Updated: Red shirts rally for justice and against lese majeste
MCOT News reports that the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has again rallied supporters in Bangkok, to commemorate their marathon rally which ended 10 months ago. The red shirts first rallied at Rajaprasong where in the report's terms "security forces crushed UDD protesters last May 19″ and then marched to the Democracy Monument.
Led by Thida Tawornsate Tojirakarn and Weng Tojirakarn, the rally was due to end early Sunday morning. The main demand was for "justice in … Thai society…". Matichon reports that Thaksin phoned in. So far PPT has been unable to locate any estimates of crowd size.
Update: The Nation has a longer story, saying "thousands" of red shirts rallied. The point of this story, however, is to advertise the Department of Special Investigation's "close scrutiny" of UDD leaders. The DSI is "keeping a close watch on the seven red-shirt leaders who were granted bail as it believes they are not observing the bail conditions by leading a rally. DSI chief Tharit Pengdit has issued orders to follow the movements of all bailed red-shirt leaders on stage and at the rally site in the hope of having some proof to convince the Office of the Attorney-General to petition the court for revoking their bail. Tharit believes the assembly, which blocks traffic for hours, is illegal and for these leaders to take part in it is tantamount to violating the bail condition."
The report states that Weng didn't address the crown due to this threat and the gag applied by the courts. Other red shirt leaders were defiant and spoke on stage.
Opposing lese majeste (from The Nation)
More interesting than the DSI's predictable political position, however, is the content of red shirt activities. Thida is said to have "vowed that those killed last year would not have died in vain." At Rajaprasong, it is said that "progressive red shirts" held a protest "against the lese majeste law, calling it undemocratic." Meanwhile, at the "Democracy Monument, many red shirts saw an exhibition of uncensored pictures of the violence that led to the deaths of mostly red-shirt protesters in April and May last year."
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