BANGKOK —

Thailand’s main international airport canceled all flights Wednesday as protesters thronged the complex in efforts to bring down the government, stranding thousands of tourists and buffeting the country’s already-fragile tourism industry.
 
The airport takeover was one of the boldest gambles yet by the People’s Alliance for Democracy in its four-month campaign to topple Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, whom it accuses of being the puppet of a disgraced fugitive predecessor, billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.
 
Exhausted travelers were sleeping everywhere: on their suitcases, on luggage carts, on security conveyer belts, behind vacated check-in counters. Protesters dressed in yellow shirts walked around distributing food, ham sandwiches and packets of rice.
 
“We’d rather they just go home so we can go home,” said Kay Spitler, 58, from Glendale, Arizona.
 
For Cheryl Turner, 63, of Scottsdale, Arizona, the chaos had ruined her family’s plans for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.
 
“I was supposed to be cooking Thanksgiving tomorrow,” said Cheryl Turner, 63, from Scottsdale, Arizona. “My turkey is sitting in the sink at home.”
 
The alliance vowed to bring its campaign to a final showdown this week, and violence has spiked, including streets clashes between supporters and opponents of the government Tuesday that included the first open use of firearms by the anti-government protesters. Police said 11 government supporters were injured, some with gunshot wounds.
 
Early Wednesday, assailants threw four explosives at anti-government protesters, including one targeting a group about a 1 kilometer from Bangkok’s main international Suvarnabhumi Airport.
 
A second was tossed into a crowd of supporters gathered at the domestic Don Muang airport, injuring three others, police said. Two other explosives were thrown in Bangkok but no one was injured.
 
Demonstrators—some masked and armed with metal rods—swarmed the international airport overnight, breaking through police lines and spilling into the passenger terminal.
 
The airport was fully shut down early Wednesday, resulting in 292 flights being canceled and stranding thousands of passengers between 10 p.m. Tuesday night until Wednesday at 6 p.m.
 
Eighteen flights were diverted to Don Muang airport which normally handles domestic traffic and a dozen others were rerouted to U Taphao military airport about 190 kilometers east of Bangkok as well as Hong Kong and Singapore airports, airport officials said.
 
“We have to close the airport because of protesters blocked the entire airport,” airport director Serirat Prasutanont said. Serirat said.
 
“However, we are trying to negotiate them to allow outgoing passengers stranded by the protest to fly,” he said. “The incident has damaged Thailand’s reputation and its economy beyond repair.”
 
The alliance said the airport would be shut down until Somchai quits. The prime minister was scheduled to return late Wednesday from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru and would land at a military airport, officials said.
 
The protesters appeared intent on forcing the military to intervene and bring down the elected regime. Army commander Gen Anupong Paochinda has repeatedly ruled out a coup, though he has also said the army “will keep peace and order to protect the public and uphold important institutions like the monarchy.”
 
The alliance has staged a number of dramatic actions in recent months. It took over the prime minister’s office in late August and twice blockaded Parliament—one time setting off street battles with police that ended with two people dead and hundreds injured.
 
Support for the alliance has been waning in recent weeks, and the group appeared to be edging toward bigger confrontations—involving fewer though more aggressive followers—in hopes of creating chaos.
 
“Now, they are openly creating instability and provoking a military coup,” said Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
 
The airport blockade is a fresh blow to Thailand’s $16 billion a year tourism industry, already suffering from months of political unrest and the global financial crisis. Suvarnabhumi is the world’s 18th largest airport in passenger traffic, handling over 40 million passengers in 2007.
 
Stranded tourists at Suvarnabhumi complained of chaos, a lack of information and sleepless nights. Some slept behind closed check-in counters, as crowds formed around departure boards that listed all flights “canceled.”
 
An Australian couple was stranded at the airport since late Tuesday following two weeks on a beach on the resort island of Phuket for their honeymoon.
 
“Our main concern is to get the first flight home and never come back,” said newlywed Robert Grieve, 32, of Melbourne, drinking a can of Heineken as he leaned against a vacated Thai Airways check-in counter. “I haven’t even seen any staff since last night.”
 
The anti-government protesters are mostly better educated, more affluent, urban Thais demanding that the country move away from a Western-style electoral system, which they say Thaksin exploited to buy votes. They instead favor a system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups.
 
They are vastly outnumbered by Thaksin’s supporters in the rural majority, who delivered his party two resounding election victories. Their loyalty was sealed by generous social and economic welfare programs for previously neglected provincial areas.
 
The anti-government forces are well organized, and have the behind-the-scenes support of elements of the military and parties close the royal palace, the country’s most influential institution.

