Protesters tighten grip on Bangkok airports

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By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai protesters forced riot police to abandon a checkpoint on Saturday, tightening their grip on the country's main airport in a bid to push the elected government from power.

Around 2,000 People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters forced 150 police to retreat a kilometre (0.6 mile) north of Suvarnabhumi Airport, but the incident passed without violence.

The protesters are seeking to oust Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who is running the country from the government's stronghold in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Somchai imposed emergency rule at the airports two days ago in the latest escalation in the country's three-year-old political crisis. But police commanders on the ground said they would not yet try to evict the PAD by force.

PAD supporters were taking no chances and moved against the police checkpoint, set up to prevent more demonstrators from reaching Suvarnabhumi, which has been closed for four days and stranded thousands of tourists.

PAD protesters deflated the tyres of ambulances and police vehicles at the checkpoint. Several vehicles were left stranded in the middle of the road.

At another PAD barricade, youths armed with iron stakes and in police riot helmets, scanned the horizon with binoculars for signs of approaching police or the red shirts of pro-government gangs constantly rumoured to be massing in the distance.

"If they come, we'll not open the door. If they shoot us, we'll shoot them back. We'll die if that makes the country better," PAD leader Sondhi Limthongul told supporters, the most explicit admission yet by the movement that they are armed.

His co-leader, retired general Chamlong Srimuang, said the PAD had not held talks with authorities, but was open to negotiations "with people directly involved in the situation such as Somchai."

Other PAD leaders have rejected talks until Somchai quits, which the prime minister refuses to do.

"GENTLE MEASURES"

In a televised address on Friday night, Somchai said the PAD was doing massive damage to the tourism and export-driven economy, but he would avoid violence to end the protests.

"Don't worry. Officials will use gentle measures to deal with them," Somchai said, inviting rights groups and journalists to monitor the imposition of emergency rule at the two airports.

He took a tougher line with his police chief, demoting General Patcharawat Wongsuwan to an inactive post on Friday.

While no official reason was given, local newspapers made no bones about it on Saturday and said he had been sacked for refusing to send riot police in to end the protest.

The airport sit-ins have forced hundreds of flights to be cancelled, stranded thousands of foreign tourists and grounded millions of dollars of air cargo.

The government is shuttling tourists to U-Tapao, a Vietnam War-era naval airbase 150 km (90 miles) east of Bangkok, as an alternative landing site for airlines, but travellers have complained of massive delays and confusion.

Thailand's political crisis has deepened dramatically since the unelected PAD began a "final battle" on Monday to unseat Somchai, whom they accuse of being a pawn of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law.

Pressure is building on the army to oust the prime minister, as they did Thaksin in 2006, after Somchai rejected military calls to quit this week.

But army chief Anupong Paochinda has said he would not take over, arguing the military cannot heal fundamental political rifts between the Bangkok elite and middle classes, who despise Thaksin, and the poor rural and urban majority who love him.

(Writing by David Fox; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Valerie Lee)

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