There are hundreds of tourists stranded here

Thousands or tens of thousands.

There are indeed rumors that the airport jam will be used as a pretext for a military coup. I am wondering what will/might happen to orchestrate this - i.e. how does the US foreign policy apparatus handle the backchannel maneuvers to help put them in, or stave it off?

IIRC the last yellow revolution thing was backed by the United States. Is this the kind of thing that gets outsourced thru contractors now? (I liked how "Quantum of Solace" used these themes, though it wasn't a terribly awesome movie all around)

--
Hongpong.com

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:04:00 11/29/2008

BANGKOK, Thailand—Protesters laying siege to Bangkok’s two main airports have agreed to hold formal talks today with Thai authorities following initial contacts, a police commander said.

Hundreds of police had also moved into position outside Suvarnabhumi international airport but it was “not for a crackdown,” regional police deputy commander Maj. Gen. Piya Sorntrakoon said yesterday.

Embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat imposed a state of emergency around the airports on Thursday night and ordered the facilities cleared of protesters but security forces feared a raid could spark a bloody confrontation.

Leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which have refused to end their siege of the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports, agreed to talks tomorrow after officials said earlier that initial overtures had been conducted over the telephone.

The talks would involve the governor of Samut Prakarn province where Suvarnabhumi is located, a representative of Airports of Thailand, the chairman of the national Human Rights Commission and the media.

‘Fight to the death’

A PAD leader earlier said that demonstrators would “fight to the death” against any attempt to evict them from either airport.

The protesters are calling for the resignation of the government elected in December, saying it is a corrupt proxy for former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.

Thailand’s powerful Army chief on Wednesday urged Somchai to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections but the premier refused, deepening fears of a bloody end to the airport siege.

Airlines began flying stranded air travelers out from a naval base yesterday, but tens of thousands of passengers are believed to have missed flights after four days of unrest that have badly hit Thailand’s tourist industry.

The protesters braced for an assault overnight yesterday, extending razor wire cordons to about three kilometers around the flagship Suvarnabhumi international airport and blocking access roads, witnesses said.

“We are not afraid. We will fight to the death, we will not surrender and we are ready,” one of the main protest leaders, Somsak Kosaisuk, told a crowd of supporters at Don Muang.

Police say around 4,000 protesters from the PAD—a movement backed by elements of the Palace, the Army and Thailand’s Bangkok-based elite—are occupying Suvarnabhumi for a fourth day.

Another 2,500 are at Don Muang, where the Cabinet’s temporary offices have been located since protesters seized their headquarters at Government House in Bangkok in August, calling for the government to resign.

The airport blockades are the latest twist in the PAD’s six-month campaign to unseat an elected government it accuses of being a puppet of Thaksin.

Somchai, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, has refused to quit, but policymaking has been paralyzed, intensifying concerns about the export-driven economy’s ability to cope with a global recession.

Somchai’s attempts to assert his authority by declaring emergency rule and authorizing action to clear the airports were apparently undermined by the police announcement of further talks with the protesters.

Gentle way

“We will use the gentle way first. The priority is to negotiate and not crack down immediately—we are all Thais,” said Piya.

Late Friday, Somchai’s office announced the dismissal of the national police chief, police Gen. Patcharawat Wongsuwan.

The statement did not give a reason for the dismissal, saying only that the country’s top policeman had been “ordered ... to move to the prime minister’s office.”

Police Maj. Gen. Prateep Tanprasert, the inspector general, has been appointed acting national police chief.

The Army has already said it is opposed to the use of force against the protesters, stoking tensions between the government and the military in a nation that has seen 18 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

The PAD has vowed not to quit until Somchai resigns, alleging that its arch-foe, exiled former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, is the puppet master behind the government elected in December.

The military denied rumors on Thursday that it was planning to launch a similar putsch, following reports that Somchai was about to sack the powerful Army chief Anupong Paochinda for calling for the dissolution of the government and holding new elections.

Yet in a further sign of the civilian-military rift, government spokesperson Suparat Nakbunnam said Somchai would remain in Chiang Mai “indefinitely ... for his safety.”

Possible scenarios

The following scenarios examine what might happen next:

Negotiate a way out. Police began talks with PAD leaders yesterday to try to end the sit-ins peacefully. Whether the PAD will take these negotiations seriously is doubtful.

