Situation at Government House, Parliament remains normal

BANGKOK, August 7 (TNA) - The situation at Bangkok's Government House and adjacent Parliament building remains normal, amid more tightened security arrangements to ensure order. Officials came to work at the Government House as usual on Wednesday morning, while the House of Representatives convened on Wednesday afternoon, as earlier scheduled, for a debate on a controversial draft amnesty bill, proposed by a ruling Pheu Thai Party MP, but the Royal Thai Police has deployed more police to protect the focal sites, from 11 to 21 companies, as anti-amnesty bill demonstrators planned to march to rally at the Parliament, passing through the Government House. Police have also been deployed in the vicinity of the Government House and the Parliament building, carrying shields and clubs and standing to block any attempted access to restricted areas next to barbed wire and nearly-two-metre-barriers. Deputy Prime Minister Police General Pracha Promnok told reporters that he has instructed the police forces to be patient and negotiate gently and reasonably with demonstrators. General Preecha Iamsuphan, a leader of the People’s Democratic Force to Overthrow Thaksinism, later acknowledged at his protest site at the Lumpini Park in the capital that the number of his demonstrators were not enough to give his group an advantage and government officers and traffic congestion had delayed the arrival of his supporters and he, therefore, decided to keep existing demonstrators at the park. Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and other key figures of the main opposition party, who led their supporters to march from their demonstration site at the Uruphong Intersection on Wednesday morning to the Parliament building, through Rama VI Road, decided to tell their supporters to disperse and go home on early Wednesday afternoon and they themselves proceeded to the Parliament to attend the House convention, after police blocked their way at the Ratchavithi Intersection. The Democrat leaders, however, vowed to carry on their battle against the draft amnesty bill and promised to be always on the protesters' side. (TNA)