Tensions ease in Thailand as police remove barriers

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Tensions eased in Thailand on Tuesday as police took down barricades in the capital and allowed anti-government demonstrators to enter the compounds of government buildings.

The Thai government said it had negotiated a truce with protesters for the next several days to honor the birthday of the country's deeply revered King. But the leader of the protests said the fight against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her exiled brother would continue.

Lt. Gen. Paradon Patthanathabut of the National Security Council said that thousands of protesters were allowed to enter the compound of Government House, the headquarters of Yingluck's administration and a key target of demonstrations in recent days.

Police also took down barriers in front of their metropolitan office Tuesday morning and allowed anti-government demonstrators to walk toward the buildingParadon said Tuesday that the government and protesters had "mutually agreed to back down for the sake of our great father, our King." The world's longest-serving monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand turns 86 on Thursday.

But Suthep Thaugsuban, who has led the demonstrations against Yingluck's government in pockets of central Bangkok in recent weeks, said the campaign wasn't over.

"We will continue fighting until Thaksin's regime is definitively wiped out," he said, referring to Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former Prime Minister and brother of Yingluck who is considered to retain considerable influence in Thailand.The protesters stated goal of ridding Thailand of the "Thaksin regime" appears ambitious. Parties affiliated with Thaksin, who built his political success on populist policies that appealed to Thailand's rural heartland, have won every election in the country since 2001.

Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006, and has spent most of the time since then in exile overseas. If he returns, he risks a two-year prison sentence on a corruption conviction, which he says was politically motivated.

The current protests in Bangkok were prompted by a botched attempt by Yingluck's government to pass an amnesty bill that would have opened the door for her brother's return.

That move added fuel for critics who accuse Yingluck of being nothing more than Thaksin's puppet, an allegation she has repeatedly denied.

The military -- which removed Thaksin amid protests in 2006 -- has remained on the sidelines of the current crisis. Yingluck said Monday that she believes the military is taking a neutral stance.