Thai government rejects protestors' ultimatum (1st Lead)

Mar 15, 2010, 5:52 GMT

Bangkok - The Thai government rejected an ultimatum by tens of thousands of provincial protestors to dissolve parliament and call for new elections by mid-Monday.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva publicly rejected the call to resign as thousands of protestors began gathering outside the government's peacekeeping command headquarters at the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bangkok to hear his response before their noon deadline.

'We are here to reaffirm that there will be no House dissolution and the government will continue to work for the benefit of the nation,' Abhisit told national television.

By 11 am more than 10,000 protestors were gathered at the army base, although Abhisit had already left the site.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) drew an estimated 100,000 supporters to Bangkok hoping to topple the so-called 'elitist' government, and pave the way for a political comeback for ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

UDD leaders on Sunday gave Abhisit a 24-hour ultimatum to meet their demands for his resignation, dissolve parliament and call new elections or they would march through the city.

Organizer Jatuporn Promphan warned that if the government used force against the demonstrators, it would start a war between the lower classes and the elite.

At 9 am, a convoy of hundreds of pickup trucks, cars and motorcycles travelled to the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bang Khen district. Luckily for Bangkok commuters, the protest fell far short of the 'million man march' that the UDD had promised last week.

The demonstrations have so far been non-violent.

The government has placed Bangkok and seven surrounding provinces under the Internal Security Act between March 11-23, empowering authorities to prohibit protests in sensitive areas and arrest perpetrators of violence for up to a year.

It put 35,000 police and soldiers on hand in Bangkok with another 8,000 soldiers brought into the capital Sunday night, according to the Bangkok Post.

Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, is the de facto leader of the UDD and the Puea Thai opposition party.

He continues to hold sway over millions of the country's urban and rural poor and also enjoys support from a broad spectrum of society intent on changing the status quo.

'We love Thaksin,' said Nanaphat Tanapitchwichit, 41, an unemployed former street vendor from Chon Buri province. 'Thaksin is clever. All Abhisit can do is talk and talk. He can't solve our economic problems.'

Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, since August 2008 to avoid a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the United Arab Emirates asked him to leave Dubai over the weekend, for using the country as a political base to call for the overthrow of a foreign government. Thaksin said he was going to Europe, but his whereabouts remain unknown.

Thaksin's political and financial fortunes have arguably reached a nadir this year.

The Supreme Court for Political Office Holders on February 26 found Thaksin guilty of abuse of power and ordered the seizure of 1.4 billion of the 2.3 billion dollars in frozen bank assets belonging to Thaksin and his family.

The former telecommunications tycoon on Sunday night delivered a phone-in message to his supporters gathered at Rajdamnoen Avenue, urging them to struggle for political change and blaming the Bangkok- based political elite for his misfortunes.

'The ammat (bureaucratic elite) are the country's problem. They are behind all the rumours so that they can continue to maintain their power,' he said.

It is widely understood that Thaksin, despite his diminished fortune, remains one of the main financiers of the UDD, which needs an estimated 30 million baht (909,000 dollars) per 100,000 protestors to feed and transport them for the protests.

Many shops, offices and schools were closed in Bangkok Monday in anticipation of traffic and possible violence.