Bangkok gridlock looms

TRAVELCONSUMERDAILY.com

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2010

THAILAND'S "Red Shirts", supporters of fugitive former Thaksin Shinawatra, have announced they will attempt to use "people power" to drive the national government out of office this month with rallies beginning in the capital, Bangkok, on Friday week.

The rallies, which organisers pledge will be "non-violent, peaceful and unarmed", follow a Thailand Supreme Court decision on Friday to seize from Mr Thaksin $US1.4 billion in assets the court says he accumulated by misusing his office before he was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

Q&A What Thai protests are all about

Foreign governments had raised their alerts for travellers to Thailand before Friday's court ruling.

Organisers marshalling thousands of protesters who will converge on the capital from the rural provinces have not yet indicated where the protests will take place.

However, that is likely to be made clear in the next few days in the lead-up to Friday week's mass protest, the first of three days' of disruption which will continue until the following Sunday (March 14).

One of the largest foreign missions in Thailand, Australia, last Friday reissued its warning to travellers about potential political instability.

"We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution because of the high threat of terrorist attack and because of political instability in Thailand," the Australian warning says in its now-familiar wording.

"Pay close attention to your personal security at all times and monitor the media for information about possible new safety or security risks."

The Red Shirts caused chaos for travellers in Bangkok in 2008 when they occupied and closed the city's Suvarnabhumi international airport.

See CLIVE DORMAN's Fairfax blog, "Stuff it, we're going anyway".

 

Comment on this article