PAD to rally "indefinitely" in Bangkok.

[STEVE G]

(Boomberg)
Thai nationalist protesters will rally “indefinitely” starting tomorrow to pressure the government into taking stronger action in a border dispute with Cambodia, leader Chamlong Srimuang said.

Thai nationalist protesters will rally “indefinitely” starting tomorrow near Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Bangkok office to pressure him into taking stronger action in a border dispute with neighboring Cambodia.
The People’s Alliance for Democracy, the yellow-shirted group that seized Bangkok’s airports for eight days in 2008 and formerly supported Abhisit, wants the government to revoke past border agreements with Cambodia. The benchmark SET Index slid by 4.3 percent, its biggest drop since October 2009.
“We will gather indefinitely if Abhisit doesn’t come out to protect the country,” leader Chamlong Srimuang told reporters in Bangkok.
Demonstrations by Abhisit’s former allies combined with bi- monthly rallies by opponents will test the government’s ability to prevent more street clashes. An occupation of downtown Bangkok last year by red-shirted supporters of ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra led to violence that killed at least 95 people.

Abhisit said today that he wouldn’t bow to protesters’ demands because that would put the country “at risk of losing” contested land and may lead to fighting. “If we disagree, we need to talk and exchange views,” Abhisit told reporters in Bangkok. “I don’t see why we need to quarrel.”
Stocks Drop
Thailand’s SET Index fell 4.3 percent, its biggest drop since Oct. 15, 2009. The gauge has lost 8.3 percent since reaching a 14-year high on Jan. 6, joining regional neighbors from China to India in declining from recent peaks amid concern central banks will take extra steps to prevent their economies from overheating.
The baht declined 0.7 percent to 30.91 per dollar as of 4:14 p.m. in Bangkok and earlier touched 30.92, the weakest level since Sept. 16, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Global funds sold 7.7 billion baht ($250 million) more local shares than they bought on Jan. 21, the most since May, taking this month’s net sales to $823 million, according to stock exchange data.
“The political concern led the stocks lower and that led the baht lower today,” said Nalin Chutchotitham, a Bangkok- based analyst at Kasikornbank Pcl.
Thailand’s central bank on Jan. 12 raised its benchmark interest rate for the fourth time in seven months and signaled it will boost borrowing costs further to contain inflation. Higher food and fuel costs may stoke the pace of price increases in 2011, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Jan. 7.

Protest Demands
The People’s Alliance, led in part by a member of Abhisit’s party, ended six months of street protests in 2008 to force Thaksin’s allies from power when a court disbanded the ruling party. Abhisit took power two weeks later in a parliamentary vote, and appointed Kasit Piromya, who spoke at the airport while it was occupied, as his foreign minister.
The group is demanding that Thailand drop out of the United Nations’ World Heritage Committee, cancel a 2000 agreement with Cambodia on border negotiations and urge Cambodians to withdraw from disputed border areas, Chamlong said.
“I’m not sure how many people really feel that a few square meters of rather unimportant rocky ground are really a massive public issue,” said Chris Baker, a Bangkok-based historian who has authored several books on Thailand, referring to the disputed border territory. “But on the other hand, nationalism can very easily get out of hand, so it has to be handled very, very sensitively.”
Government House
The protest will begin at 2 p.m. on a bridge less than a kilometer from the prime minister’s office, known as Government House, which the group occupied for three months in 2008.
“We won’t get into Government House tomorrow or the next day,” said Chamlong, a retired general. “But I don’t know yet about the following days.”
Soldiers declined to enforce orders from a pro-Thaksin prime minister in 2008 to disperse the People’s Alliance from Government House or the airports. The army has twice used force since then to break up protests from Thaksin’s supporters, most recently in May when demonstrators turned down Abhisit’s offer to call an early election.

Relations between Thailand and Cambodia soured in 2008 when a Thai court ordered a Thaksin-linked government to withdraw support for Cambodia’s bid to list the disputed Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site. Gun battles in the area since 2008 have killed at least six soldiers.
In December, Cambodia arrested seven Thais, including a member of Abhisit’s party, for trespassing. Five were given suspended sentences and released on Jan. 21, while two others remain in detention to face additional charges of spying, the Phnom Penh Post reported, without citing anyone.

[buksida]

The madness has already begun (again):

The People's Alliance for Democracy has targeted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and relevant officials for a criminal litigation and a graft probe for lapse of duty to cause territorial loss, PAD leader Prapan Koonmee said on Wednesday.

PAD lawyers are preparing to prosecute Abhisit in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders and submit a petition for the National Anti Corruption Commission to investigate the territoral loss to Cambodia, Prapan said.

"The planned litigation is aimed at stepping up the PAD-led protest," he said.

Source: The Nation

Thought: Where do these Neo-fascists get off?