The Red Shirts are showing slightly more adaptability as UDD leader, Veera Musikhapong, stated that he was still prepared to negotiate, although no timeframe has been arranged. The Reds are, however, still going to go ahead with another mass rally tomorrow, Saturday, that Thaksin has urged as many of his supporters to attend as possible, which some predict could become violent; a scenario which would make further negotiations totally unacceptable, according to government negotiator, Korbsak Sabhavasu, who says the government will not be intimidated.

April 2, 2010, [PDN]: despite the Red Shirt’s offer to continue negotiations, Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva is insistent that the government will not respond to pressurization and his negotiator Korbsak Sabhavasu, stated categorically that no negotiations will occur if the Red Shirts go ahead with their Saturday rally, which could last three days and be attended by an estimated 90,000 demonstrators. 40 Senators have now joined the fray, criticizing the UDD’s decision to hold yet another rally, predicting it could well turn violent with bomb attacks on the protestors, as well as one such, Prasarn Marukpitak stating “The objective of the rally goes beyond a House dissolution. The rally will end in mayhem, with the aim of bringing back ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,” the Bangkok Post reported. The Dean of the Political Science Faculty of Chulalongkorn University, Jaras Suwanmala, supported this view, saying the rally could invite bomb attacks. This violence could even extend to the university itself as The “People Who Love Peace” group had intended to mount a counter-protest against the Reds at Chulalongkorn University, but backed down in the face of attracting Red retaliation, as the Reds had threatened to hold their own rally there, demanding the same right to protest as the peace-lovers.  To prevent any such confrontation, the university has decided to close its campus until Sunday.

A group of 10 academics and medical personnel from Chulalongkorn University and Ramathibodi Hospital to went to meet the prime minister at 8am, yesterday, April 1, to pledge their support for the premier. This is in contrast to a group of academics from Thammasat University and other international universities in secondment who petitioned both the Red Shirt leadership and Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, saying their confrontation “ has exacerbated deep-rooted social and political tensions. It is leading all of us to yet another deadlock. … We, the undersigned academics, are profoundly concerned with the deadlock. …. we cannot ignore the presence of agents provocateur and “invisible hands” who may find an opportunity to panic the government and encourage it suppress the UDD’s huge political mobilization.

Their petition makes three proposals:

1. The Government should announce that it will dissolve Parliament within three months. The Government should not treat the dissolution as a defeat. It is indeed the best available way to defuse the escalating violence. Most importantly, to dissolve parliament is to hand power back to the people in a time of political deadlock. The UDD should refrain from demanding the immediate dissolution of Parliament and give the Government a grace period of time to arrange the framework for elections and to implement urgent policies.

2. The Government and UDD leaders should sincerely endeavor to ‘dialogue’ with each other. The term “dialogue” should not be used simply to justify one’s cause. Serious dialogue means discussion of the rules that are required for fair and free elections without any intimidation on the part of either side.

3. Whatever the outcome of the elections, all parties involved should accept it, and sincerely promise not to carry out any extra-parliamentary actions to undermine their opponents.

Meanwhile, it looks certain that Thaksin’s frozen assets will finally be ‘appropriated’ by the government as the Office of the Attorney-General approved the Finance Ministry’s order for commercial banks to transfer his funds to the state treasury. A move which prompted Thaksin’s lawyers to seek a court injunction to prevent the transfer.

The Red Shirts have scored yet another negative point against themselves according to medics, with doctors maintaining the blood sacrifices of two weeks ago contained substantial amounts of pigs’ blood, as well as being contaminated with HIV and hepatitis. In response, UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan said the test results were unreliable and he believed the doctors’ announcement was aimed at demeaning the Reds. Another Red leader, Weng Tojirakarn, maintained the  blood been washed down sewers immediately after the Red Shirts had quit the scene. Jatuporn threatened to retaliate against the main tester, saying  ”This group of doctors is a servant of the government. Claiming that our blood is tainted with diseases and animal blood is an insult. We will track him [Dr Kusol] down and tell him that he should not abuse the medical profession to destroy the people’s movement.”