Shots fired as Thai factions clash at airport

Antigovernment protesters all but blocked the highway to Bangkok's main new international airport on Tuesday and fired handguns and beat government supporters with metal rods in fierce clashes elsewhere in the city, injuring at least six people, according to video footage shown on Thai television.
The escalation of the violence, which involved running street battles, came as thousands of antigovernment demonstrators across the capital kept the Thai government under pressure, continuing to block the entrance to its temporary offices at a terminal at the city's secondary airport and massing in front of the Army headquarters in their continuing attempt to unseat the government.
The blockade of the new airport, a main international transfer hub, caused long traffic jams and airport authorities said they expected flight delays.
In the violent clashes, one pro-government supporter was shown pleading for his life as protesters wielded long knives at his throat.
The clashes came on the second day of what the protesters, who have occupied the offices and grounds of the prime minister's official residence since August, had vowed would be their final push to unseat the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.
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Shots fired as Thai factions clash at airport




On Monday, they forced the cancellation of an important session of Parliament and temporarily cut the electricity supply to police headquarters.
Before the violence escalated on Tuesday, there had been growing signs that the movement to oust the government was losing support among a public weary of street demonstrations.
During the demonstrations, police have largely avoided confronting the yellow-shirted protesters, allowing them to roam around the city chanting, shouting and singing protest slogans.
The Thai print media, which has been generally critical of the government and supportive of the protests, is now running some articles skeptical of the daily street demonstrations.
One columnist in The Nation newspaper Tuesday called the protests a "never-ending saga that is futile and a drain on society.""A rethink has become an imperative to put an end to the political turmoil," the columnist wrote. "It is time for all sides to stop the political melodrama."
After three years of on-and-off protests, the People's Alliance for Democracy, the group leading the movement to unseat the government, still has a remarkably loyal following, mainly among middle- and upper-class Thais, students and some union members.
Thousands of the alliance's followers have cheerfully camped out on the grounds of the prime minister's office, listening to fiery speeches into the night. But as the Thai economy slows down amid the global financial crisis and as the stalemate between the government and the protesters deepens, an increasing number of people are hoping for a conclusion.
"How is it going to end?" said Bharavee Boonsongsap, a 34-year-old producer for MTV Thailand. "I keep asking people but they have no answer."
"Thais are fighting Thais," she said. "People have become aggressive and even children have been taught to hate the opposite side."
Ploykwan Suttharom, a 27-year-old graphic designer, says she worries about wearing red or yellow clothing - the colors of the two opposing camps - for fear of telegraphing loyalty to one group or the other. She and others say they have grown tired of the coarse language that the alliance uses in their anti-government chants.
Protesters call the government the "beast from hell" and refer to leading politicians as "monitor lizards," one of the gravest Thai insults.
Yet even as support for the protests could be starting to wane, a return to civility in Thai politics is unlikely anytime soon. The underlying issue is Thaksin Shinawatra's role in Thai politics. The former prime minister, deposed in a coup two years ago and convicted in absentia last month for abuse of power in a highly politicized trial, now reportedly says he is eager to return to Thailand.
"With me at the helm I can bring confidence quickly back to Thailand," Mr. Thaksin was quoted as saying in an interview with Arabian Business, a magazine based in the United Arab Emirates, where Mr. Thaksin is believed to be in exile. "We have to find a mechanism under which I can go back, that is why I must tell you that I will go back into politics."
With Mr. Thaksin still abroad, protesters here say they will continue their campaign to unseat the government, which they consider to be Mr. Thaksin's proxy. They are not giving up their control over Government House, the prime minister's complex, and they say they will also station some of their "troops" outside a VIP complex at Don Muang airport, where the government moved in August when protesters blocked Government House.
Somchai Wongsawat, the prime minister, is scheduled to return late Wednesday from a trip to Peru, where he attended a summit meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders. Protesters say they plan to disrupt a cabinet meeting that was initially planned for Wednesday but may be pushed back

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/25/asia/25thai-CND.php