ASIA: Thousands stranded as protesters seize Bangkok airport
26 Nov 2008 8:45 PM
EDS: Please note adds that authorities have denied reports protesters had seized the airport control tower
Thai protesters on Wednesday 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 on Tuesday night, dramatically escalating their campaign against Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
Suvarnabhumi Airport - a $US3 billion ($A4.61 billion) hub for travel throughout South-East 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 3,000 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," added British retiree Jean McCartan.
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 1,000 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 Somchai quit, adding that any airlines hoping to fly in our out had to seek their permission.
A sea of about 8,000 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 on Wednesday 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 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 Wednesday, 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.
Somchai has rejected calls to quit. His plane back from the APEC summit in Peru was due to land at an undisclosed location on Wednesday evening.
