Next Rally Route Announced

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The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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UDD Unveils Rally Route

 

Published: 19/03/2010

 

The red-shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship will start moving out from Phan Fa bridge about 10am on Saturday in a convoy through the capital, a leader of the red-shirted guards said on Friday.

 

Aree Krainara said UDD leaders would be at both the head and the tail of the convoy of vehicles.

 

The campaign to encourage city people to join the rally would end at 6pm, he said.

 

The convoy would move along Yommarat and Phetchaburi roads to the Asoke intersection and turn right to Ratchapisek road, he said.

 

From the Fortune Town department store, the red-shirts would turn to the right and march along Lat Phrao road to Bang Kapi, Lam Sali intersection, Ramkhamhaeng road, Rama 9 road, Khlong Tan, Phra Khanong, Silom, Rama IV, Klongtoey, Odeon circle, Yommarat and back to Phan Fa bridge.

 

Pol Lt Gen Santan Chayanont, chief of Metropolitan Police Bureau, said police will try to ensure the general public is not inconvenienced.

 

Pol Maj Gen Piya Utayo, spokesman of Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the government's peacekeeping operation command had ordered police to step up security around the rally sites as it is concerned that a third party might try to instigate unrest.

 

Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn said the checkpoint at Ayutthaya's Wang Noi district will be expanded this weekend to accomodate the needs of supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) travelling to Bangkok to reinforce the diminishing number of protesters.

 

"The checkpoint will be expanded to support protesters travelling to the capital," he said.

 

Mr Panithan refused to estimate the number of red-shirts who may arrive to join the rally, but said the number of protesters tends to decrease the longer the rally continues.

 

"Ask the protest leaders for a number," Mr Panithan said.

 

Authorities are preparing safety measures and a traffic plan fopr this weekend, when protesters plan to move pickup trucks around the capital and drum up support for what they now describe as a "class war".

 

Authorities were cooperating with protest leaders and asking them about the routes they plan to travel, he said.