Thai Government Ready to Talk with Thaksin to Stop Mass Anti-Government Rally

Amid the growing anti Government rally, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said Wednesday the Government is ready to talk with ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in order to bring peace back to the country.

Thaksin has been widely perceived as the real leader of the anti Government protest in Thailand's capital Bangkok as Thaksin has made a phone-in to address his red shirted supporters every night since the mass rally has debuted from last week.

"I am ready to talk with Thaksin both in Thailand and overseas. I can fly to meet with him wherever he is, in order to bring peace back (to the country)," the website by Thai language newspaper Thai Rath quoted Suthep as saying after chairing the special cabinet meeting.

However, Suthep said, "but some of his demands are impossible, such as the dissolution of the House," the website by Bangkok Post reported.

The top political demand of the growing anti Government rally by Thaksin's supporters is the House dissolution, which will lead to a new general election.

Suthep said he would wait for Thaksin's reaction this evening.

Thaksin was ousted by the military coup in September 2006, accusing him of corruption, keeping him in exile and controlling the country for an interim period until new elections in December, 2007 did bring Thaksin's allies back into power.

Thaksin returned to Thailand in February 2008 to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted two years in absentia.

The special cabinet meeting was immediately held in order to evaluate the growing anti Government rally and prepare measures to handle with another mass anti Government protest, planned around mid-next week.

The core leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) have been in the process of mobilizing as many as red-shirted supporters to join the planned mass rally, especially the grass root-level people across Thailand.

Starting from Friday, all of the entrances of the Government House have been blocked by the anti Government protestors, preventing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, his cabinet ministers and civil servants from entering to work.

The UDD-led anti Government protestors, or the red-shirted people, are on the seventh day of their anti-government rally in front of the Government House, aiming to overthrow the coalition Government.
 
Source - China View