Their leaders have said previously that Somchai must resign before any serious talks can begin. The PAD’s intention is to trigger a military coup and anarchy is its main weapon.

Police storm airports. Police have gone out of their way to avoid a fight with the PAD this week, mindful of the hundreds injured in last month’s clashes outside parliament.

Evicting the protesters by force is the “last step,” a police negotiator said yesterday. It would probably be bloody.

PAD “security guards,” armed with clubs, scythes and golf clubs, are dug in behind barricades of fire trucks, luggage trolleys and razor wire.

PAD leaders deny their members are armed, but television footage of two PAD militants firing pistols at government supporters this week suggests otherwise.

PAD backs down. The PAD has never backed down in its six-month campaign, which has seen the movement occupy Government House since August, disrupt parliamentary sessions at will, and defy court orders.

But the movement’s backers may be getting nervous.

“The longer this crisis goes on, the more exposed and compromised the PAD’s backers have become. And the PAD is continually dragging them down to the cut-and-thrust of Thai politics to their own detriment,” analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University, wrote this week.

The PAD, an alliance of businessmen, academics and activists, says it gets 1 million baht ($28,000) a day in support from the public.

Analysts suspect it is also bankrolled by anti-Thaksin business interests, parts of the Army and Palace figures.

Military coup. It’s never wise to rule out a coup in a country that has had, on average, one successful or attempted putsch every four years since the end of absolute monarchy 76 years ago.

Army chief Anupong Paochinda again suggested Somchai should quit this week, but insisted he was not putting pressure on the prime minister.

Anupong has repeatedly said he will not seize control, and the Army could face a violent backlash from supporters of the elected administration. But some top-ranking officers do not agree with Anupong, as shown by the coup rumors swirling in Bangkok on Thursday.

King intervenes. Regarded as semi-divine by many, King Bhumibol Adulyadej carries huge informal political clout and in six decades on the throne has intervened in several disputes, favoring both elected and military administrations.

However, the 80-year-old king has stepped in previously only after major bloodshed, and his advancing years and deteriorating health raise doubts about his ability to calm any new outburst.

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xlink: http://agonist.org/20081120/bangkok_dangerous_bombs_sleaze_paralysis

• Firing prompted by failure to evict airport protesters
• Stranded travellers flown home from naval airbase

* Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday November 29 2008 00.01 GMT
* The Guardian, Saturday November 29 2008
* Article history

The Thai prime minister sacked the country's police chief last night after security forces failed to evict anti-government demonstrators from Bangkok's two airports, leaving the country all but cut off and thousands of overseas travellers stranded.

Somchai Wongsawat's decision to remove police general Pacharawat Wongsuwan was another sign of the deepening tensions between the government and the security forces that have raised fears of another coup.

But as the airport demonstrators were given an ultimatum to leave, riot police were seen gathering at Suvarnabhumi international, suggesting that they were preparing to clear the terminal, which had been shut down for a fourth day.

In a move to rescue thousands of travellers stranded by the closures, passengers were being bussed from the nearby resort town of Pattaya to the Vietnam war-era naval airbase of U-Tapao, south of Bangkok, where 60 flights departed yesterday.

Several Asian airlines were planning further flights today to rescue staff and passengers.

The Thai tourist authority hoped the aircraft might also bring in new arrivals for the start of the tourist high season, though the capacity of U-Tapao will be a fraction of that of the main airports.

The removal of the police chief "as a result of his performance during this crisis" suggested that the four-day standoff between the government and protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) might be moving towards a conclusion.

As darkness fell last night PAD "guards" clad in hardhats and goggles brandishing iron bars, continued to man a razor-wire barricade checkpoint on the five-lane airport approach road. Just a few hundred metres away 200 police with batons and shields gathered and scores of ambulances were lined up, suggesting the security forces were preparing an assault that might turn bloody

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Thailand's middle classes lead unlikely protest - against democracy

Thomas Bell | Bangkok | Oct 12

Telegraph.uk - With the scent of police teargas in his nostrils and screams of protest ringing in his ears, Thailand's embattled prime minister Somchai Wongsawat fled the building, vaulted over a fence and clambered into a waiting helicopter to escape the crowds who had besieged all four exits.

