Thai government bans expats from political protests

The Thai government has declared that it believes foreign workers are being recruited by the pro-Taksin Shinawatra United Front for Democracy (UDD) opposition or Red Shirts.

Red Shirt rallies represent large anti-government protests and as such Suthep Thaugsuban, the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of security affairs, has taken the unprecedented step to forbid aliens from taking part.

The next planned protests are scheduled for the 29th of November, with Suthep saying that instructions had been given to employers to warn foreign labourers that they would not be allowed to take part.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that only Thai nationals have the right to express their personal political opinion and that legal action would be taken against any foreigners who failed to comply.

UDD leaders have been granted allowance to hold their protests but only if they are done so in an orderly fashion. The government has also urged opposition leaders to postpone any action that would take place in the lead up to His Majesty the King’s 82nd birthday which falls on December 5th.

Mr Suthep has also announced that he would today be meeting with the nation’s top security officials to determine if the Internal Security Act should be employed during the protests.

Elsewhere in Thailand, police authorities have announced they would be seeking an arrest warrant for core red-shirt member Petchawat Wattanapongsirikul. Wattanapongsirikul recently said on a community radio station that Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, would be the victim of a car bombing should he proceed with a planned visit to the red-shirt centre of Chiang Mai.