Thaksin returns to Thailand to cheers

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"If we find they are trying to intervene in the judicial process directly or indirectly, we will not sit idly by."

TEARS, CHEERS, FEARS

Thaksin, the first elected Thai prime minister to complete a full term in office in 75 years of on-off democracy, said he would not meddle in politics even though the administration elected in December is run by his close supporters.

"I'll just voice concerns as a former prime minister, if I were to have any," he said.

Few Thais believe him - or want to believe him, despite him being banned from politics for five years after the coup for electoral fraud.

It was the support for Thaksin in the countryside and among urban workers that carried the People Power Party led by Samak Sundaravej to near an overall majority in December. Voters expect and want Thaksin to be the man making decisions.

"I love him so much," said 65-year-old Wilai Scott, who is married to a foreigner. "I want Thaksin to be PM again."

In a sign of widespread support among Bangkok's rank and file, Wilai said the taxi driver taking her to the airport to greet Thaksin refused to accept a fare.

"He has to be PM again. It's been very bad for us. No jobs, more crime. Nothing good came from the coup," said Suwan Chaisang, a 43-year-old rice farmer from Nakhon Pathom just north of Bangkok who waited for Thaksin since before dawn.

Even though his return appears to have been negotiated carefully, it represents a defeat, possibly temporary, for the military and royalist establishment who sought to erase Thaksin from the political map.

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