Thousands of red shirts arrive in city

More red shirt members from the north and northeastern provinces arrived in Bangkok yesterday to join their comrades at Ratchaprasong intersection.

Around 5,000 red shirt supporters, mainly from Udon Thani and Khon Kaen, started off yesterday morning and reached the capital later in the day.

All of them had to pass security checkpoints manned by police and soldiers in Saraburi, Ayutthaya and the capital where officers recorded each person's identity card details and the vehicle's registration.

Some red shirts said their vehicles' tyres were punctured by spikes on the road between Sikhiu district in Nakhon Ratchasima and Kaeng Khoi district in Saraburi.

The arrival of more red shirts is a worry for the government as it embarks on an effort to end the political standoff with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.

A rising number of the protesters is likely to affect the reconciliation plan initiated by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and already agreed by the leaders of the demonstrations, said acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn yesterday at the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation. The CRES has recently put the number of demonstrators at Ratchaprasong area at less than 5,000. But protester numbers last night were higher than the centre's estimates.

The centre claimed that at least several thousand more UDD supporters had given up their plan to reinforce the red shirts in Bangkok, said Mr Panitan.

They changed their minds after being told by authorities how unsafe the rallying site in the capital would be under the current circumstances, he said.

Meanwhile, in Phayao's Muang district, the pick-up truck of a local UDD leader, Thoon Wetklang, 39, also known as DJ Phao, was torched in a suspected arson attack.

Mr Thoon had parked the vehicle in the garage of a house used for a community radio station called Democracy Lovers at around midnight after returning from a local red shirt rally at the Phayao city hall. Mr Thoon said the fire broke out about 3.30am. He and his neighbours spent 20 minutes putting out the blaze.

The radio station broadcasts live speeches by UDD members from the demonstration site in Bangkok.

Arunee Chamnanya, Puea Thai MP for Phayao, said the arson attack might be an attempt to stir up political conflict.