Bangkok: Scores of Thai anti-government protesters tried to force their way into an Army base in Bangkok on Saturday but were repelled by water cannon, as their leaders vowed to carry on their fight for new elections.
Hundreds more "red shirt" supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra gathered at a satellite earth station north of Bangkok after Thai authorities again blocked transmission of an opposition TV station they said was inciting unrest.
Thai PBS channel said the red shirts failed to get into the Army base in central Bangkok near Phan Fah bridge, one of the main centres of their month-long protest.
At another red shirt camp, in an upmarket shopping district by the Rachaprasong intersection, protest leader Nattawut Saikua told supporters the fight for new elections would go on and there would be no let-up over the long Thai New Year holiday next week.
"We want to condemn the government for blocking our television channel again," he said from a makeshift stage. "They`ve gone back on what they said to us. How can we let these kind of people lead our country? We have to fight on."
He warned the crowd to be ready for an attempt by the security forces to clear them on Saturday but there was no big military presence in the area. The Thaicom Pcl satellite station about 60 km (35 miles) north of Bangkok was the scene of the most violent incident to date in the month-old protests, with police using water cannon and tear gas against thousands of protesters.
The red shirts stormed the site on Friday and forced the reversal of an earlier decision to censor the People Channel.
Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said security forces had returned to the station late on Friday after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ordered that the channel be blocked.
Leaders of the red shirts met in Bangkok to decide their response but Thai television said local Thaksin supporters were already gathering at the station on Saturday.
Bureau Report
