Anti-government demonstrators give blood for Bangkok protest

Bangkok News.Net
Tuesday 16th March, 2010

Thousands of Thai demonstrators donated blood to pour on the government's administrative compound in Bangkok Tuesday in a gory attempt to force a dissolution of parliament.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), also called the red shirts, has vowed to force Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign.

The UDD wants him to dissolve parliament and call new elections this week to pave the way for a political comeback for their de facto leader - ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

On Monday, Abhisit rejected their ultimatum to resign by noon.

Peeved, the UDD leaders vowed to collect 1 million cubic centimetres of blood from their 100,000 followers to throw on the entrance to Government House Tuesday evening.

Several thousand UDD followers showed up early Tuesday at Phan Fa Bridge on Rajdamnoen Avenue, their main gathering point, to donate blood for the protest gesture scheduled for 6 p.m.

Thai health experts have warned that the mass blood collection poses sanitation risks.

'We are not doing this for health reasons,' UDD spokesman Sean Boonpracong said, after donating blood. 'This is one way we can bind our spirits together.'

Far fewer than 100,000 UDD followers had appeared early Tuesday for the mass blood-bonding experience.

The UDD last week promised to draw 1 million protestors to Bangkok to topple the current government.

An estimated 100,000 showed up.

On Sunday, the UDD leaders gave Abhisit an ultimatum to dissolve parliament and call a new election by Monday noon. He refused, arguing that a new election at this stage would accomplish nothing.

The UDD demonstration has so far been non-violent.

The government has placed Bangkok and seven surrounding provinces under the Internal Security Act between March 11 and 23, empowering authorities to prohibit protests in sensitive areas and arrest perpetrators of violence for up to a year.

The authorities had 42,000 police and soldiers on hand in Bangkok to keep the peace.

Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006, continues to hold sway over millions of the country's urban and rural poor thanks to the populist policies he implemented during his two-term premiership. He also enjoys support from a broad spectrum of society

intent on changing the status quo.

Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, since August 2008 to avoid a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power.

Thaksin's political and financial fortunes have arguably reached a nadir this year.

The Supreme Court for Political Office Holders on February 26 found Thaksin guilty of abuse of power and ordered the seizure of 1.4 billion of the $2.3 billion in frozen bank assets belonging to him and his family.

The former telecommunications tycoon Sunday night delivered a phone-in message to his supporters gathered at Rajdamnoen Avenue, urging them to struggle for political change and blaming the Bangkok-based political elite for his misfortunes.

It is widely understood that Thaksin, despite his diminished fortune, remains one of the main financiers of the UDD, which needs an estimated 30 million baht ($909,000) per 100,000 protestors to feed and transport them for the protests.

Many shops, offices and schools were closed in Bangkok Monday in anticipation of traffic problems and possible violence.

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