About 5,000 Thai police took up positions around Government House in Bangkok on Saturday ahead of a rally by anti-government protesters, Reuters reported. Metropolitan police chief Lieutenant-General Suchart Muenkaew said the protesters would not be allowed to storm the compound, as happened with an opposing protest group in August, but police would not use force. "We will negotiate with them and won't use weapons," he told reporters, adding that army officers would be on hand to monitor the rally of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), which said it expected to attract 20,000 supporters. By late afternoon, about 10,000 red-shirted UDD, most of whom supported ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had gathered at Sanun Luang, a large public square in front of the glittering spires of Bangkok's Grand Palace. Protest leaders said they planned a march to Government House in the evening to demand the resignation of the Democrat Party-led government headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that came to power last month after the courts dissolved its pro-Thaksin predecessor. "We will not intrude into the Government House compound. After we declare our standpoints, we will disband and leave. We will not stay there overnight," Chatuporn Prompan, a UDD leader, said.
