Drop my birthday party idea : Thaksin

The request was made via Thaksin's legal aide Noppadon Pattama, who said the ousted PM had talked to him over the phone about the matter.

Noppadon, a former foreign minister, said Thaksin did not want the red shirts to celebrate his 60th birthday at the public ground near the Grand Palace, because he thought it was "inappropriate".

The red shirts' plan had been opposed by the government, and Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra turned down a request to hold the event at Sanam Luang.

However, Chinnawat Habunpad, one of the organisers, insisted yesterday a party for Thaksin would be held on July 26 at Sanam Luang despite the city administration's refusal.

He said the event would run from 10am until midnight that day, with Thaksin expected to phone-in from overseas.

Meanwhile, Sanguan Pongmanee, a Lamphun MP for the opposition Pheu Thai Party, said residents of the northern province would hold a ceremony for Thaksin at a local Buddhist temple aimed at warding off evil.

News of Thaksin's request follows a survey that found 81 per cent of people thought it was inappropriate to hold a birthday party for the former PM at Sanam Luang. Only 18.6 per cent of respondents supported the idea.

Most who said it was inappropriate argued that such an event would lead to further social division, while those who agreed said Sanam Luang was a public place. The survey was conducted on Tuesday by Assumption University at 1,283 households in 17 provinces in all regions.

In a related development, Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam yesterday reminded law-enforcement officials it was their duty to enforce the law and bring convicted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra back to serve his jail sentence, the Thai News Agency reported.

If Thaksin wanted law-enforcement agencies to stop chasing him, he must return and face his sentence, Thaworn said.

He said the Attorney General's Office had heard about the ousted PM booking into a luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur last Friday.

They had immediately contacted Malaysian authorities to get him arrested.

Thaworn was responding to claims made by Thaksin's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama that Thai authorities had not asked their Malaysian counterparts to arrest the man while he was there.

The ex-premier, who is in self-imposed exile, left Malaysia early on Saturday for Fiji before the authorities there could respond to Thailand's request, Thaworn said.

He said nobody who broke the law would be exempt from the judicial process.

And Thaksin should return and serve his sentence if he did not want law-enforcement officials to hunt him down.

Last October, Thaksin was sentenced in absentia to two years' jail over the Ratchadaphisek land scandal by the Supreme Court's Criminal Division on Political Office Holders.