Leaders of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship yesterday repeated their vow to amass a million red-shirted demonstrators to oust the government, which they accused of trying to portray the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra movement in a bad light to the public.
Jatuporn Promphan told a press conference at the People Channel TV station in Lat Phrao that the red shirts had been instructed to walk or push their way through all road checkpoints on their way to Bangkok.
The soldiers and police manning the checkpoints would be violating the law if they only stopped red-shirted protesters coming to the capital to demonstrate their constitutional rights against the government, regardless of whether violence was employed, he said.
The red shirts did not attempt to blow up gas tankers and use violence against Bangkok residents during the April mayhem last year, he said.
"The government is using this as propaganda to turn Bangkok residents against the red-shirt rally," he said.
The British ambassador, who had urged the DAAD to avoid violence, would meet him today at the embassy, he said.
"I will tell the ambassador that the red-shirted people will not seize the airports, Government House or any private or government property," he added.
Nattawut Saikua, another DAAD leader, said the mere fact that the Abhisit government exercised emergency powers the most often showed that it was the least accepted and most insecure.
He said he hopes Bangkok residents would "welcome red-shirted people".
"We will make our rally as comfortable as possible for millions of Bangkok residents," he said.
"By noon of March 14, one million red-shirted people will be in Bangkok," he added.
In Pathum Thani, organisers arranged the "red-shirted navy" comprising 300 boats and ships they had chartered to carry local people and those based in Nonthaburi.
Some 13,000 local residents and 5,000 based in Ayutthaya had signed on to join the rally, they said.
The red-shirt movement in Sing Buri staged a protest of 250 farmers outside city hall, saying these farmers gathered on their own will out of discontent with the government's failure to ensure a good price and manage water resources efficiently for them. They later dispersed.
