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PAD force the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport - Coffee Break - 11-26-2008 12:20 PM
PAD force the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport
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RAMPAGING anti-government protesters forced the closure of Thailand's main international airport today as a second day of demonstrations in Bangkok descended into violence with 11 injured in clashes.
Thousands of supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) breached police lines and stormed Suvarnabhumi Airport, a key Asian transport hub, in their effort to pressure the premier to resign.
"I decided to shut down services after the protesters broke the door on the fourth floor of the terminal and stormed into the departure lounge. I had no alternative," airport director Saereerat Prasutanont said.
Flights into Suvarnabhumi - a key Southeast Asian hub for millions of travellers and tourists - will be diverted to the northern city of Chiang Mai or the southern island of Phuket, a spokeswoman said.
Hours earlier, a clash erupted on a road to another, disused air terminal where thousands of activists behind a six-month campaign to topple the government have besieged the makeshift base of premier Somchai Wongsawat.
A nurse at the Paolo Memorial Hospital near where the clashes happened said they were treating 10 men and one woman who sustained injuries in the incident.
A senior Metropolitan police officer said that the wounded were pro-government supporters, eight of whom were shot by members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) anti-government group.
"One of them is in a critical condition as he was shot in the chest," he said.
Television footage showed two men wearing yellow armbands over camouflage jackets firing pistols. Opposing groups, including some wearing red shirts of the pro-government camp, hurled stones at each other beneath a Bangkok flyover.
PAD protesters drape themselves in yellow shirts and headbands to symbolise their loyalty to Thailand's revered monarchy.
The airport closure and clashes came a day after protests by the PAD - a loose coalition comprising royalists, Bangkok's old elite and the middle class - forced the cancellation of a parliamentary joint sitting yesterday.
The alliance has said it was in a "final battle" against the government elected in December, which it accuses of being a corrupt puppet of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Riot police have largely refused to tackle protesters amid fears of a repeat of clashes between protesters and police on October 7 that left two people dead and 500 injured, the worst political violence in Thailand for 16 years.
"The PAD needs to increase the level of the demonstration and use non-violent protest and close Suvarnabhumi Airport to send a final word... to Somchai and his cabinet," the group said.
"Resign immediately and without conditions."
Somchai, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law, has rejected calls to quit.
"Anyone who wants to overthrow or resist the government is attempting a rebellion," Somchai told the Thai National News Agency on board a flight from an APEC summit in Peru.
Somchai's plane had already been diverted from the main airport and will land at an undisclosed location on tonight.
Yesterday about 10,000 protesters surrounded Bangkok's old Don Mueang international airport where Somchai is temporarily based.
Protesters have occupied the prime minister's official office in Bangkok since August.
The PAD, which launched huge street protests in 2006 that led to the Thaksin coup, called this week's rallies in response to a grenade attack on Thursday that killed one protester.
Hundreds of PAD supporters also went to Thai military headquarters, but army chief General Anupong Paojinda dismissed their calls for the army to step in.
"The armed forces have agreed that a coup cannot solve our country's problems and we will try to weather the current situation and pass this critical time," Gen Anupong said.
Billionaire Thaksin fled Thailand in August this year to avoid corruption charges, but has said in an interview that he wants to return.
"With me at the helm I can bring confidence quickly back to Thailand," he told Arabian Business magazine in an interview published on Sunday on its website.
News.com.au
RE: PAD force the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport - Coffee Break - 11-26-2008 12:48 PM
Angry Tourists stranded after Thailand airport riot
THAI protesters today tightened their grip on Bangkok's international airport, where two people were hurt in a blast and thousands of travellers left stranded by anti-Government demonstrations.
Grenade attacks elsewhere in the city deepened the sense of lawlessness after demonstrators stormed the showpiece airport yesterday night, dramatically escalating their campaign against Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
Suvarnabhumi Airport – a $US3bn ($4.61bn) hub for travel throughout Asia – was shut for the rest of the day as guards from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement blocked access roads.
"I have been informed by Thai Airways that 3000 passengers are stranded at the terminal now," airport director Saereerat Prasutanont told said, adding that 78 outbound and incoming flights were cancelled.
"Protesters refused to negotiate with anyone except the prime minister."
