Skirmish caps a dramatic day that also saw clashes on the street
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(BANGKOK) Flight operations at Thailand's main international airport were disrupted last night after hundreds of anti-government protesters stormed the terminal building.
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| Big standoff: Police standing guard as anti-government protesters block the main road at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport last night |
'We have ordered the closure of the airport because PAD supporters have come inside the airport, breaching international safety rules,' an airport spokeswoman told Reuters.
Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) broke through police lines and began roaming through the new, sprawling US$4 billion Suvarnabhumi international airport terminal, near Bangkok, as startled tourists looked on.
The terminal invasion capped a dramatic day that also saw PAD protesters firing on pro-government supporters on a major road leading to the old airport to the north of the city.
Footage aired by public broadcaster TPBS showed at least two PAD security guards firing half a dozen rounds from handguns. The PAD said they were attacked first with planks and stones. At least 11 people were hurt, a city emergency services official said.
There were chaotic scenes at Suvarnabhumi, gateway for the 13 million tourists who visit every year, when protesters broke through lines of hundreds of shield-toting riot police.
Thailand's government called on the military to help restore order at the airport after demonstrators stormed into the main terminal.
'We are using non-violent measures but we may further step up our actions later,' government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar said yesterday.
Earlier, thousands of PAD members waved plastic hand-clappers, flags and portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, while others slung razor wire across the four-lane access road.
'Our goal is to shut down Suvarnabhumi airport until Somchai quits,' PAD spokesman Parnthep Pourpongpan said of the protest, aimed at Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who returns today from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru. He would not land at Suvarnabhumi, a spokesman said.
The airport siege, one of the PAD's most disruptive acts in its six-month campaign, could undermine public support for a movement that appears to be going to ever greater extremes to provoke a violent government backlash.
'It is time to make a clear-cut choice between good and evil, between those who are loyal and traitors,' PAD leader Somsak Kosaisuk told supporters at a rally earlier in the day.
Mr Somchai has rejected repeated PAD demands that he resign because of allegations he is a puppet of his brother-in-law, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as leader in a 2006 coup.
Even though a nationwide strike failed to materialise, the airport unrest could deepen the economic impact of a crisis that has stymied government decision-making and raised fears about the export-driven economy's ability to cope with a global slump.
The government forecast this week that the economy would grow just 4.5 per cent this year, its slowest rate in seven years.
However, Thai shares and the baht shrugged off the protests, with the main stock index up 1.5 per cent as Asian bourses rose after the US bailout of Citigroup.
Opinion polls show waning public support for the PAD, an unelected coalition of royalist businessmen, academics and activists.
Some analysts say its powerful backers in the Bangkok establishment, including Queen Sirikit, are getting cold feet about the damage the political strife is inflicting on the economy.
'The people who've been backing PAD in the background have got frightened that it's getting out of control. It's a threat to public order and even the structure of the state itself,' historian and political analyst Chris Baker said.
Despite his ties to Thaksin, Mr Somchai's bland, inoffensive personality has proved a hard target.
Army chief Anupong Paochinda reiterated yesterday that a putsch would do nothing to resolve the fundamental political rifts. -- Reuters, Bloomberg
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