Thai capital braced for rival rallies
Thailand's capital was bracing for mass rival rallies as opposition protesters marched on key communications firms after vowing a final push against the premier, while pro-government demonstrators converged on Bangkok.
Defiant demonstrators have besieged key government buildings in Bangkok on Saturday in the biggest street protests since mass rallies in 2010 degenerated into the kingdom's worst civil strife in decades.
The protesters - a mix of royalists, southerners and the urban middle class sometimes numbering in their tens of thousands - are united by their loathing of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra in the month-long rallies.
The controversial former telecoms tycoon was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile, but he is widely believed to be the real power behind the embattled government of his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Anti-government protesters occupied parts of Telephone Organisation of Thailand (TOT) offices near their base at a key government complex in the outskirts of Bangkok Saturday, holding a cheerful picnic in the grounds.
They also briefly gathered around Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT), another key state telecoms firm.
"My fight strategy is to march empty handed. I feel tomorrow we will win," protester Sanit Ounjai, a 45-year-old rubber farmer from southern Thailand, told AFP.
Demonstrators have declared Sunday a "day of victory", with plans to gather near the heavily guarded Government House, besiege more important buildings - even Bangkok's zoo.
Protesters are demanding the end of the "Thaksin regime" and want to replace the government with an unelected "people's council".
The pro-Thaksin "Red Shirt" movement also stepped up their rally in the capital Saturday, vowing to protect the government.
"Red Shirts who do not want our country pushed into anarchy will be here," Thanawut Wichaidit, a spokesman for the group, told AFP, adding that thousands were expected to head to the capital.
The Reds have gathered in a stadium in Bangkok for a week, but have so far shown no intention of taking to the streets.
Thaksin is adored by many of the country's rural and urban working class but hated by many southerners, middle-class Thais and the Bangkok elite, who see him as corrupt and a threat to the monarchy.
He remains a hugely divisive figure seven years after he was deposed by royalist generals. Pro-Thaksin parties have won every election for more than a decade but Yingluck has given no indication that she is thinking of calling fresh polls as a way out of the crisis.
With free food and a carnival atmosphere, opposition demonstrators have massed at several locations around the capital, occupying the finance ministry since Monday.
Their numbers have fallen sharply since an estimated crowd of up to 180,000 people joined an opposition rally on Sunday.
But turnout is expected to spike over the weekend as organisers seek a final push ahead of celebrations for revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday on December 5, which is traditionally marked in an atmosphere of calm and respect.
