Thai opposition vows to maintain street protests
June 1st, 2008 | by admin |By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat
BANGKOK, June 1 (Reuters) - A Thai opposition group vowedon Sunday to hold more anti-government street rallies inBangkok in a bid to force the government of Prime MinisterSamak Sundaravej to step down.
“We will stay here until the government resigns,” SomsakKosaisuk, one of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD)leaders, told Reuters by telephone from the rally at theMakawan Rangsan bridge near the Grand Palace in the heart ofBangkok.
His remarks came a day after Samak appeared to back offfrom a threat to crack down on the protests that have ignitedfears of a military coup.
The PAD, a coalition of civic groups, and the oppositionDemocrat Party accuse Samak’s government of being a puppet offormer Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The rallies which began a week ago are similar to the PAD’sstreet campaign against Thaksin before he was ousted in a 2006coup. The protests two years ago started small but grew to100,000-strong crowds before the military intervened.
Saturday’s rally swelled to 6,500 protesters watched byseveral hundred police with shields and batons.
The crowd had thinned to around 400-500 by Sunday morning,but PAD leader Somsak said he expected numbers to grow laterand they would be alert to any attempt to break up the rally.
In an address to the nation on Saturday morning, Samak hadthreatened to crack down on the protests and several hundredriot police were deployed along with hundreds more in reserve.
