress us, no one knows what will happen,' Jaran said. 'Perhaps a civil war.'

A violent confrontation between government forces and protestors would further the UDD's other main aim, which is to bring back fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to power, observers said.

The movement is known to receive financial backing from Thaksin, a former billionaire telecommunications tycoon who was prime minister between 2001-06 before being ousted in a coup.

The protest was planned after the Supreme Court of Political Office Holders ruled on February 26 to seize 1.4 billion of 2.3 billion dollars in frozen bank accounts belonging to Thaksin and his family.

The court ruled for the seizure after finding the former premier guilty of concealing his stake in the family's business empire while in power, and of using his position to benefit that empire.

Thaksin has vowed to contest the ruling, but it is unclear what specific action he intends to take.

He has one month to present new evidence to the Supreme Court for an appeal. It is widely speculated that the fugitive politician, who has been living in self-exile since August 2008 to avoid a two-year prison sentence, could try to create chaos in Thailand to pave the way for a political comeback.

The government has placed some 20,000 joint soldiers and police on standby in Bangkok, and has set up 170 checkpoints around the capital to prevent people from bringing weapons into the capital.