Pattaya Daily News

PAD’s key member Prapan Koonmee said the group would use legal means to put pressure against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his government by collecting 20,000 signatures, as required by the Constitution, to present to the Constitution Court.

He said the premier should be impeached for neglect of duty by not revoking the 2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Thailand and Cambodia which the PAD claimed was legally ineffective as a tool for negotiation with the Cambodian authorities.

The move had led Thailand to lose territory to Cambodia, he claimed.

The MoU on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary signed by Thailand and Cambodia on June 4, 2000 saw both sides agreeing not to carry out any work resulting in changes to the frontier zone environment.

Meanwhile, Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD core leader, said the PAD would not return the area on Rajdamnoen Nok Avenue to the authorities except if the government uses force to disperse the protest which he believed the government would try to do just that.

Chamlong said that now the PAD would step up its campaign to inform the public that if Thailand loses the 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) of overlapped land to Cambodia, the kingdom will lose another 180,000 rai (110 square miles) along the border to Cambodia.

The PAD has staged mass gathering since January 25 in a bid to demand the government to withdraw the membership from the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, revoke the MoU on the Thai-Cambodian border signed in 2000, and expel Cambodian people from disputed border areas.

4,000 Thai police prepared for red-shirts rally on March 12

Altogether 4,050 police forces or 27 companies will be deployed to ensure peace and order in Bangkok during the anti-government planned “red-shirts” rally next Saturday, March 12, police said.

Police chief Pol Gen Wichean Potephosree said 11 companies of police under the command of deputy commander of metropolitan police Pol Maj Gen Kririn Inkaew will be dispatched at Government House.

Another five companies will be deployed at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek road. Other six companies will be stationed at the Democracy monument, Bangkok Post online reported.

In addition, five companies of police will be deployed inside and around the parliament building compound.

Pol Gen Wichean insisted that the law will be enforced equally to all protester groups and without double standards.

He was confident that there would be no violence during the red- shirts rally, but police will have to be careful on the violence instigated by the third party who might take this opportunity to incite unrest.

The red-shirt is planning to hold a mass rally on March 12 to call for justice for the imprisoned red-shirts in various prisons across the country.

More than a hundred of red-shirt supporters are detained in prison across the country for terrorism charge after the major crackdown on red-shirt protesters in May.

The anti-government protestors occupied Ratchaprasong intersection, Bangkok’s central business zone, for more than one month and called for the government to dissolve the parliament and hold fresh election. The demonstration ended after a week-long confrontation with the troops and many red-shirt core members were charged with terrorism.

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