Thailand PM threatens to crush protesters

BANGKOK, May 31 (UPI) -- Tensions between Thai riot police and several thousand anti-government protesters eased despite an order from the prime minister to disperse, observers said.

Prime Minister Samak Samak appeared on a special nationwide television broadcast Saturday and told the country he is willing to use force to end large demonstrations in the country's capital staged to protest the prime minister's ties to the ousted former government, the Bangkok Post reported.

But most of several thousand police pulled back and removed riot gear just before dusk. The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) kept up a noisy street protest, with some members still facing off with a line of riot police across barricades.

The group People's Alliance for Democracy is leading the street rallies in downtown Bangkok. They are calling for Samak's resignation and accuse his government of ineffectiveness in the fights against poverty and soaring prices and of being a "puppet regime" of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the Bangkok Post reported.

The group accuses Thaksin of being behind a push by the government to change the nation's constitutional monarchy form of government, the newspaper said.