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Thai red-shirts rally to mark 3rd anniversary of coup

2009-09-20 09:14 BJT

BANGKOK, Sept 19 (Xinhua) -- The mass anti-government rally, led by Thailand's United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), or the red-shirted group, kicked off in the capital Bangkokon Saturday afternoon.

A supporter of the exiled Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra holds a banner at a rally at Royal Plaza in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sept. 19, 2009, marking three years since a coup that sent Thaksin into exile. Thousands of red-shirted protesters rallied in Bangkok on Saturday amid tight security to mark the third anniversary of a military coup against Thaksin.(Xinhua/Shi Xianzhen)
A supporter of the exiled Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra
holds a banner at a rally at Royal Plaza in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sept.
19, 2009, marking three years since a coup that sent Thaksin into exile.
Xinhua/Shi Xianzhen)

The red-shirted protestors are demanding the coalition government to dissolve the House and hold a new general election.

By 4:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) at least 10,000 red-shirted protestors are at the rally site, which had been poured with heavy rain starting from Saturday afternoon, Xinhua reporters at the scene said.

It is estimated by metropolitan police that the number of the red-shirted protest will rise to as many as 30,000 on late Saturday night.

From Friday until Tuesday (Sept. 18 to 22), the Internal Security Act (ISA) has been enforced by the government at Dusit district in the center of capital Bangkok in a bid to ensure law and order.

And, on Saturday evening through a website Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has urged Thais to be united as his voice was made amid the red-shirted rally in Bangkok and a violent clash between yellow-shirted security guards and the local people in Phu-mi-sa-rol village.