A giant cut-out of Bush in a Superman outfit featuring a dollar sign and holding a missile (AFP)

BANGKOK, October 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Hundreds of Thais and representatives of NGOs took to the street in Bangkok Sunday, October 19, to protest the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush, who began the third leg of his six-nation swing at which he tries to gather support for the American policies and his “war on terrorism” in the Middle and Far East.

The demonstrators further protested Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's deployment of several hundred Thai troops to Iraq and his intention to launch free-trade negotiations with Washington, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Arrest world criminal George Bush" and "Bush is the real world terrorist", read slogans printed and emblazoned on T-shirts and banners carried by the protesters, who marched from a university campus to the city's downtown area, while being closely watched by scores of uniformed and plainclothes police.

"By insisting on staging today's protest we have retrieved our Thai people's dignity and reaffirmed our right to protest although the government tried to intimidate us," organizer Giles Ungpakorn told the crowd.

"We have to go ahead and question Thaksin's government about what it will secretly give the United States in terms of military and economics," he said at the rally which represented an alliance of 10 NGOs.

One demonstrator rode a motorcycle with a shield bearing an image of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who has eluded U.S. capture so far and warned in new audiotapes of further attacks on the United States, while a giant cut-out of Bush in a Superman outfit featuring a dollar sign and holding a missile towered over the crowd.

Other activists wore white skull masks splattered with fake blood, and draped themselves in black robes.

A Thai student holds an anti-Bush placard (AFP)

The marchers also made their way to a shopping district where they delivered speeches railing against the U.S. occupation of Iraq while others burned joss sticks in front of an image of Bush in a ritual normally used to drive away evil spirits.

The anti-U.S. march came hard on the heels of a similar one in Manila Saturday, October 18, where several thousand anti-U.S. protesters burned dozens of U.S. flags and attempted to march on the legislature where Bush was giving an address.

During his visit to this southeastern Asian country, Bush and 20 other world leaders, including China's Hu Jintao and Russia's Vladimir Putin, will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit Monday, October 20.

Thailand is regarded as Washington's closest ally in the Asian continent and a strong advocate by the so-called U.S. global war on terror, especially after Thai police had captured the alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings, Riduan Isamuddin (alias Hambali).