Thousands of protesters vowed on Sunday to stay on Bangkok's streets until Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned over allegations of corruption and abuse of power, Reuters reported. "We will rally around the clock until Thaksin and (his wife) Potjaman leave the country," friend-turned-foe media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul told a crowd police estimated at 60,000. Monks of the "Dharma Army" were in the vanguard of the protest, the biggest anti-government demonstration in Thailand since 1992, when their leader led a successful, but bloody "people's power" revolt. Thousands marched from the rally next to the Grand Palace to the nearby Democracy Monument, the focal point of bloody protests in the 1970s and 1990s that brought down military governments. Thaksin's former political mentor, retired general Chamlong Srimuang, who led the 1992 revolt against a military-led government, said his "Dharma Army" would camp there. Then the protesters moved on to Thaksin's office, shadowed by riot police who did not intervene after a rally which rang with shouts of "Thaksin Get Out!" The rally, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a coalition of extra-parliamentary groups, is the latest in a series of protests mainly by Bangkok's middle class outraged at the tax-free sale of Thaksin's business empire in late January. --more 22 11 Local Time 19 11 GMT
