BANGKOK, March 15 (UPI) -- Thailand's government refuses to stand down despite demands from tens of thousands of demonstrating supporters of the disgraced and exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
In a second day of peaceful protests Thaksin supporters, officially called Red Shirts, marched on a military base in a Bangkok suburb that the government and military were reportedly using as their security headquarters during the protests.
Tensions rose after a grenade exploded, media reported, wounding two soldiers at the base. It is unclear what the circumstances were and no fighting was reported.
Protesters filled the capital's streets last weekend, arriving by buses, trucks and boats. The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, which organized the rally, transported many protesters in from the rural north where Thaksin had his power base and the people welcomed his populist policies including cheap universal healthcare.
They rallied in front a stage set up around Government House in central Bangkok and heard Red Shirt leaders call on the military-backed government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call new elections.
Calls for a government resignation were made in what often looked more like a huge street carnival and folk music festival than a political protest.
Media pictures showed people wearing red T-shirts reveling to music and dancing in the streets. Political leaders on stage were in good humor and often reminded protesters that the demonstrations were meant to be peaceful.
The Bangkok Post reported hundreds of monks from the north called on the government not to use violent measures against the protesters.
The central message was that the government had to go. Speakers claimed it was illegitimate because of the 2006 military coup that brought down Thaksin.
Despite the peaceful atmosphere, the government was taking no chances with civil unrest. Police and the military, with their 40,000 or more troops in riot gear or in reserve, were considerably more prepared for this rally than the major show of Red Shirt support for Thaksin last April.
Dozens of protesters were injured and at least two people were killed when those demonstrations turned ugly. Water cannons were turned on many groups that blockaded streets in central Bangkok for several days. Buses were burned and protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails at police.
But for this rally the government also invoked the Internal Security Act in Bangkok and seven surrounding provinces. The military had powers to impose curfews, restrict numbers at gatherings and man checkpoints if they believed this was necessary for peace and security.
Thaksin, 60, has remained a thorn in the side of the government despite being sentenced in absentia in 2008 to two years in jail for conflict of interest in a land deal. He is also suspected of abusing his power over large government mobile phone contracts awarded to his own firm. In February the Supreme Court ruled that half of his $2.3 billion family fortune should be seized by the government because of conflict of interest.
He lives mostly in London and Dubai but also has been given a place of residence in Cambodia. To the dismay of the Bangkok government, Cambodia appointed Thaksin an economic adviser last November, a controversial move that created diplomatic rifts and border-readiness between the two countries.
The government may have ridden out the worst of the large-scale demonstrations in support of Thaksin, a report by the BBC said. In interviews with Red Shirt organizers, they acknowledged that they are getting tired of protesting. Importantly, they are also are running short of cash needed to organize and transport so many people together for a mass rally.
Even so, the government cannot always rely on its own supporters -- the Yellow Shirts -- to behave properly, a report by Time magazine noted in 2008.
Hundreds of Yellow Shirts, mostly from the middle classes, occupied Thailand's seat of power for months and besieged Bangkok's international airport for a week in November 2008. They demanded the government step down because they considered the ruling party at that time to be a proxy for Thaksin. In December 2008, the courts dissolved that ruling party for electoral fraud, and the opposition, led by Abhisit, formed the current coalition government.
