Word: thais
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Less than 48 hours after shutting down Bangkok's international airport, anti-government protesters have forced the closure of the Thai capital's domestic airfield. The occupation of Don Muang airport by 3,000 members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in the early hours of Nov. 27 was an attempt to prevent government ministers from flying to the northern city of Chiang Mai to attend a cabinet meeting called by embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat at his home...
...Thaksin, who was ousted in a September 2006 bloodless coup, has been convicted in a Thai court of conflict of interest over a land deal he approved while prime minister and was sentenced in absentia last month to two years in jail. The former prime minister, who insists that he is innocent and that the courts are under the control of his enemies, has fled Thailand and was last reported to be in Dubai...
...government literally on the run is clearly not an effective one. Parts of the Thai capital have been convulsed by gunfire and small-scale explosives. Over the past couple of months, several people, mostly PAD footsoldiers, have been killed in political street violence...
...clear what Thaksin wants to do with this "group of rising stars." But he and his supporters will need a deep bench if they are to continue dominating Thai politics. In the coming weeks, the lead party in Thailand's ruling coalition could be dissolved by the Constitutional Court because of an electoral-fraud conviction. If that happens, Somchai and other top party executives will be barred from politics, just as Thaksin and his top cohorts were legally excluded from office last year. Lower-echelon Thaksin stalwarts would have to reconstitute themselves as a proxy party. Still, support from rural...
...willing to destroy the country for his own personal gain. I'm really worried that violence will increase and the country will be in a civil war." Then, in a marked change of tone, Puchong apologized for the siege that had stranded thousands of tourists in an airport whose Thai name, Suvarnabhumi, or "golden land," seemed particularly inappropriate at that moment. "We don't want to inconvenience people," Puchong said. But such a sentiment probably comes too late. Even when Thailand re-opens its doors, the world may not be interested in returning too soon...