(12 Mar 2010)
1. Wide top shot of crowd of anti-government demonstrators, known as "Red Shirts", travelling on road, on way to military base in Bangkok suburb
2. Vehicle with demonstrators on it going past
3. Man wearing skull mask waving red flag
4. Wide of demonstration leaders on stage on back of vehicle making speech
5. Mid of demonstrators chanting
6. Demonstrators on motorbikes arriving outside army base, pan to guards standing behind barbed wire
7. Wide of army dog handlers with dogs, seen through fence
8. Demonstrators shouting at soldiers through fence
9. Wide of soldiers waving at demonstrators, one soldier waving red bandana in apparent support
10. Demonstrators facing policemen outside base, roll of barbed wire between them
11. Men holding poster depicting Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva as a water monitor lizard (an insult in Thai culture)
12. Wide of gathering outside base
13. Wide of man making speech to crowd
14. Wide of crowd stretched down road
STORYLINE :
Crowds of anti-government demonstrators gathered outside a military base in a suburb of the Thai government Bangkok on Friday, ahead of a weekend rally which organisers hope will be one of the country''s biggest, in an effort to force the Prime Minister to call new elections.
Leaders of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, known as the "Red Shirts" because of their hallmark attire, have vowed to keep their proposed "million-man march" non-violent.
Demonstrators started meeting around the country on Friday and planned to converge on the Thai capital on Sunday.
On Friday, convoys of buses and pick-up trucks were making their journey from Chiang Mai and other northern provinces of the country, the heartland of the so-called Red Shirt movement, while the government beefed up security in Bangkok.
The group''s last major protest in Bangkok last April deteriorated into rioting that saw two people killed, more than 120 people injured and buses burned on major thoroughfares. The army was called in to quash the unrest.
The Red Shirts include followers of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other people who oppose the 2006 military coup that toppled him.
They believe Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and other parts of the traditional Thai ruling class who were fearful of Thaksin''s popularity while in office in 2001-2006.
Some two dozen foreign embassies have issued travel advisories, including the United States, which urged Americans to stay away from the protests where "violence cannot be ruled out."
Some allies of the Red Shirts have openly boasted of armed retribution if the protests are suppressed. The government has advised against panic, while warning of possible sabotage by the Red Shirts.
Government supporters claim the Red Shirts will dress up as police and soldiers to shoot demonstrators in order to create martyrs; Red Shirt leaders says provocateurs pretending to be protesters will incite violence to discredit their movement.
More than 30-thousand security officials will be deployed around Bangkok and 46-thousand "civilian defence volunteers" are on standby for the rallies, government spokesman said.
Red Shirt leaders say they hope up to 600-thousand protesters will turn out.
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