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'Red-shirts' swear peaceful rally

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Under the theme of "Sept 19: Eye-opener Across the Land", Sunday's rally in Chiang Mai is expected to draw 10,000 followers.

Thai anti-government "red shirt" supporters get together to welcome "red shirt" members from Bangkok, in Chiengmai, Thailand, Sept. 18, 2010. [Zhu Li/Xinhua]

Both the red-shirts leaders from Bangkok and Chiang Mai stressed, however, that this will be a peaceful rally and won't prolong, nothing like the previous one from mid-March to May 19 this year, during which at least 91 killed and nearly 1,900 injured in the conflicts between the security forces and the protesters in Bangkok.

"We will end the rally before 12:00 a.m. (of Monday), and we will coordinate the police to ensure the rally go in a peaceful and organized way," Seewan said, adding that all the red-shirts from Bangkok will depart to go back on Monday.

Suracha, who led the cavalcade to Chiang Mai, said the purpose of the rally is to make the public aware what happened in the past -- both on Sept. 19, 2006 and on May 19 this year, and to make sure that another coup d'etat won't occur again.

He said, "the rally will be carried out in a peaceful way. We won't resort to violence."

The same date four years ago a coup toppled Thaksin's administration and made him to exile abroad ever since, though his supporters in Thailand never gave up to fight their way to bring the populist back.

With Bangkok still under the emergency rule due to the government's security concern in the face of the March-to-May rally, Chiang Mai, a strong-hold for red-shirts or their leader de facto, Thaksin, seems an ideal rally place.

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