Thai Premier will not resign - Scene set for Bangkok showdown at Andrew Drummond

Coverage by this author on the Bangkok airport protests

Thai Premier will not resign. Scene set for confrontation in Bangkok
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
November 26
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat tonight refused to step down saying ‘I have done nothing wrong’ and left it to police to deal with the yellow shirted protesters who have seized the country’s international airport.
Shortly after his return to Thailand from Peru to be greeted by red-shirted pro-government supporters in the northern capital of Chiang Mai, he immediately declined an invitation to resign made earlier in the day by Thai army chief General Anupong Paochinda.
His dry-mouthed 20 minute speech, which included a list of good things his government had done for the country, did little to allay fears that the long running dispute, involving thousands of tourists, would deteriorate rapidly.
And it immediately spelt bad news for thousands of tourists, soon to become tens of thousands, trapped in the country, on the closure of the world’s 18th busiest airport and at the beginning of the country’s tourism peak.
Among those trapped are hundreds of Britons, who are now being housed in hotels in Bangkok and on Thailand’s eastern seaboard. This number could rocket by a 1000 a day.
And last night there were real fears that a violent clash was imminent.
Earlier in the day General Anuporn Paochinda announced at a press conference that that best course of action to solve the dispute would be for the government to dissolve parliament and call new elections. Demonstrators of the PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy) should also relinquish their control of Bangkok International Airport , he said.
“I do not want to put pressure on the government,” he added.
Last night at Suvarnabhumi airport yellow shirted anti-government protesters jeered the speech by, the brother-in-law of ousted Prime Thaksin Shinawatra, and looked to all purposes as if they had dug in for a fight to the end.
A police operation to move thousands of them from the country’s new showcase international airport could cost millions of dollars and cause massive collateral damage.
After a night and day in which four bombs were set off , then tourists witnessed running fights at the airport, while outside anti-government shot at supporters of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s army chief General Anupong presented a possible solution which had been decided by an army monitoring panel, the General said.
Just hours before the General’s pronouncement, some 3,000 tourists trapped inside Suvarnabhumi airport were evacuated and taken on buses to hotels in Bangkok and the surrounding area, but some as far away as the resort of Pattaya 100 miles away. They were not told in advance where they were being taken, but assured that they would be found rooms.
Then the Airports Authority of Thailand began evacuating their own staff. Currently thousands of supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy are staying put and several tons of water and foodstuffs has been brought in.
Early yesterday several flights managed to land and take off from Suvarnabhumi before the airport was completely closed at 4.am. One of those was the British Airways Sydney-London flight, which had been diverted to Singapore.
On that flight was Geraldine an Investment Consultant from London who said: “I was amazed. People played down the troubles so much that all I expected was a couple of old men waving a stick. It was a shock to arrive to see thousands upon thousands of demonstrators.”
No sooner had the British Airways flight departed than bombs went off in several places, one outside Suvarnabhumi airport, one outside the former international airport at Don Muang, where the Thai Cabinet has been meeting since being ousted from Government House, and two in Bangkok city.
Some 18 people were injured but this fortunately there were no fatalities.
Overnight some 3,000 people slept over inside the airport’s departure and arrival halls: many making beds out of luggage trays.
Peter Pomfret, from Ealing, said: “All in all it was a good natured evening but not something I would like to repeat. I guess they know what they are protesting about.”
And in the morning an almost carnival atmosphere dominated the departure halls. Scores of PAD protesters wearing yellow shirts and ‘We Love the King’ baseball caps, weaved among the tourists distributing food,( rice, omelettes, soya bean milk) and water.
They also distributed leaflets apologising for the inconvenience to foreigners. ‘We’re sorry. We just need to bring down this corrupt government,” read one.
Tourists were told that the protesters planned only to be at the airport for one day
Said Don Lancaster, 63, from Clitheroe, Lancashire: “Its all been very pleasant, well for a protest that is. They have given me food, explained what they are complaining about, and even given me a plastic handclapper. They told me to clap it if I ever had any problems. Can’t get nicer than that.
“But this is no place for families. I have seen some families here with young children and they are getting pretty desperate. The worst thing of all is that nobody, no authorities, no airlines, has been telling us what is going on.”
John Taylor, 44, from Southampton, stuck with his wife and daughter said: “They have asked us to be patient. But how patient can you be with a two year old girl in tow. These people are causing real hurt. I don’t care what they are protesting about. Why take it out on us.”
PAD demonstrators who want an end to the current government led by Somchai Wongsawat, brother-in-law of disgraced former P.M. Thaksin Shinawatra, still a very popular figure among the rural poor, looked last night like they were prepared for a long siege, even though they claimed they just wanted to ‘greet’, or rather protest when Somchai returned from an Asia Pacific summit in Peru.
If they do not withdraw however, said General Anupong, they could be subject to ‘social action’ – and for that many people are reading military force.
Anupong has repeatedly said he will not initiate a coup against the current Thai government which was elected democratically and mainly on the vote of the rural poor.
But he is believed to be widely critical of a government which seems to be unable to come to any decision and has to meet in secret and now in Chiang Mai for fear of a PAD blockade.

Andrew Drummond

Thai Premier will not resign - Scene set for Bangkok showdown

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