Blast at Bangkok airport

2008-12-02 08:19

Bangkok - A bomb blast killed an anti-government protester and wounded 22 at Bangkok's blockaded Don Muang airport on Tuesday.

Channel 7 television said an M79 grenade was fired from a flyover near the domestic airport, which has been occupied by the People's Alliance for Democracy since last Thursday, part of the escalating campaign to topple the six-party ruling coalition.

An emergency services official said 17 of the wounded in the blast, which occurred shortly after midnight, had already been discharged from hospital.

The yellow-shirted demonstrators are trying to topple Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, whom they accuse of being a pawn for his brother-in-law, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and is now in exile.

Somchai insisted on Monday he would not go. "I will not quit and I will not dissolve Parliament," he told reporters in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

The PAD protesters were due to end a three-month occupation of the prime minister's office on Tuesday to consolidate their grip on the international airport, which has been blockaded for a week, adding to the pain of a tourist- and export-dependent economy already suffering from the global financial crisis.

Finance Minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech told Reuters on Monday the economy might be flat next year, or grow by just 1-2%, after earlier growth forecasts of between 4-5%.

Thailand's Board of Trade director said the cost of the airport closures was "incalculable", but a senior board member offered a figure, telling the Nation newspaper lost export earnings ran at around $85m a day.

The air cargo industry has ground to a halt, while the city's main domestic hub, Don Muang, has also been occupied for five days.

- Reuters