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Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva defied the demands of his opponents Monday morning, telling the country in a televised statement that he would neither resign nor dissolve the House of Representatives, as tens of thousands of red-shirted demonstrators laid siege to the army base where government and security officials are monitoring the protests...
...base. Abhisit has already invoked special security laws and 30,000 troops have been posted to the capital to maintain order. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said that some red shirts want to provoke the military into responding with violence so the majority of the public would turn against the Prime Minister. "I wouldn't predict the outcome," says Chris Baker, a Thailand-based political and economic analyst...
...Meanwhile, outside the 11th Infantry Regiment headquarters in northern Bangkok where the Prime Minister has been working during the protests, demonstrators arrived on foot and by pickup trucks, cars, buses and motorcycles today. Troops in black riot gear stood guard at the gates as the military played music composed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej over loudspeakers. The 82-year-old constitutional monarch is regarded as a unifying figure in Thai society, but some opponents of the red shirts have questioned the demonstrators' loyalty to the crown...
...protesters comprise mainly rural poor who seek the return of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former Prime Minister ousted in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin has been living in self-imposed exile rather than serve a two-year prison sentence on a corruption conviction. In late February, the Supreme Court confiscated $1.5 billion of his assets, ruling that he had gained them through abuse of power while Prime Minister...
...Thaksin remains popular with the rural poor, who regard him as the only Prime Minister who addressed their problems. His universal health care and microcredit programs were labeled as progressive by supporters and populist vote-buying by detractors. But the protesters, operating under the name the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), and called the red shirts for their garb and flags, also contain groups who oppose military intervention in politics, some members of the business élite who benefited under Thaksin's rule and some republicans who want an end to Thailand's constitutional monarchy. (Read...