Update | Thai 'red shirts' mass in Bangkok to back Yingluck Shinawatra
Turnout is not as great as expected as pro-government leaders say they will oppose any move by the courts to remove premier
Thousands of Thai pro-government "red shirts" massed yesterday in a show of support for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, warning that they would resist attempts to oust her through the courts.
More than 3,000 police and troops were mobilised for the rally on the western outskirts of Bangkok, following months of political violence in which 24 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
Thailand has been rocked by years of sometimes bloody street protests by supporters and opponents of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's elder brother.
Supporters of the movement arrived in buses and trucks for what red-shirt leaders hoped would be their biggest show of strength in the months-long crisis.
"I want to see justice. I want the country to have democracy," said Keatisak Thaweerit, 46, who hails from northeast Thailand.
"We are here to use the voices of the majority of the people in the country."
The authorities expected up to 200,000 red-shirts to join the two-day rally, Paradorn Pattanatabut, a security adviser to the premier, said.
But about two hours after the official start, the turnout was still only several thousand.
Paradorn said the authorities did not expect any clashes with rival anti-government protesters who have been holding daily rallies at a park in the city centre, far from the site of the red-shirt rally.
"What we are concerned about are third parties," he said, alluding to unidentified assailants who have launched a series of gun and grenade attacks around the capital in recent months, often targeting opposition protesters.
Red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan also said they were "not looking for a confrontation with the anti-government crowd".
"This is about showing our strength and to warn the elite that we will not accept it if Yingluck is removed by the courts," he said.
The rival rallies have highlighted the political fault lines that have riven Thai society since a military coup toppled Thaksin in 2006.
Thaksin, a telecoms tycoon-turned-politician, who clashed with Thailand's royalist establishment, has traditionally enjoyed strong support in the northern half of the kingdom.
The ousted premier, who fled overseas in 2008 to avoid jail for a corruption conviction, is hated by many Thais in Bangkok and the south who accuse him of corruption and nepotism.
The opposition says it wants to install an unelected "neutral" leader to oversee vaguely defined reforms aimed at clamping down on corruption and reining in the Shinawatra family's political dominance.
Drawn mostly from the poor but populous north and northeast, the red shirts say they will not accept the removal of another democratically elected government.
"If they are stubborn and go ahead to appoint a neutral prime minister or stage a coup, the red-shirts will fiercely oppose it," Jatuporn told reporters at the rally site.
Yingluck faces neglect of duty charges linked to a loss-making rice subsidy scheme and allegations of abuse of power over the transfer of a top security official. Yingluck's supporters view the moves as an attempted power grab.
Hundreds of red-shirts underwent self-defence training earlier this week to act as security guards for the rally, which is expected to be the first of a series of major protests.
