Ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday Thailand could begin to heal its deep political rifts in an address to thousands of "Red Shirt" supporters in Cambodia. Thaksin, a divisive figure in his homeland who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, was greeted with cheers in north-western Siem Reap province, in the first major rally he has attended since being toppled from power in a military coup in 2006.
"There are signs of reconciliation. Everybody wants it... There are signs that I will be able to return home to stay with you," he said, adding that royal anniversaries this year make it an "auspicious time". Up to 30,000 people had gathered at the site, according to Siem Reap deputy provincial governor Bun Tharith, although an AFP reporter at the scene said the crowd appeared closer to 10,000.
Supporters, who filed through x-ray machines to enter the arena, carried pictures of the former tycoon and waved banners that read: "We want Thaksin home". Many had made the journey across the border in hundreds of cars and buses to see their hero, who lives in Dubai to avoid a two-year prison sentence that he contends is politically motivated.
Thaksin is much-loved by many poor Thais but hated by parts of the Bangkok-based elite in military, palace and bureaucratic circles who see him as a threat to the monarchy. Mass Red Shirt protests in the Thai capital in 2010 descended into the kingdom's worst political violence in decades, with more than 90 people - mostly civilians - killed in a military crackdown.
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