Thailand's Red Shirts Return To Streets To Welcome Thaksin Home

Bangkok, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Aug, 2023 ) :Red Shirt demonstrators poured onto Bangkok's stifling concrete streets Tuesday to welcome home their hero Thaksin Shinawatra, more than a decade after they brought the capital to a standstill with mass protests in his name.

Hundreds traveled through the night from the northeastern provinces, where the former prime minister still commands deep loyalty, to dance and sing as Thaksin returned to the kingdom for the first time since 2008.

A few were rewarded with a glimpse of the 74-year-old as he emerged briefly at Don Mueang airport before being whisked off to jail for criminal convictions passed in his absence.

Some wore elaborate outfits, older women with immaculately made-up faces crinkling as the heat and their enthusiasm increased, and all were decked out in red -- the signature colour of Thaksin's supporters.

"I just want to see his face," 57-year-old retiree Panee Lobtong told AFP after taking an overnight bus from northern Chiang Mai.

Behind her, red signs proclaimed "Thaksin Shinawatra, the PM in our hearts" and celebrated his "return to the motherland".

But Chawang Kaewsiri, 74, who traveled with her, was worried Thaksin could face years in prison.

"Anything could happen," he said.

Chawang was among the tens of thousands of protesters who swamped Bangkok with a scarlet tide in 2009 and 2010 to demand new elections after Thaksin was ousted in a coup and had much of his fortune seized by court order.

Those protests ended with a military crackdown that left nearly 100 people dead and reduced parts of downtown Bangkok to smouldering rubble.

"I survived a bullet from the protest," he told AFP.

Vendors sold pancakes and ice cream as two trucks equipped with outsized speakers blared party anthems on the crowded road outside the airport.

An announcer narrated the progress of the private jet carrying Thaksin from Singapore.

While supporters were kept outside the VIP enclosure where he landed, news of his touchdown was greeted with wild cheers and singing.

Many thrust their hands through the chicken-wire fencing, screaming before Thaksin was whisked off to the Supreme Court.

- 'I love him so much - "I love him so much," Porn, a retired 74-year-old woman who gave only one name, told AFP outside the Supreme Court, where Thaksin was ordered to serve eight years.

Porn said she too was on the frontline of the protests in 2009, facing tear gas during the demonstrations.

"I had to sneak out to protest because my children wouldn't let me out. They were concerned about my safety," she said.

Porn urged authorities to pardon Thaksin on account of his age.

"He has done so many good things for the country, he shouldn't be put in jail." Thaksin fever also gripped city residents, with lottery tickets featuring numbers linked to his return -- from the flight number to his car license plate -- reportedly selling out.

But back outside the sweltering airport 58-year-old Poo Dang -- exuberantly dressed as a cardboard crab in tribute to Thaksin's sister and ex-PM Yingluck's nickname -- was simply jubilant.

He said: "We've all been waiting for him for 17 years."