FLIGHTS out of Bangkok's international airport were halted yesterday, as anti-government protesters swarmed the terminal in an escalation of Thailand's long-running political crisis.
Outbound flights were suspended shortly before hundreds of demonstrators – some masked and armed with metal rods – broke through police lines.
Using lorries and cars, they also cut off road access to the airport, the transportation hub for million
s of tourists who visit the country each year.
The airport manager, Serirat Prasutanon, said they had tried to negotiate with the protesters, "but to no avail".
The airport siege followed a clash earlier in the evening between opponents and supporters of Thailand's government.
Members of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) were returning from a rally when government supporters threw stones at their lorry. PAD members responded by firing catapults and a half-dozen shots from two pistols, according to footage shown on Thai television.
The footage showed PAD supporters surrounding a motorcycle taxi driver and putting a knife to his throat.
After the driver fled, the protesters battered several motorbikes with steel rods and set fire to another one.
It was the second time in recent months that the two sides have fought and marks the first major violence since 7 October, when street battles with police and anti-government forces left two people dead and hundreds wounded.
Political tensions have been simmering since 2006, when a similar campaign against Thaksin Shinawatra, the then prime minister, led to him being deposed by a military coup.
Those tensions were fuelled further with the current effort to force Somchai Wongsawat, the current prime minister, to step down. Protesters accuse him of acting as a proxy for Mr Thaksin, who is his brother-in-law.
In a statement last night, the PAD demanded his resignation. It said: "The People's Alliance for Democracy is left with no choice but to step up its peaceful rally by blocking off access to Suvarnabhumi Airport. This is considered to be an ultimatum for Somchai Wongsawat and the cabinet to resign immediately and without any condition."
Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, said the airport would be shut down "until Somchai quits".
The siege of the airport was aimed at Mr Somchai, who is scheduled to return today from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru.
A government spokesman said the prime minister would now be landing at a military base, rather than Bangkok's international airport, "to avoid confrontation".
The deputy prime minister, Chauwarat Chanweerakul, said the government would refrain from using force to end the impasse. "They need to stop taking over important places like airports," he said. "We will try to negotiate with them to end this siege, because it is not acceptable. It is hurting the economy, and it is hurting the country badly."
BACKGROUNDONE of the central demands of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is more than a little undemocratic – it wants the direct appointment of a percentage of MPs, rather than their election.
Thailand's power dispute is essentially one between middle-class city folk and poorer rural dwellers, with the former backing the PAD and the latter the government – and, more specifically, the fallen Thaksin Shinawatra.
The PAD is very strongly monarchist, but after 16 months of unrest, even establishment supporters as high as Queen Sirikit, below, are finding it difficult to give their backing.
Embarrassingly, six PAD "guards" were arrested on Monday for hijacking a bus with a sawn-off shotgun.
Andrew Walker, of Australian National University, said: "There is every chance that, left to their own devices, the PAD will degenerate into a rather eccentric political cult with a bankrupt and self-absorbed leadership."
The full article contains 616 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
