'This is a fight for dignity'
2008-11-29 12:15
Bangkok - Anti-government protesters forced Thai police to abandon vehicles during confrontations at Bangkok's airports on Saturday as fears grew that days of crippling demonstrations will end violently.
Tensions rose further as exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, whom the protesters say is the puppetmaster for the present administration, warned there would be bloodshed if the army tries to stage a coup.
"If we have to die today, I am willing to die. This is a fight for dignity," Sondhi Limthongkul, Thaksin's arch-foe and the founder of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement, said on his private television station.
Angry demonstrators argued with police who tried to set up a checkpoint on the road to the main Suvarnabhumi international airport to stop more people flocking to the site on the fifth day of its occupation by protesters.
An AFP correspondent later saw five large police trucks abandoned near a checkpoint in the airport compound with their tyres deflated and no police officers in sight.
Despite Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's declaration of emergency rule at the airports on Wednesday, protesters trying to topple his elected government remain entrenched, barricading themselves in with barbed wire and tyres.
Police said they had given formal warnings overnight to protesters at both the three-billion-dollar Suvarnabhumi, which opened in 2006, and the domestic Don Mueang airport, ordering them to leave immediately or face action to evict them.
"Police have already issued two warnings since last night (Friday) to ask them to leave," Major General Piya Sorntrakoon, deputy commander of Thailand's central region, said.
At Suvarnabhumi, demonstrators headed inside as rumours of a police raid circulated. Protesters set up a medical corner to treat the injured if clashes broke out, while water and other supplies were stacked up.
Organisers handed out pieces of cloth bearing Buddhist inscriptions which they said would protect the wearers from harm, while some women carried pink helmets, readying for any action.
Children were also among the crowd.
Suvarnabhumi has been shuttered since late on Tuesday. Every day the siege continues, 30 000 more passengers miss flights and the kingdom loses $7m in tourism revenue, ministers and officials have said.