Pro-Thai government demonstrators make movements

BANGKOK, November 14 (TNA) - As anti-government rallies have persisted, there are now demonstrations of proponents of the Thai administration of Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The red-shirt, pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) held a fresh rally at the Provincial Hall of Samut Prakan Province on Wednesday night, drawing a large number of supporters amid tight security provided by some 700 police. The red-clad UDD, which earlier staged its rallies in Thailand's northeastern Khon Kaen and northern Chiang Mai Provinces, announced that it will organize its big rally at Muang Thong Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok from November 18-20, 2013. UDD leaders denied that they are pressuring the Constitutional Court, which is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of a Charter amendment on the making of the Thai Senate, saying that they just want to protect Thailand's elected government. An anti-government group, the Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand, in the meantime, led demonstrators to Silom Road in the heart of Bangkok to urge people to oppose the amendment of Section 190 of Thailand's 2010 Constitution and demand the incumbent government to quickly help a Thai activist, Veera Somkwamkid, who has been jailed in Cambodia. In response to an incident in the capital on Wednesday, when Thai Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng encountered a group of former and present opposition Democrat MPs who blew whistles at him, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi cautioned that anti-government demonstrators should pay attention to national image, vowing that he, himself, would blow a whistle back to anti-government demonstrators if he faced a similar act of protest. Meanwhile, Seehanat Prayoonrat, Secretary-General of Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), told journalists that no one has asked his office to examine the finance of ongoing demonstrators, but the AMLO is duty-bound to watch out for all suspicious transactions. According to the AMLO chief, his office has not yet found any irregularity. (TNA)