Thaksin vows to return
Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed to return home as soon as possible to serve the country, voicing optimism that his return can happen within this year.
“Once the situation is normal, I shall return and serve although I might not be the prime minister,” he said on Wednesday’s night in his Skype message from Vientiane to the red shirts in Nong Khai.
Thaksin said he could go everywhere but Thailand at the moment and was waiting for the day he could meet his fellow Thais in person.
He said at the urging of the red shirts, he might have put on a mask in order to cross the border but he wanted to arrive in style and not as an outlaw.
He said 95 per cent of Thais wanted to see reconciliation but those benefitting from the political conflict were against mending fences.
The ex-premier was given special protection when he arrived in the capital of Laos yesterday, amid rumours of an assassination threat against him, according to people close to the former leader.
Red-shirt leader Kwanchai Praipana, a coordinator of the red-shirts' trip to Laos during Thaksin's visit, said yesterday the ex-premier's plane was diverted from Vientiane's Wattay International Airport to a military airport at short notice.
Thaksin will remain in Laos until tomorrow when he leaves for Cambodia, where he is scheduled to stay on Saturday and Sunday.
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