Wire reports

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9 Comments

• 

  rajakumar at 07:46 AM JST - 26th November

  Thailand will get really high class democracy via PAD.

  I saw on Al jazeera nothing very violent,no one got shot and they kicking motorbikes of rival political party people. Thailand politics at its normal self.

  8 people were injured,but many more get injured in thailand road accidents.

  Somchai Wongsawat/Taksin/Thai MPs/PAD must now engineer new ways to appease PAD anger via various ways. There may be new dynamic leaders coming into thai leaderships.

  Thai tourism/Thai business will get better at Survanabhumi airport in future via higher democracy now in Thailand,which almost EU like in protests.

  Thailand changes is going through a new phase in politics/political improvements, where they want less corruption in top leaders.

  Demands for cleaner governance is good for thailand in future and for the long run of way things work.

• 

  Henryo at 11:05 AM JST - 26th November

  Better and higher democracy. That is a laugh. Let's see. What does the PAD want. A return to the old style monarchy of Thailand. The rejection of one person one vote and a form of self-styled dictatorship according to PAD rules which means that if they do not like you, they can throw you in prison or exile you. I am not saying that the current Thai govt is corrupt, but this just smacks of jealousy because one side is in power and the other side is trying to do just the same thing. The average Thai person is thinking that we should get rid of these PAD people altogether because they are hindering the normal lives of Thai people. Just look at the taxi drivers, business people, etc who are being disrupted by these people. Also who is funding this than the royal family which is in the midst of a power struggle because the current Thai king is not likely to last another 5 years or so.

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  sickearth at 02:59 PM JST - 26th November

  Thailand’s deputy premier said the government was ready to ask the military for help,<

  humm.. make sure if the military want to help! The military said “NO” to thansin and samak earlier!

  even I do not agree with the PDA’s solution, but I don’t think what they asking is only motivated by “jealousy”.

  Because PDA is a pack of middle class, working people, business man, rural folk from central and poor folk from southern thailand. They are not the people in the political arena. They are not even asking to put their leader into power and run the country.

  International media and many self proclaimed experts like to say that, this is a PDA which is hi-education and middle class people in bkk Vs thanksin supporter which is the poor rural!

  but skip saying that PDA’s supporter also include rural southerner and lower central people too. especially those from the most south of the country where heavily effect by thansin’s part policy. more than 3000 of them got kill by now. The muslim insurgency problem was almost eliminated from that area before thaksin came to power. It took almost 50 years of hard working from many governments to solve the problem. and suddenly “BOOM” thaksin came; he removed all the needed fund and federal’s intelligent agencies in the area, then he let all the hell break loose without even admitted his mistaken.

  I wonder why no international media (or any self proclaimed expert) ever talk about this point? That is one of the main reasons why people, particularly from the south want so bad to see thaksin and his people gone for good.

  to so many self proclaimed expert here, you really know where the rural that support thaksin came from? it is not every rural in the country support thaksin.

  and do you know how the corrupted thais in the north, northeast sell and buy vote?

  You aware that in many areas over there, people do not even have to go to vote on each election? all they have to do is just handover their ID card and enjoy the money.

  and the thai monarchy in which self proclaimed expert here seem to hate,

  I just want to let you know that they put a lot of their own money in to that area for more than 30years. created many non profit organization battling with the drug dealer by created new work, and better way of farming for the local, and their little success was only destroyed the world famous golden triangle. It is clearly not that much for some to remember!

  Now the everyone love to hate monarchy also pumps a lot of money to the north, doing a clearly unpleasant in so many westerners’ eyes especially for the US’s major drug company! They are researching on a cheaper (possible even free) medication for HIV affected people.

  And a lot of continuing aquacultures project in the northeast for more than 40 years already.

  They put a lot of their time and money for people in the north and northeast than what they do for the people in Bangkok and south! (may be that because people in the central and south know how to work and save for their own future that why we do not need help from another people money!)

  After all of the influence over 50 years, I think if the royal family really wants to get their hands dirty on the thai’s political. The king can just say a word. Just like he had done 3 times in the past and we all had seen the country went back to normal over a night.

  Have you ever seen northeast people spent money? If you have ever seen they spent money, you will have no question why they are so poor.

  Have you ever heard that some thai parent sell their child for money? Do you know where this parent came from? Somebody say north? Then thing why they do that for money when they got their own land and farm? Why farmer in the south has never had a record of doing that?

