Thousands of rival protesters rallied in Thailand's capital and at a border temple yesterday, sending tensions soaring on the third anniversary of a coup against former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
In Bangkok, the exiled Thaksin gave a live video speech to at least 26,000 'Red Shirt' protesters who took to the streets to demand new elections and the resignation of current prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Separately on the Cambodian border, dozens of people were wounded as protesters from the anti-Thaksin 'Yellow Shirt' movement clashed with police near an ancient temple at the centre of a dispute between the two countries.
The protests were the latest in the three years of political turmoil which has rocked Thailand since the September 19, 2006 coup against Thaksin. The twice-elected billionaire lives in exile to avoid a jail term for graft.
"Has anything got better in the last three years?" Thaksin, wearing a scarlet jacket and white shirt, asked supporters in a one-hour speech relayed on a giant screen outside the main government offices.
"I plead for national reconciliation. Our country has deteriorated and risks being a failed state. I have already forgiven everybody, let's start anew and decide in new elections.
"Nowadays I do my business to kill the time while waiting for the Red Shirts to bring me home."
Organisers said 100,000 people had gathered but police put the figure at 26,000.
After the speech, the crowd would move to the house of Prem Tinsulanonda, the top adviser to Thailand's king, organisers said. The Red Shirts accuse Prem of masterminding the coup.
Authorities deployed 9,000 soldiers and police and imposed draconian internal security regulations in the area, amid fears of a repeat of riots, by the same group in April, that left two people dead.
Abhisit said there were reports that unidentified groups of troublemakers could set off bombs in the capital to create unrest. "I am worried about the situation tonight and have warned intelligence agencies," he said.
On the border, around 5,000 Yellow Shirts broke through barricades and reached the foot of the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, the scene of several deadly battles between Thai and Cambodian troops in the past year.
The royalist Yellow Shirts - who occupied Bangkok's airports last year to help topple the previous pro-Thaksin government - want the government to push out Cambodian forces from disputed territory around the temple.
Stick-wielding protesters from the movement clashed repeatedly with riot police and with villagers who were trying to keep them out of the temple area, local television showed.
Dozens of people were wounded, with 20 people hospitalised including one villager who was shot in the neck, a provincial governor said.