Thai PM resists state of emergency for protests

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Monday that he did not need to declare a state of emergency to handle a massive anti-government demonstration planned in Bangkok later this week.
Red-clad supporters of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra have blockaded Abhisit's offices in Bangkok for the past 12 days, and say they expect hundreds of thousands of people to attend Wednesday's rally.
But the Oxford-educated Abhisit said after meeting security agencies and the chief of the armed forces on Monday that his nearly four-month-old government was capable of handling the protests.
"The government will not declare a state of emergency. We will use normal laws and we are confident that we can take care of the situation," the prime minister told reporters.
He said he would give a televised address to the nation on Monday night to reassure the public.
The protests are the latest development in three years of political turmoil since Thaksin was toppled in a coup in September 2006.
In their bid to force Abhisit from office, the so-called "Red Shirts" have taken a leaf from the playbook of rival demonstrators who drove Thaksin's allies from government with a huge street campaign last year.
The previous government declared limited emergency rule last year after yellow-clad anti-Thaksin protesters occupied the prime minister's office and launched a crippling blockade of Bangkok's two airports.
But Thailand's powerful army failed to heed the emergency orders, fatally weakening the administration before it was finally toppled by a court ruling in December which allowed Abhisit to come to power.
Thaksin, who is living in exile to avoid a jail term for corruption, has recently upped the ante with a series of fiery video speeches calling on people from across the country to rise up against the government.
The billionaire tycoon has also ruffled feathers by accusing two advisors of Thailand's widely revered king of masterminding the September 2006 putsch.
Protest leader Nattawut Saikuar said Wednesday's rally aimed to oust the government of Abhisit, whose opponents accuse him of being an army stooge, and to restore full democracy.
"Once we have achieved success we will return to being ordinary people under a democratic system," he told reporters.