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has warned Australians in Thailand to exercise a high degree of caution, saying there is a "high threat" of a terrorist attack amid the escalating political crisis.
The US embassy in Bangkok told its nationals to stay away from the airport, while DFAT says on its website that Australians should check with their airline on the status of their flight, and the situation at the airport, before travelling to Suvarnabhumi.
Angry travellers who spent the night sleeping on baggage carousels and at check-in desks complained that they had nothing to eat or drink since the protesters burst into the two-year-old terminal.
"It's not fair," said Vanessa Sloan, 31, from Florida, who was supposed to fly to the northern city of Chiang Mai on Wednesday.
"We spent the night here after all the check-in staff ran away. No one is here to help."
"We all came to Thailand because we love Thailand but this has left a very bad feeling," British retiree Jean McCartan said.
Some PAD supporters later handed out sandwiches, biscuits and drinks.
Authorities began evacuating passengers on buses on Wednesday, but there were no announcements and a queue of about 1000 people soon streamed up escalators as the vehicles trickled in one at a time, witnesses said.
The protesters said that they would occupy the airport until Mr Somchai quit, adding that any airlines hoping to fly in our out had to seek their permission.
A sea of about 8000 demonstrators, wearing yellow clothes in a traditional symbol of loyalty to the revered monarchy, cheered on PAD leaders who gave speeches from a stage set up in the taxi drop-off area.
Control tower officials were sent home and authorities said the airport would remain closed until the end of the day at the earliest.
Authorities denied reports that protesters had seized the tower.
The PAD – a loose coalition comprising royalists, Bangkok's old elite and the middle class – is spreading chaos ahead of the Prime Minister's return from a foreign trip this evening.
The alliance launched its campaign in May, accusing Somchai's Government of being a corrupt puppet of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 coup and remains in exile to avoid corruption charges.
Support for PAD rallies has dropped in recent weeks, but its seizure of the airport leaves the Government in a dilemma.
If it fails to act, Thailand's tourism industry and economy will be further hit, risking the possibility of another military putsch to prevent further chaos.
But the Government will also want to avoid a repeat of clashes between protesters and police on October 7 that left two people dead and nearly 500 injured.
The Thai Government said it had asked the security forces for assistance and refused to rule out the possibility of emergency action.
The Government has been effectively paralysed since protesters occupied the Prime Minister's offices in central Bangkok in August, forcing Mr Somchai to work from makeshift premises at Bangkok's old Don Mueang airport.
A grenade attack on demonstrators at Don Mueang wounded two people early today, emergency services said.
A near simultaneous blast at Suvarnabhumi left another two protesters injured.
Three more were hurt when two grenades were tossed into a crowd of pro-government supporters on a road to Don Mueang, the site of a clash between rival activists that left 11 hurt on Tuesday, police said.
Mr Somchai has rejected calls to quit. His plane back from the APEC summit in Peru was due to land at an undisclosed location this evening.
News.com.au
RE: PAD force the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport - Coffee Break - 11-26-2008 12:52 PM
PAD to block U-Tapao airport
The People's Alliance for Democracy will mobilise its supportesr in eastern provinces to rally at the U-Tapao airport in anticipation that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will land at the airport at 5 pm Wednesday.
A PAD leader announced at the rally site in Government House that protesters would urgently gather at the U-Tapao to try to block Somchai from leaving the airport if he lands there.
The Nation
RE: PAD force the closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport - Coffee Break - 11-26-2008 12:55 PM
PAD sieze control of the control tower
The control tower at Suvarnabhumi airport has been taken over by PAD's protestors to ensure that all flights from and to this international airport are cancelled. They also want to monitor PM Somchai Wongsawat's flight path upon entering Thai airspace to trace where his plane will land this evening. It has been speculated that his flight will either land in Chiang Mai or U-tapao. The premier has been quoted as saying that he will disembark wherever his plane takes him.
Hundreds of thousands of passengers have been stranded at the airport. All flights have been cancelled as of 9.00 last night. Army Chief Gen Anupong Paochinda, in his capacity as chairman of the Situation Monitoring Committee, called a meeting of all heads of government departments, presidents of chambers of commerce,industry and banking -- as well as rectors of all universities -- in an unprecedented brainstorming session at the Army Headquarters beginning at 2.00 pm today "to find ways to put an end to the current situation."
The Nation