Thai opposition vows to continue protests
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai opposition group vowed on Sundayto hold more anti-government street rallies in Bangkok in a bidto force the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej tostep down.
"We will stay here until the government resigns," SomsakKosaisuk, one of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD)leaders, told Reuters by telephone from the rally at theMakawan Rangsan bridge near the Grand Palace in the heart ofBangkok.
His remarks came a day after Samak appeared to back offfrom a threat to crack down on the protests that have ignitedfears of a military coup.
The PAD, a coalition of civic groups, and the oppositionDemocrat Party accuse Samak's government of being a puppet offormer Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The rallies which began a week ago are similar to the PAD'sstreet campaign against Thaksin before he was ousted in a 2006coup. The protests two years ago started small but grew to100,000-strong crowds before the military intervened.
Saturday's rally swelled to 6,500 protesters watched byseveral hundred police with shields and batons.
The crowd had thinned to around 400-500 by Sunday morning,but PAD leader Somsak said he expected numbers to grow laterand they would be alert to any attempt to break up the rally.
In an address to the nation on Saturday morning, Samak hadthreatened to crack down on the protests and several hundredriot police were deployed along with hundreds more in reserve.
But as night fell, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung saidpolice would not move against the mainly middle-class crowd,who appeared in a festive mood.
On Sunday, Samak said on his weekly television program thathe had never intended to disperse the crowd by force and heaccused the media of distorting his remarks made a day earlier.
"I made no threatening words. You (the media) allinterpreted what I said wrongly," Samak said on his regularone-hour program, where he takes on a range of topics and oftenattacks his critics.
But Samak maintained that the PAD had broken the law andmust move away from the Makawan Rangsan bridge where thegathering has caused traffic congestion and shut a 1 km stretchof a six-lane road for nearly a week.
Police said they have issued no ultimatum to theprotesters.
"We will talk peacefully to them about when they shouldmove. We will not cause any violence," deputy police spokesmanSurapol Thuanthong said.
Violence stemming from a clampdown on the rally could addto concerns about the army being drawn back into the politicalfray, particularly after scuffles broke out between pro- andanti-Thaksin protesters at a rally last Sunday.
Thailand's top military commander, who last week deniedrumours the army was plotting a coup, said on Saturday soldierswere unlikely to be used to quell the protests.
(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Darren Schuettler andValerie Lee)