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By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the Thai capital on Friday after lawmakers approved a draft political amnesty bill that could allow the return of self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, one of Thailand's most polarizing figures. The bill's opponents say it's a thinly veiled attempt by the ruling Puea Thai Party and its leader Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to whitewash the crimes of her billionaire brother, Thaksin, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2006 and has lived abroad since 2008 to escape corruption charges. Although it could be weeks before the bill becomes law, the protests in Bangkok by Thaksin's opponents, including royalist groups and members of the opposition Democrat Party, threaten to disturb months of relative calm in a country scarred by bloody unrest in 2010. "Thaksin would not brazenly push this amnesty bill without absolute certainty that it will pass and once that happens, tempers will flare among the anti-Thaksin camp," said Kan Yuenyong, a political analyst at the Siam Intelligence Unit think-tank.More...