  Thaksin put a lot of money (and loan which came directly from his family owned business)in to that area (but not education) because he know the nature of this people, and big part of the money he put here were taxes from the hardworking people in another place. it is no wonder why people over there love him, but people in the other place hated him.

• 

  Henryo at 04:54 PM JST - 26th November

  Actually, I do know about the Thai corruption first hand as I grew up there sickearth. Ever saw a policeman ask for money on an open road in broad daylight from motorcyclists. They said it was toll, but that is just a form of corruption. I saw that when I was a kid and compared to now it seems arcane and I did see prostitutes there and had almost one of my relatives sold into that business. Not fun at all and cost us my family a lot of pain. As for Thaksin, he deserved to be jailed, but he did one thing which I supported. He helped clean the streets of the drug dealers at the time when he effectively took out some 3000 of them in sort of a coverup. What is the point of having 3000 drug dealers, etc corrupting and destroying another couple thousand other people. Do the math. We all know the south of Thailand is a mess, no doubt about it and the govt should have concentrated their energies there.
  Frankly, try not to be all over the map on this topic because there is no point in lecturing me about what you think is right. You think you are going to change me. As for his relative who is PM now, I reserve judgment, as he has neither in my eyes openly supported nor opposed Thaksin and has played his hand closely because he does not want people saying "Human Rights violation" for killing PAD protesters as the Western media and some of those groups tend to burst their bubble when they see these things and try to go on the least provocation. That will also make Thailand look bad and we cannot have that can we.

• 

  Good_Jorb at 12:57 AM JST - 27th November

  “I was supposed to be cooking Thanksgiving tomorrow,” said Cheryl Turner, 63, from Scottsdale, Arizona. “My turkey is sitting in the sink at home.”

  Who takes out a turkey, leaves it in the sink and then flies to Thailand?

• 

  ca1ic0cat at 03:36 AM JST - 27th November

  No matter what PAD says the current Thai government was legally elected in free and fair elections. So what PAD is doing now is anti-democratic. It's kind of like US right wingers taking to the street to force Obama out of office because they think that Hollywood and NYC are corrupt and stupid. It won't happen in the US and it shouldn't be happening in Thailand either. The army should stay in barracks and the PAD people should be put in jail.

• 

  nimbus at 03:43 AM JST - 27th November

  PAD really stands for Party Against Democracy. The leaders of PAD want the rich and powerful of Thailand (themselves) to rule the country instead of having a democracy. They only want to replace Thaksin with themselves and have a bigger piece of the pie.

• 

  sickearth at 11:35 AM JST - 27th November

  • Henryo-

  you almost had one of your relatives sold and you think it brought a lot of pain?!

  That is some think people can say yes or no.

  think if you have the whole family living in fear down south seeing neighbor getting kill as mind, and this people can not say yes or no to the death.

  what would that cost?

  you think he helped clean the streets, just because he did the cover-up killing of 3000 drug dealers.

  by kill 3000 of smaller drug dealer, but all the bigger guy in the police department stay untouched, the street can stay clean any long?

  what about another 3000 innocent life down south? do street over there cleaner than ever? since there is not people walking!

  this is the problem when you don't try to look at things in a big picture, why when you want to talk about country problem but one should try not to be all over the map?!

  i am talking about the country not local!

  why and what make some people don't care if people in the other place have even grater negative effect by thaksin and his team? money?

  -the first time thaksin and his people enter into the thai government (as deputy PM in chawalit gov), thailand had to declare bankruptcy in a year, and seek help from IMF

  amazingly, business owned by taksin and people in that gov stay unaffected!

  -the second time thaksin enter into the thai government(this time as a PM) he gave 3000 and counting dead gift to the south and divided country as we see.

  i can do my math why not you try to ask some moral question, who make thailand look really bad? thaksin or those supporting him and his people?

• 

  sickearth at 11:40 AM JST - 27th November

  -ca1ic0cat -

  before you try to (un)justify the protester in BKK you better make sure that today "Thai government was legally elected in free and fair elections" it is really free and fair!!!

  is it legal in your country to change ballot boxes when you think you are not going to win the election?

  or is it fair for your if some very rich guy have to be jealed for 2 years, and he can just tell his brother and friend in the government to change the constitution for him, and later try to buy the judge?

  and do not forget that in the democratic state a PM can remove any law enforcement and take over any news media who try to investigate any of his and his family wrong doing.

  may be that call free and fair in your country but thai tax payer have seen this for almost 80 years and the last 5 years of the untouchable thaksin and his family proofed too much to keep quiet. we thing that is not free not fair and it is illegal.

  Sorry to know that the definition of free fare and democracy can be difference in each country.

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