Kwanchai announces red shirts to move to Thai Market in Pathum Thani

[Mekong]

Kwanchai Praiphana, a red-shirt leader, said some 2,000 protesters would travel in about 150 pick-up trucks to the Thai Market in Pathum Thani to show moral support for the protester there.

 

The protesters would gather at the Lumpini park and leave at 10:30 am, he said.

 

He said protesters at the Thai Market would try to block troops from travelling to Bangkok to break up the rally at the Rajprasong.

 

If protesters encounter police checkpoints or barricades, they may try to break through with force, Kwanchai said.

 

Link

[Flashermac]

Yeah, right.

 

 

[Mekong]

Revenge after yesterday?

[ThaiHome]

THE NATION: More details on red route : Rama4-Klong Toey-Ratchada-Asoke-Lardprao-Ratchayothin-Vibhavadi-Pathum Thani. (subjected to changes)

 

 

Could be interesting. Asoke right now is backed up from Sukhumvit all the way to the Park. But I guess they first have to get through at Silom-Rama 4 intersection.

TH

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"If protesters encounter police checkpoints or barricades, they may try to break through with force,"

 

How about the police? Does this mean they can use force as well?

 

Or are the leaders hoping for violence so they can turn some clueless peasants into martyrs?

 

Sanuk!

 

[Mekong]

KS

 

This is where the Red Checkpoint was smashed by the Authorities on Monday, peacefully and without injuries I may add, and 11 Red Shirts were sentanced to 15 days in prison yesterday.

 

There is already an arrest warrant out for Kwanchai Praiphana so it may prove interesting later this afternoon if they can ever make it out of downtown BKK gridlocked traffic and get up here.

[ThaiHome]

Report from TV is as of 12:30 they are on Vibhavadee northbound.

Must have taken a different route as I did not see them on Asoke.

TH

[Mekong]

Traffic Radio said they went Wireless / Petchaburi your observations confirm this.

[Old Hippie]

I just started a new thread on this...they apparently did go to market...

 

By Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul – 1 hr 1 min ago

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Protesters in Thailand pushing for early elections drove out of their central Bangkok encampment by truck and motorbike on Wednesday for a "mobile rally," increasing the risk of clashes with troops and rival groups.

 

About 1,000 protesters, many waving red flags but not all wearing their usual red shirts, left their fortified base by a road near the business district, heading for a market 50 km (30 miles) away.

 

Riot police and troops did not try to stop them and about five times that number remained behind in the encampment.

 

The market is on a main highway where "red shirt" supporters gathered earlier in the week to prevent troops and police from reinforcing their presence in the city.

 

"We want to thank them and give them encouragement for helping us the other day and also talk to our supporters and friends at the market," said Kwanchai Praipanna, who was leading the mobile rally.

 

"If the troops try to stop us, we will break through their cordons and checkpoints," he said, adding the intention was to return to the central Bangkok base after a few hours.

 

After a calm night, demonstrators at the upmarket shopping district occupied by the protesters since April 3 numbered little more than 1,000 at dawn, a Reuters photographer said.

 

That was far fewer than in recent days during the seven-week protest movement, when fears of a military crackdown were intense, but the crowd built up during the morning.

 

Cooking gas canisters were added to a huge barricade on the edge of the Silom business district overnight, a Reuters reporter said, apparently to deter troops from firing in that direction. They were later taken away.

 

Some barricades were already doused with fuel last week.

 

Troop movements were reported in central areas of Bangkok late on Tuesday and army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said some were "training" for an eventual dispersal of the protesters.

 

"We are maintaining checkpoints at several places as well to check for arms and prevent more people from going in to gather," he said.

 

The red shirts had in turn mobilized to prevent troops moving on main roads into Bangkok and in some northern provinces.

 

The stock market has been volatile recently despite a good start to the quarterly results season. Foreign investors who had been lured by the cheap valuations in Bangkok despite the unrest were sellers for the fourth session on Tuesday.

 

The main index was down 0.8 percent at 12:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday, broadly in line with other Asian markets.

 

POLITICAL SOLUTION

 

Hopes for a negotiated end to the crisis, in which 26 people have been killed and hundreds wounded, were dashed at the weekend when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected a proposal by the protesters for an election in three months.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuangsuban said the security forces would stop protesters moving around in defiance of a state of emergency. "It is clear the protesters are not gathering peacefully. We will not be lenient with these people any more."

 

However, Abhisit struck a more conciliatory note in an interview with CNN television.

 

"We will try to enforce the law with minimum losses and we will try to find a political resolution," he said. "But it takes time, patience and cooperation."

 

Protesters forced Bangkok's elevated railway to shut for four hours in the morning rush hour on Tuesday to stop any attempt by troops to use a station near their rally. But there was no repeat on Wednesday and traffic was no more congested than usual.

 

Many in the army, which led a failed operation against a red-shirt rally on April 10 when 25 people were killed and 800 wounded, do not want to be dragged into battle with civilians.

 

"The army would rather see the government exhaust political means first," a military source said on condition of anonymity.

 

"We need to prevent trouble from spreading and containing the unrest, but actually ending it altogether would be very difficult without a political solution as well."

 

Adding to the volatile mix, groups opposed to the red shirts -- and the loss to business and livelihoods the protests have caused in Bangkok -- have held rallies in the capital and want to see the red shirt encampment broken up.

 

The red shirts back ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup, and say Abhisit came to power illegitimately.

 

Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon revered by the poor and reviled by Bangkok's elite, was convicted in absentia on corruption-related charges and lives abroad to avoid jail.

 

Analysts say the deadlock and a possible deterioration in law and order could continue for weeks, damaging Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, with consumer confidence flagging and the tourist industry suffering, especially in the capital.

 

If the protests drag on for three months, it could shave 0.64 percentage point off Thailand's 2010 economic growth forecast of 4.5 percent, the government has said.

 

(Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja, Martin Petty, Vivek Prakash and Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Ron Popeski)

 

[WorldFun]

LOL & now they get rain too while on tour