The shirts war on Valentine’s Day

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in yellow shirts plans to hold its “PAD Caravan for New Politics” concert at a public park in the Northeastern province on Saturday, the Valentine’s Day. In the meantime, the red shirts plan to gather at a temple in Bangkok’s Don Muang district on Saturday. The red shirts belong to Udon Thani – people who support ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s bid to make a political comeback.

The Udon Thani governor chaired a meeting of senior officials from state agencies Thursday (12 Feb) in a bid to prevent serious incidents during the concert by ‘yellow shirts’. The PAD concert’s venue, a park, was the site of a violent clash last year when hundreds of red shirts stormed a political rally organised by the PAD.

Amnat Phakarat, governor of Udon Thani, said that strict safety measures would be taken to prevent any undesirable happening during the concert. The concert area will be sealed off Friday, one day before the event, for bomb searches. More than 1,400 police officers, including a crowd-control unit, will be involved in keeping law and order. Military staff will also be available to help police. Health personnel and ambulances will be on standby in case of emergency. He said officials were ordered not to use force with protesters but that “necessary measures” would be taken if the protest turned violent or protesters attempted to break into government offices.

Also, local leaders of the red shirts and yellow shirts assured him that no violent incident would take place.