Red shirts demand action against PAD

Red-shirt protesters yesterday demanded that the government do justice by treating legal cases involving themselves and the rival People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) equally.

At a major rally at Bangkok's Sanam Luang leaders of the movement said cases against the PAD, particularly over its seizure of Bangkok's airports late last year, had progressed slowly whereas those against the red-shirts moved unusually swiftly.

Protest leaders gave the government 15 days to press charges against those who had illegally shut down the airports.

Korkaew Pikulthong, leader of the movement, which backs ousted premier Thaksin Shinwatra, also urged the government to dissolve the House of Representatives. He said a new general election would return the country to peace and unity.

Former PM's Office minister Jakrapob Penkair, another protest leader, said the red-shirt movement's plan was to "create politics that really belongs to the people". He also assailed the Democrat Party for taking power illegitimately, saying that it had done so thanks to the military and big business despite having lost the last three general elections.

The red-shirt movement, he said, will set up a system to educate its sympathisers all over the country about the need for change, through a network he called the "Red Shirt University".

The idea is similar to the rival PAD's "Rajdamnoen University" set up during its protests last year.

Dr Weng Tojirakarn, a protest leader, criticised Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government for failing to apply the anti-terrorism law to the PAD protesters who seized Bangkok's two airports.

Assoc Prof Worapol Phrommikabutr, a lecturer at Thammasat University, read a statement in the name of the Civil-Sector Front denouncing the government's "illegitimate" rise to power.

Almost 20,000 red-clad people occupied about half of Sanam Luang, on the side opposite Thammasat University. A few hundred police officers and municipal security officials were present. Protest leaders said they would march to nearby Government House at 10pm.

While protest leaders said Thaksin was not behind yesterday's rally, many of the participants said they had come because they thought Thaksin would be a better leader than Abhisit.

A retired bureaucrat in his 70s said he believed Thaksin had made a more efficient leader than the current PM.

A woman in her 40s had a lot of praise for Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party. She said that she had attended previous red-shirt rallies in Bangkok.

A man in his late 30s, who said he was a Bangkok resident, said that although he thought Abhisit was a good man, he believed the government would be inefficient as Abhisit was under the influence of people who had brought him to power.

The rally at Sanam Luang, called "Red in the Land", began in the afternoon with stage performances by musical bands and others, including northeastern composer-poet Visa Kanthap. The protest site was surrounded by taxis and coaches that had brought many of the participants in from the provinces.

Red-clad vendors offered protest-related items, including T-shirts carrying messages critical of the government, clappers in the shape of hearts and feet, video recordings of the "Truth Today" TV programme, posters featuring former premiers Thaksin and Samak Sundaravej and books describing Thaksin as a victim of "political assassination".

The protesters left Sanam Luang at 10:15 pm and started besieging the Government House at about 11:30 pm.

They returned from the Government House back to Sanam Luang at 0:45 am Sunday after their leader post a copy of their four-point demand on Gate 1 of the Government House.