Thousands demonstrate outside Thai parliament

Around 2,000 Thai opposition supporters converged near parliament Wednesda to protest against a controversial amnesty bill for political violence in the divided nation. Hundreds of riot police carrying shields and batons barricaded the way to the parliament with concrete blocks and barbed wire, to prevent demonstrators reaching the building in the historic area of Bangkok. 

The government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been braced for the rally for  several days, raising worries over the potential for fresh unrest in the politically-turbulent country as parliament gears up to debate an amnesty bill Wednesday afternoon. 

Opposition Democrat lawmakers, including the former prime minister and current party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, led supporters to the barricades some 200 metres from the legislature gates in a tense stand-off with police over whether the rally would be let through. 

An AFP reporter at the scene saw three water cannon trucks and several large police vans behind the police lines.  ‘Why does this government want a whitewash for those who have violated human rights?’ Abhisit said to reporters as he marched.