Thai protesters reinforce besieged airports that stranded 300,000

Protesters trying to force the prime minister’s resignation brought in thousands of reinforcements to occupy Bangkok’s two besieged airports Monday, extending the political paralysis that has stranded 300,000 travelers.

Since the protesters seized the airport last Tuesday, all commercial flights have been suspended in and out of Bangkok. The protests, which come at the height of the tourist season, also halted vital postal air services and the arrival of everything from specialized medicines to raw fish for Bangkok’s Japanese restaurants.

The tactic apparently has been viewed as a success: The People’s Alliance for Democracy shifted focus and told its members occupying the prime minister’s office compound for the last three months to leave and join their compatriots at the airports.
Following the call, the number swelled to about 6,000 people at the two airports.

Neither the army nor Thailand’s revered king has stepped in to resolve the crisis – or offered the firm backing that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has sought.
Somchai, meanwhile, has been forced to govern from Chiang Mai, hundreds of miles away in northern Thailand, and has resorted to issuing futile pleas for the protests to end.

The protesters came by buses and cars, arriving unhindered at the airports. Police on Sunday removed the main checkpoint set up to block them, after it was overrun by an earlier group.

Airlines, meanwhile, were flying dozens of empty planes out of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi international airport.