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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai 'Red Shirts' rally ahead of key amnesty debate |
| 2013-11-11 |
| [Al Ahram] Tens of thousands of Thai pro-government "Red Shirts" massed in Bangkok on Sunday, police said, in their first show of force since a wave of opposition protests against a controversial political amnesty bill. Television footage showed a sea of people decked out in red, many bussed in from the country's hardscrabble northeast, at a noisy rally in a suburban park in support of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her ruling Puea Thai party. About 45,000 Red Shirts joined the rally, a front man for the national police office said, adding 13,000 anti-government protesters held a separate demonstration elsewhere in the city a few kilometres from Government House. The major mobilisation of Reds follows several days of protests by various opposition groups against a deeply divisive ...politicians call things divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive,they're principled... amnesty bill backed by Yingluck's government, which has inflamed festering political wounds. Thailand's Senate was due on Monday to debate the bill, which critics say has been crafted to pave the way for a return of the polarising ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is Yingluck's brother. |
| Posted by:Fred |