Reds to set record straight on Sunday

DAAD leader Veera Musikapong said yesterday at a press conference at the D-Station that the red shirts would gather at Wat Pai Kiew to hold a Chinese-style party from 4pm to midnight.

Pheu Thai MP and red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan said they would discuss what had happened during Songkran. He also dismissed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's statement that the emergency decree had to be imposed after some protesters cornered him at the Interior Ministry. The prime minister's car was battered by red-shirt crowds and he narrowly escaped a physical assault.

Jatuporn also rejected a statement from PM's Secretary-General Nipon Promphan that the red shirts had attacked him, saying what actually happened was that the protesters helped remove Nipon from the car.

He said the red shirts would "reveal the truth" about what happened on that day in a chronological manner. "We will reveal that this government is a tyrant and a murderer,'' he said.

Abhisit said he was willing to let D-Station resume broadcasting if it promised not to provoke unrest and intimidate the media.

Meanwhile, National Police Commissioner General Patcharawat Wongsuwan said the police would use strict measures on Sunday to keep law and order. He added that there were no intelligence reports as to whether the red shirts were planning to disrupt the Asean meeting of health ministers at Bangkok's Dusit Thani Hotel on Thursday and Friday.

In Chiang Mai, about 30 red shirts led by DAAD leader Surachai Sae Dan met at a hotel to chart out their political direction.

Petcharawat Wattanapongsirikul, a red-shirt leader in Chiang Mai, said the DAAD people would close their accounts with Bangkok Bank because it supported the People's Alliance for Democracy.

Another DAAD leader, Somyos Prueksakasemsuk, said the closing of bank accounts was a peaceful struggle and that every citizen had the right to do so. He said the red shirts would not pressure the government by disrupting the Asean meeting, but will demand that the government allow D-Station to start broadcasting.