Yet while it might have evoked memories of the fall of Saigon in 1975, last week's violent protest in Bangkok was not the dawn of a new order, but an attempt to restore an old one. Welcome to the Yellow Revolution - where the chosen hue represents the colours of the Thai king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, and where the clamor is for less democracy, not more.

"We cannot accept this robber government, we want to protect this nation and royalty. This government is cheating everything from this land, and they want to destroy the monarchy," said Praek, a computer technician stood among the sea of yellow-clad demonstrators outside the parliament.

"We want a new politics, with some leaders appointed, and some from the people, because these politicians buy the vote." much more

Tina October 12, 2008 - 7:11am

Thai airport protesters defy order to leave, face off with police

The PAD, a loose coalition with the backing of elements in the military, the palace and the urban middle classes, began its campaign in late May.

Protests have steadily escalated, with the PAD seizing Government House in late August. On October 7, two protesters were killed and 500 people injured as PAD supporters and police clashed outside parliament.

The leaders called for a "final battle" against the government on Sunday and have since caused the biggest disruption since the anti-Thaksin coup, although their airport-blocking tactics have alienated some supporters.

Government spokesman Suparat Nakbunnam has said Somchai will remain in the northern city of Chiang Mai indefinitely, a pro-government stronghold, "as there are still uncertainties in the tensions between the government and army."

however yellow and a smile will get you past the security and into the airport

Grenade thrown at Bangkok market protest wounds 16

BANGKOK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A grenade thrown at a rally of Thai vendors protesting at a Bangkok street market wounded 16 people, police said on Saturday.

It was the second bomb attack this month at the Klongtoey market and was not linked to anti-government protests elsewhere in the Thai capital, police said.

The last incident on Nov. 13 wounded 13 people.

Police said the grenade was thrown after 7 p.m. from a flyover above the rally site near Bangkok's main port. Some 300 hawkers and stall owners had gathered there to oppose a plan by landowners to redevelop the area.

"They are trying to evict us from this area," said street vendor Somsak Yoopiam, 46. "I was addressing the rally when a big bang sent dozens of people sprawling to the ground."

Saturday, 29 November 2008, 3:12 pm
Article: Richard S. Ehrlich

http://www.scoop.co.nz/news/scoops.html
by Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Travelers, businessmen and reporters, unable to fly through Bangkok's barricaded airports, were telling the world on Friday about dysfunctional Thailand, including a prediction that Al Qaeda terrorists will be delighted to learn how easy it is to seize two major airports.

Other travelers were desperately plotting escape routes from this Southeast Asian nation, which offers easy overland border crossings into Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia, where international flights are available.

"Al Qaeda must be salivating in delight, knowing that with a little will power, they can take over an airport quite easily and nobody will do anything," the scornful yet well-connected Thailand Jumped the Shark blog said on Friday.

"Shouldn't every major airport, and airline, in the world have a contingency plan for a hostile takeover of an airport?"

The protesters "could take hostages," but Thai security forces failed to prevent the massive glass-encased airport being seized.

Hundreds of shouting, stick-waving, anti-government protesters marched into Bangkok's expensive, sprawling, international airport on Tuesday.

Facing no resistance, the mob took over Bangkok's international airport while it was packed with thousands of international travelers.

Their control over Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and Bangkok's smaller mostly domestic Don Muang airport, "turns Thailand into a banana republic," Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk wrote in Friday's Nation, an English-language newspaper published in Bangkok.

Pravit's column was headlined "Held Hostage" because he was trapped in Seoul, South Korea, unable to fly here because his Cathay Pacific plane cancelled its Hong Kong to Bangkok route.

"I have wasted time and money" because of the airport siege, including "extra hotel bills, meals, work disruption. And I'm not alone."

Other newspapers, blogs and media echoed similar woes, plus harsh analysis of Thailand's paralysis.

Adding to the dangerous stalemate, Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat spent Friday self-exiled 350 miles north of Bangkok, hiding from Thailand's army.

The prime minister feared powerful Army Chief Gen Anupong Paojinda, or other army officers, might somehow neutralize him during a coup.

"Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will remain in Chiang Mai for the time being, as the army situation is unsettled," government deputy spokeswoman Suparat Nakbunnam told reporters on Friday.

"From now on, the prime minister's schedules will be confidential."

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