Thai leader won't resign; foes step up pressure

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra dismissed calls for his resignation yesterday, while protesters who have accused him of corruption and abuse of power vowed to rally every day until he steps down.

More than 10,000 people gathered lyesterday at a field known as Sanam Luang, where they say they will demonstrate daily. On Sunday, tens of thousands marched from Sanam Luang to Government House, the prime minister's office.

But Thaksin rejected the calls. ''I will not resign because my resignation will not resolve anything," Thaksin told reporters.

The last several anti-Thaksin rallies, which started last month after his family sold its stake in a telecommunications giant, have each attracted tens of thousands of people but have been held on weekend nights.

Organizers decided Sunday to hold daily protests. ''We will impose more aggressive measures to pressure him, such as blocking Government House, staging a strike, and boycotting products of companies linked to the government," said Suriyasai Katasila of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a group leading the protest.

Another protest leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, a publisher, announced a march on Government House again next Tuesday.

''Thaksin has said that we are only good at marching at night. This time, we will march in broad daylight to Government House when they hold a Cabinet meeting," he said. ''We have made Thaksin sleepless for the past one month. Nothing is more devastating than continuing pressure. We will continue to rally to exert more pressure on him."

A crowd that some estimated at 100,000 filled the streets around Government House on Sunday and stayed until well past midnight, after speakers, singers and performers all lambasted Thaksin.

Yesterday, however, Thaksin said before a cheering crowd of supporters in northeastern Khon Kaen province, an area where he has strong support, that ''as long as the people support me, I will still work because that is how a democracy works."

Thailand's army commander meanwhile, sought to ease speculation that the military might join the political fray, as it last did in 1992 and more than a dozen other times during earlier crises.

''The army will not get involved in the political conflict. Political troubles should be resolved by politicians," said General Sondhi Boonyaratkalin.

He was echoing comments of other leading military officials.

''Military coups are a thing of the past," the general said.

Thaksin's critics are primarily from Thailand's urban middle class, and their recent protests have put him on the defensive, leading to the country's biggest political crisis since 1992, when street protests forced the ouster of a government that had the military's support.

The anti-Thaksin campaign appeared to have swelled among Thai opponents last month, after the prime minister's family sold its controlling stake in the telecommunications giant Shin Corp. to a state-owned investment company that has its headquarters in Singapore. The agreement netted $1.9 billion.

Critics have said that the sale involved insider trading and tax dodges, and have complained that a key national asset is now in the hands of a foreign government.

The prime minister has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation, and instead has called elections for April 2.

Opposition parties have vowed to boycott the elections, which Thaksin, whose populist policies have earned him widespread popularity in rural areas, would almost certainly win.

More than 100,000 of Thaksin's supporters staged a rally Friday at Sanam Luang, at which he offered to resign if he failed to secure more than half the votes in the April polls.