Thai PM vows to end anti-government protests
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravejsaid on Saturday he will crack down on mounting anti-governmentprotests that have ignited fears of a military coup.
"I will not yield to you," Samak said on nationaltelevision a day after the resignation of a cabinet ministerthat was meant to head off street protests eerily similar tothe campaign against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra before a2006 coup.
He threatened police and military action against some 1,200protesters if they did not leave the Makawan Rangsan Bridgenear the gilded Grand Palace in the heart of Bangkok.
The street protests have been going on since last Sundaywhen some 5,000 opponents of the coalition government whichbacks Thaksin held a rally in the capital.
The prime minister has accused the anti-Thaksin People'sAlliance for Democracy (PAD), which vowed on Friday to step upprotests against the government, of damaging the country.
"You have broken the law. I have a duty to deal with you.You cannot stay there. I will take you out," said Samak, wholeads a pro-Thaksin coalition government elected last December.
At the rally on the Makawan Rangsan Bridge, speakersshrugged off Samak's threat and vowed to stay put as about 200police watched the crowd.
PAD leaders were to meet later to decide their next move.
"What we know for sure is that if any violence occurs, itwill come only from the government side, not ours," SomsakKosaisuk, one of five PAD leaders, told Reuters.
Minor scuffles broke out between pro- and anti-Thaksinprotesters last Sunday, stoking fears that the army might seizethe chance of social unrest to storm back into the politicalfray, analysts said.
CROWD TOLD NOT TO RESIST POLICE
Somkiet Pongpaiboon, another PAD leader, later told thecrowd not to resist if police tried to end the protest, whichhas shut a 1 km stretch of a six-lane city centre road fornearly a week.
"The five PAD leaders will happily be arrested and you alljust dismiss peacefully. Don't use any weapons against thepolice," he told demonstrators, some of whom wore yellow shirtsin honour of the revered monarchy and were waving Thai flags.
Thailand's top military commander, who denied reports onThursday that the army may be plotting another coup, said hedid not believe the army would be called into the streets ofBangkok.
"That would require a state of emergency and I don't thinkthe Prime Minister will do that. It would make the country lookbad," Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit told Reuters.
Jakrapob Penkair, Minister to the Prime Minister's Office,quit on Friday after he was accused by police of makingoffensive remarks against revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej in2007.
The saga is part of wider campaign by the PAD andopposition Democrat Party to paint Thaksin and his acolytes asrepublicans who want to end the country's 76-year-oldconstitutional monarchy.
Stock investors reacted positively to Jakrapob'sresignation, with the main index closing up 0.4 percent onFriday after four days of falls due to political uncertainty.
Analysts say any violence could prompt the military tointervene, unsettling foreign investor confidence in an economystruggling with slowing growth and soaring inflation.
Samak, who also holds the post of defence minister, saidthe police and army were fully behind him.
"This is not September 19," he said, referring to the dateof the bloodless 2006 coup. "We know what the problem is and wewill deal with it. The situation does not warrant anothercoup."
(Additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan)
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Valerie Lee)