UDD enthusiasts listen to a call in from
self-exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
Theerarak
Suthathiwong
Leaders of the “red shirt” anti-government movement
blamed Thailand’s ruling party for inflation and continued to say that a
military coup was imminent to hundreds of faithful that turned out for
an East Pattaya rally April 23.
The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship
claimed 10,000 people turned out on Soi Khao Talo to hear from national
leaders and self-exiled headman Thaksin Shinawatra.
Jatuporn Promphan, MP for the red-shirt political
party Puea Thai, urged the crowd to vote for party candidates in the
upcoming general election.
Kwanchai Praipana - who goes by the self-styled
nickname of “Issan Rambo” - blasted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for
dispatching the army to use force in dispersing the reds from their
Bangkok protest sites a year ago.
Jatuporn later claimed that the violent breakup of
the protests, which left 91 people dead, has caused an increase in
commodity prices and inflation.
The Puea Thai MP told followers he believed the party
would secure 300 parliamentary seats in the next election.
Northeast Thailand red shirt leaders then claimed the
army initiated an armed border conflict with Cambodia over the Ta Muen
and Ta Kwai temples in Surin to mask their plans for a military coup.
The rally continued with the reading of a message
from Arisman Pongruangrong, who condemned the April 21 shootings of one
of his aides and another rally organizer and demanded police find the
shooter.
Events reached their finale with a phone-in from
Thaksin, believed to be hiding out in Dubai. He pledged that if Puea
Thai was elected as the ruling party, he’d have leaders reduce the
public debt, increase spending and wages, rehabilitate young criminals
and provide air conditioning and computers for them.
