Prisons across Thailand alert for the forthcoming rally

The Corrections Department has ordered the authorities of more than 100 prisons across the country to get ready for a visit by the red-shirts on Friday morning, the department's Director General Chartchai Suthiklom said on Thursday.

The United front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), alias "red-shirts", earlier said they would gather in front of prisons nationwide to lay red roses at 10 a.m. Friday. Flower laying is part of the activities the "red-shirts"are planning to do during their upcoming rally on Sept. 17-19 in a bid to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2006 coup d'etat and call for the release "red-shirt" comrades detained in the various prisons .

"The commanders (of prisons) are instructed to prepare security measures inside the prison walls. They are also directed to coordinate with police to maintain law and order outside the prison area," Bangkok Post quoted Chartchai as saying.

He said that at present, a total of 252 "red-shirt" members are detained in 17 prisons in the capital and other provinces on charges of creating unrest and breaching emergency decree.

Although he did not think the activities would escalate to violence, he said it was necessary to be well-prepared.

The Thai government has put the emergency decree in force in Bangkok and its vicinity since April 7 in the face of escalating anti-government rally in Bangkok by "red-shirts" movement which lasted for three months. Central business district of Rajprasong had been seized by the demonstrators for almost two months before the dispersal by military forces that resulted in 91 deaths and almost 1,900 injuries.

Some "red-shirt" leaders and protestors were put in jail for violating the decree.

Source: Xinhua