The public park is not in the three Bangkok districts where the Cabinet last week imposed the Internal Security Act.
The anti-government People's Army yesterday revealed the names of 30 high-ranking officials, including military men, who back the group in its campaign to bring down the Thaksin regime.
The group, led by Admiral Chai Suwannaphap, Thaikorn Polsuwan and General Preecha Iamsupan, held a press conference announcing the names of supporters. These include former Army chief General Wimol Wongwanit, former supreme commander General Saiyud Kerdphol, former Air Force chief ACM Kan Pimanthip, and Admiral Bannawit Kengrian. Prasong Soonsiri, former chief of the National Security Council, would act as adviser.
Thaikorn said the supporters included other high-ranking officials, from the police and military whose names could not be revealed because they were still in office.
He said the group would wait and see how the situation develops before deciding whether they should hold a sit-in rally. "If there is any violence, it will be either caused by the government or a third-party group,'' he said.
The group dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck's plea yesterday to achieve national reconciliation, saying the government was not sincere in bringing about reconciliation.
Meanwhile, about 30 anti-government protesters led by Captain Songklod Chuenchupol converged outside the Pheu Thai headquarters, calling on the ruling party to remove an amnesty bill from deliberation in Parliament.
He said Yingluck's statement yesterday was just a time-buying tactic.
Red-shirt leader weng Tojirakarn announced yesterday the start of the red-shirts' campaign against the bureaucratic polity, by ordering leaders to mobilise 20,000 people from each province across the country to converge at the Rajamangala National Stadium.
Nisit Sinthuprai, another red-shirt leader, said he expected at least 500,000 government supporters to be mobilised for a gathering at the stadium. He told the red shirts in all provinces to be ready.
In a related development, the Campaign for Popular Democracy has announced its opposition to the government's imposition of the Internal Security Act as it violated the constitutional right to hold a protest. It also opposed an amnesty bill proposed by Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema, saying it believes the law would help Thaksin Shinawatra return home without being punished. The agency urged the government to lift the security law and withdraw Worachai's bill or Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra must take responsibility for any violence that may take place.
The group said Yingluck's proposal for national reconciliation yesterday would be true only if the government served the people, and not Thaksin.
Also yesterday, the Thai Journalists' Association and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association issued a joint statement, affirming press freedom and called on the authorities to allow media workers to enter all the rally areas safely for news coverage. This was in response to the ISA coming into effect from last Thursday to August 10.
Source: The Nation
Thought: Here we go again ...
