Police move back into Govt House

Hundreds of riot police used batons and shields to re-enter Government House Friday morning, nine hours after similarly armed PAD protesters shoved them out and a senior PAD member threatened to make demonstrations "more aggressive".

Police broke through the People's Alliance for Democracy lines around 10.30am Friday and managed to re-enter the grounds and Government House.

(Special section with more reports and analysis from the Mass Protest - Click here)

Officers moved through human walls formed by PAD supporters with brute force, but mostly by shoving and with little use of actual violence. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

PAD core leader retired Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang took to a loudspeaker and shouted for protesters to gather on the fields at the government compound.

Maj Gen Chamlong told protesters that the police are trying to disperse the crowd.

Protesters armed with clubs had pushed and forced police off the grounds of Government House early on Friday morning

The 1am confrontation ended with 400 police retreating to the street after being threatened by demonstrators armed with sticks and golf clubs.

After their muscle-flexing "victory", the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters celebrated by dancing to rock music.

"We can relax now, but please be cautious, they might return soon," a protest organiser told the gathering, now in its four day of occupying Government House, despite a court order to leave.

The PAD protest aims to throw Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his government out of office.

One of the top alliance leaders, Maj-Gen Chamlong, said on Thursday night that the "legal" protest would continue to no matter what the court ordered.

He is one of nine leaders sought for arrest by police. He insisted the protesters were doing nothing wrong. He stated:

"We are staging a protest because the government has made too many mistakes and has no legitimacy to run the country. From now on, it will be stickier. Our political rallying will get stronger because more of our supporters from upcountry will come to help us. We will not back down."

Former commander of the Internal Security Operations Command retired but influential army Gen Panlop Pinmanee appeared to issue a direct threat to the government:

"Go tell Mr Samak if he is brave he must over the arrest of Maj-Gen Chamlong and the other core leaders and disperse the protest.

"Once the arrests are made, I will volunteer as the next leader in lieu of Chamlong as we have made some commitments. As a friend, I will pursue his goal. I need only two days and everything will end.

"In this situation, Maj-Gen Chamlong or Samak cnanot take a step back. There must be a breaking point, otherwise the country will become disheartened. If we want to remove an abscess, we must be ready to face pain to get rid of the infectious part."

Gen Panlop is generally known as the foremost expert and practitioner of dirty tricks in Thailand. He was fired by ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra two years ago after a bombing attempt on the life of Mr Thaksin.

Although he denied any involvement in that incident, Gen Panlop openly bragged that "If I were behind it, the prime minister would be dead".