PAD considers staging counter protest

"The five leaders of the PAD have been monitoring the situation every hour out of concern that the red shirts might tend towards violence," PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila said yesterday.

The red shirts might had made the unreasonable demand about wiping out " bureaucratic polity" with the aim to involve the military in any eruption of violence, he said.

The PAD-led yellow shirts would not allow the red shirts to provoke chaos, he said.

Pheu Thai MP Pracha Prasopdee said more than 500,000 red shirts were expected to join the mass rally.

He dismissed speculation that ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra was staying in Cambodia, based on a telephone conversation with him on Saturday night. Thaksin's phone number indicated he was in the Middle East.

The red shirts were ready to lead an uprising more powerful than the October 14, 1973 incident, he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in his weekly address that he was concerned about attacks on the country's revered institutions and leading figures.

Rival camps should not try to harm the country for political gain, he said.

Although the government will tolerate political differences, its opponents are obliged to observe the rule of law, he said.

The Legal Execution Department is in the process of enforcing the injunction against blocking access to Government House, so protesters should comply with the court order and remove their blockade, he said.

The government would not permit them to stay above the law, he said.

As for the red-shirts' demand for House dissolution, he would call for a general election as soon as the situation warranted a peaceful transition of power. But would not act in haste, as that might lead to more confusion and instability.

Anti-government protesters yesterday threatened to sabotage the Asean Summit scheduled to start in Pattaya this Friday, if the government jams their community radio stations.

Their leader, Natthawut Saikuea, told a press conference at the protest site that the government has tried to prevent red-shirt supporters upcountry from joining their comrades rallying at Government House in Bangkok.

Officials had interfered with the signals of a taxi drivers community radio station but the problem has now been fixed, he ssid.

PM's Office Minister Satit Wonghnongtaey, who supervises state-run media, should ensure that there are no more disruptions to radio transmissions, otherwise the Asean Summit would not go smoothly, he added.

The Asean leaders will meet their counterparts from six nations - China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand - on Friday and Saturday.