SURIN Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra told his supporters yesterday that he would personally pay for detained red shirts to be bailed out, and said he would soon make an ''elegant'' return to Thailand.
Thaksin, who fled the country in 2008 after being convicted by the Supreme Court for abuse of power - and who faces a two-year prison sentence if he returns - delivered his message in a phone call to a meeting of about 300 northeastern red shirt supporters at the office of Pheu Thai MP for Surin Teeyai Poonsrithanakul in Surin's Rattanaburi district yesterday evening.
''I would like red shirt detainees to be patient,'' Thaksin said. ''I am talking with judges and everything should be settled. If the government has no money to bail out red shirts, I will use my own money to bail out everyone. I keep in close contact with red shirt leaders.''
Thaksin said troubled red shirts could file their claims with Mr Teeyai and he would then meet their needs as soon as possible.
Thaksin said the Pheu Thai government was ''doing its very best'' to help the red shirts, and that the party's efforts included immediate and permanent rehabilitation packages for demonstrators.
Thaksin rejected a recent remark by red shirt leader Kwanchai Praipana, who said the former premier would return by walking across the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge to Nong Khai province.
''My return will not be like what Mr Kwanchai said. That would not be elegant. I must come back with style and I will say how it will be,'' he said.
However, he stressed that his return was imminent.
Thaksin also invited red shirt supporters to meet him in Laos and Cambodia. He said he would be in Vientiane on April 12 and 13 and in Siem Reap on April 14 and 15.
In their meeting yesterday, northeastern red shirts planned to field members in future elections of local administrative organisations in Surin province.
The positions for which they will run include presidents and members of provincial and tambon administrative organisations.