Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a state of emergency yesterday at two Bangkok airports besieged by anti-government protesters, a minister said, as rumors of a coup swirled round the capital.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Thirachai Sankaew said police would be in charge of the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports blockaded by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
“The Cabinet agreed to use the emergency decree at the two airports to bring the situation back to normal,” he said after a Cabinet meeting in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
The PAD refused to end their protests, which have forced flight cancelations and stranded thousands of travelers.
“We will not leave. We will use human shields against the police if they try to disperse us,” PAD leader Suriyasai Katasila said.
It was not clear what action the police would take, but 30 medical teams were on standby in case of a bloody crackdown, the Nation newspaper’s Web site said.
Some office employees left work early in Bangkok and the UN advised its staff to go home and remain indoors.
Thailand’s three-year-old political crisis has deepened since the PAD began a “final battle” on Monday to unseat a government it accuses of being a pawn of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup.
With rumors of another putsch swirling, Somchai urged the army to stay put and denied that he planned to sack army chief Anupong Paochina, a day after the general urged him to call a snap election.
“Troops should stay in their barracks and the prime minister is not going to sack anybody,” spokesman Nattawut Saikuar told reporters.
Pressure has built on the military to step in since Somchai rejected calls to quit, but pro-government forces are threatening to hit the streets if the elected administration is ousted.
Emergency rule gives the army legal authority to act against the PAD, but it is reluctant to do so.
“If the government insisted on dispersing the crowd, the army will meet again to find new measures. We already have a contingency plan,” Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd said.
Anupong has repeatedly said he would 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.
But one military source said army, navy and air force top brass were locked in talks late into the night, debating whether to launch what would be the 19th coup or attempted coup in 76 years.
There were signs that the latest surge in violence could backfire against the PAD, with newspapers that have indulged it in the past appalled by the airport disruption.
“This is not civil disobedience. It’s the PAD holding travelers hostage,” the Nation said in an editorial.
Tension has been rising across the country.
There were reports of gunfire during the night near Government House, the prime minister’s compound occupied by the PAD since August. No injuries were reported.
In Chiang Mai, a pro-government gang shot dead an anti-government activist.
The long-running unrest has paralyzed government decision making, stirring fears it could exacerbate the impact of the global slowdown.
Thailand’s lucrative tourism sector looked set to take a major hit from the PAD blockade at Suvarnabhumi airport, a major Asian air hub and gateway for nearly 15 million visitors to Thailand last year.
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