Protesters gather in Bangkok for Asian summit

By Kittipong Soonprasert

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Wednesday an Asian summit would go ahead as planned in Thailand this week as demonstrators gathered in Bangkok for a mass rally with the objective of toppling him.

Police said that by midmorning around 30,000 demonstrators were at Government House and Royal Plaza nearby. The organizers, supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006, say 300,000 are expected.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has besieged Abhisit's office at Government House since March 26. So far there has been no violence but security was tight on Wednesday.

"There's a group of people wanting to create chaos, but the government will do everything to restrain them," Abhisit said in an interview on Channel 3 television.

"If there's rioting, we will have to do something. I can affirm there will be no violence starting from the government's side."

On Tuesday his car was attacked by red-shirted, pro-Thaksin supporters after a cabinet meeting in the resort town of Pattaya, which will also host a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other Asian countries from Friday.

Abhisit insisted there was no threat to the summit.

"There won't be anything like what happened with my motorcade ... Every spot will have strict security. As for yesterday's chaos, it's because I wanted to travel normally, without disturbing people," he told the television interviewer.

The ASEAN summit was delayed from late last year because of a previous bout of political unrest, when a pro-Thaksin government was in power, and Abhisit's administration has billed the event as a sign Thailand was getting back to normal.

The prospect of renewed violence has added to the concerns of the stock market, which was down 0.8 percent at 11:30 p.m. EDT and has fallen 2.5 percent this year, in contrast to the incipient recovery seen on many other Asian markets.

"It is going to be a nerve-racking day for the market, and for obvious reasons the prime factor to watch here is the mass rally," said Chakkrit Charoenmethachai, a senior analyst with Far East Securities.

FLASHPOINT

One flashpoint is likely to be the home of Prem Tinsulanonda, chief adviser to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which is near Government House.

Thaksin has accused Prem, of playing an active role in the 2006 coup that ousted him, an allegation the former army general and prime minister denies.

"I've been told there are people armed with wooden stakes and clubs waiting for us at Prem's home," UDD leader Nattawut Saikeau told the crowd at Government House.

"If we are attacked, the red shirts will fight, but we will hold the government accountable if we have to strike back."

A group of at least 1,000 demonstrators started marching toward the house in midmorning but came up against police lines and stopped. A Reuters reporter said there was no confrontation and that UDD leaders called for calm.

The UDD says Abhisit is a pawn of the army, and that the army engineered his election as prime minister by parliament in December with the help of defectors from the previous pro-Thaksin government.

He has stayed away from his office for the past two weeks, part of which he spent in London representing ASEAN at the G20 summit.

Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile. He was convicted on conflict of interest charges last year.

His absence has not ended long-running political unrest, with Bangkok's royalist, military and business elite, who accused Thaksin and his allies of corruption and abuse of power, pitted against the rural and urban poor who loved his populist policies.

(Reporting by Arada Therdthammakun and Bangkok bureau; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Terra/Reuters