Military coup looms as civil unrest paralyses Thailand

PRESSURE is building on Thailand's military to intervene in a political crisis threatening to descend into widespread civil unrest after prime minister Somchai Wongsawat last night rejected calls to quit.

Speaking on national television, Somchai said his government was democratically elected and would continue to work for the "good of the country" despite claims by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) he is a puppet of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Somchai's refusal to call a snap election, as army chief Anupong Paochinda said he should at an earlier news conference on Wednesday, intensified speculation of an imminent coup, despite Anupong's stated aversion to such a move.

One military source said army, navy and air force top brass were locked in talks late into the night, debating whether to launch a coup only two years after the removal of Thaksin.

Anupong has repeatedly said he will not take over, arguing the army is powerless to heal the fundamental political rifts between the Bangkok elite and middle classes who despise Thaksin, and the rural and urban poor who love him.

Somchai – Thaksin's brother-in-law – returned to Thailand from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru to find Bangkok's international airport shut down by a PAD siege and tension rising across the country.

In the northern city of Chiang Mai, a pro-government gang shot dead an anti-government activist after dragging him from his car, the first serious violence outside the capital, police said.

Anupong also told the PAD street movement to end its crippling siege of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, where all flights are cancelled, leaving thousands of tourists stranded.

A court issued an injunction telling the group to leave the airport, one of Asia's largest, although the PAD immediately said they would appeal against the order.

Suriyasai Katasila, a PAD spokesman, rejected Anupong's plan. "We won't pull out, we won't leave if Somchai does not quit," he told reporters.

Domestic flights out of Bangkok's old Don Muang airport were also grounded, all but severing air links with the outside world.

After masked PAD members stepped up their action by breaking into the control tower at Suvarnabhumi, a pro-government group said it would launch its own street action, raising the prospect of clashes. "What they have done are terrorist acts," Jatuporn Prompan, a ruling-party politician and leader of the anti-PAD Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD), told a news conference.

One senior DAAD source said the movement would consider any retreat by the government to be a military coup, and immediately launch a counter street offensive against the army.

"There will be war for sure," the source said.


Tourists trapped as airport becomes the centre of protests

THOUSANDS of bleary-eyed tourists mingled with yellow-clad protesters who brought flights to a halt at Bangkok's international airport yesterday, dealing a major blow to Thailand's tourism industry during its peak season.

Tourism, which makes up 6 per cent of the economy and employs about a million people, was already flagging after protesters in late August shut down airports serving popular beach resorts in Thailand's south.

With the latest unrest paralysing Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport – which handles about 40 million passengers a year – during the peak tourist season, and TV networks broadcasting images of the chaos worldwide, the damage this time is likely to be more severe.

"Our main concern is to get the first flight home and never come back," said Australian newlywed Robert Grieve, 32.

Inside the airport, exhausted travellers were sleeping everywhere: on their suitcases, on luggage carts, on security conveyer belts and behind vacated check-in counters.