Thai PM consults with king as protests spread
BANGKOK,
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has met with the nation's
revered king on escalating protests that have closed three key airports
and sparked clashes with riot police, an official said Saturday.
After the protests erupted into skirmishes with police Friday,
causing minor injuries and rattling nerves in the coup-prone kingdom,
Samak flew from Bangkok around midnight to the nearby town of Hua Hin to
meet the king at his seaside palace.
"He reported to the king on the current situation and he will return
to Bangkok today," the government official told AFP, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
The protesters from the so-called People's Alliance for Democracy
(PAD) have squatted on the grounds of Samak's Government House compound
for five days, demanding that he resign and accusing him of acting as a
puppet for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The same group helped topple Thaksin in 2006, and has openly called
for the palace, the military and Thailand's traditional elite to take a
greater role in politics.
The PAD rails against popular democracy, saying it has encouraged
corruption, and in July unveiled a plan for a new system of government
in which 70 percent of the seats in parliament would be appointed rather
than elected.
Although the demonstrators regularly invoke the king, both in
speeches and with royalist imagery, he has remained silent in the
current standoff, staying away from the protests in his beachfront
Klaikangwon palace, whose name means "Far from worries."
The king has little formal political power, but he holds enormous
sway over his subjects and has acted as a referee during past political
crises in his six decades on the throne. After returning to Bangkok
early Saturday, Samak was set to meet with Crown Prince Maha
Vajiralongkorn at a previously scheduled event on national
reconciliation.
Despite torrential rains early Saturday, at least 6,000 protesters
barricaded themselves for a fifth day inside Bangkok's main government
complex.
A handful of activists wearing motorcycle helmets practiced combat
techniques with homemade shields and bamboo rods. Nearby, free food was
distributed to the protesters.
"We will not quit. We will not go home until we win," one woman
shouted from a makeshift stage set up in their camp.
The airport on the holiday isle of Phuket - a key magnet for
international tourists - was shut down after protesters marched on it
Friday, causing the cancellation of more than 30 international and
domestic flights, said Sereerat Prasutanont, president of Airports of
Thailand.
"It's up to PAD protesters when they will allow the operation to
resume," he told AFP.
The State Railways of Thailand, meanwhile, said about one quarter of
all services had been halted since Friday, after nearly 250 drivers and
mechanics called in sick to support the protests.
PAD protestors have been demonstrating against Samak since May, but
they stepped up their movement on Tuesday by storming a TV station and
the Government House grounds.
The turmoil has raised fears of a new coup in a country that has seen
18 military takeovers since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
The powerful army chief, General Anupong Paojinda has so far insisted
that the military will not return to the streets.
Hoping to defuse the crisis, Samak has called for an emergency
parliamentary debate on Sunday, but has refused to step down or call new
elections. AFP |
