Thai \yellow shirts rally in Bangkok

Activists from Thailand’s Yellow Shirt movement have burned Prime Minister Hun Sen’s photo and staged rallies in Bangkok to protest against last week’s arrest of a Thai parliamentarian and six other Thais for allegedly trespassing on Cambodian territory.

Panich Vikitsreth, an MP from Thailand’s ruling Democrat Party, was arrested along with six others near a Cambodian military encampment in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district, across the border from Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, while attempting to “investigate” the border demarcation process.

The group were charged in Phnom Penh Municipal Court last week with illegal entry and unlawfully entering a military base, charges that carry a combined maximum sentence of 18 months in prison.

Also among those arrested was Veera Somkwamkid, a former activist with the People’s Alliance for Democracy, as the mainstream Yellow Shirt movement is formally known, who now heads a PAD splinter group called the Thailand Patriot Network.

On Friday, Yellow Shirt protesters gathered outside the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok and burned a coffin with Hun Sen’s photo on it.

The protests in the Thai capital continued Sunday, and the Yellow Shirts have vowed to stage a thousands-strong rally in Sa Kaeo province on Tuesday.

“We don’t have any reaction to these unlawful extremists,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said. “We’ll just let the court officials proceed with their work.”

PAD spokesman Panthep Puapongpan claimed the group had evidence that last week’s arrests took place on Thai soil and were thus unlawful. He accused the Cambodian government of staging the incident to distract from alleged Vietnamese incursions on the Kingdom’s eastern border, where the opposition Sam Rainsy Party has staged repeated protests.

“The Cambodians have been invaded by the Vietnamese and they cannot protest,” Panthep said. “[Cambodian leaders] want to deviate the attention of the Cambodian people and fight with the Thai government.”

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said, however, that the Thai government had conducted its own investigation of the case and had concluded that the arrests were in fact made on Cambodian soil.

Thani said Bangkok had no comment on the protests against Hun Sen and Cambodia.

“The issue is being covered by the court,” he said. “We should leave it to the court.”

Pich Vicheka, a lawyer representing Veera and three other defendants in the case, said yesterday that he had yet to receive any information on a trial date, adding that he was considering submitting a bail request for his clients....read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.