Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has marked his 61st birthday with tweets calling for peace, one day after a bomb went off in central Bangkok leaving one person dead and 10 injured.”I am 61 today,” Thaksin tweeted from an undisclosed location yesterday, thanking his supporters for wishing him a happy birthday.

“I want to see good things happening to our country and am ready to cooperate with all sides to get to the nation love and peace.

“All people who love and mean well to me have to be patient despite the existence of injustice and cruelty now.

“Please do not resort to violence. I don’t like it. I disagree with it,” he said in his messages posted on twitter.com.

Thaksin’s supporters held birthday celebrations yesterday for him in several parts of the country.

In Chiang Mai, a group of opposition Puea Thai Party MPs led a Buddhist merit-making ritual at Wat Rongdhamma Samakki in San Kamphaeng district, where Thaksin was born. It was attended by a large crowd of supporters.

As part of the ritual, 3,000 hot-air balloons and toy balloons painted in the colours of the national flag were released into the sky.

Security forces observed the gathering as Chiang Mai is still under the emergency decree.

About 200 members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship held a merit-making ritual in Nakhon Ratchasima to wish Thaksin a happy birthday.

They said the ritual was also aimed at paying tribute to their companions who were killed in the anti-government rallies held in April and May.

Thepthai Senpong, the prime minister’s personal spokesman, urged Thaksin to “keep to his words and turn them into action”.

“[He is the sort of] person who says he wants to see love and peace in society yet continues to secretly support movements that widen the rift in society,” he said.

Mr Thepthai said Thaksin should order members of the Puea Thai Party and “hard-core” red shirt groups to refrain from triggering violence.

“Thaksin, who said he did not approve of violent approaches, should also show his supporters [how to avoid violence] as a way of proving himself to the public that he really means it,” the spokesman said.

News item courtesy of www.bangkokpost.com