Smith frustrated over slow Thai evacuations

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1001091 [headline] => Smith frustrated over slow Thai evacuations [abstract] => Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has expressed frustration with Thailand's failure to quickly evacuate Australians stranded in Bangkok because of the ongoing anti-government airport blockade.
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Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has expressed frustration with Thailand's failure to quickly evacuate Australians stranded in Bangkok because of the ongoing anti-government airport blockade.
   
Hundreds of Australians remain stuck in Bangkok after protesters seized control of the Suvarnabhumi international airport last Tuesday and the smaller Don Muang domestic airport last Wednesday.

Australian authorities have been negotiating with their Thai counterparts to put on more flights from Utapao, about 150km from Bangkok, and the tourist resort of Phuket, about 900km away.

But some of the few Australians who managed to get on planes out of a military base at Utapao at the weekend have complained that the flights were returning to Australia only half full.

Mr Smith said the main problem had been "logistical difficulties" in people being able to get access to the airports.
   
"We have been becoming very frustrated with the Thai authorities, particularly Thai airline authorities and tourism authorities," he told AAP.

"We are working with Qantas to get as many stranded Australians back to Australia as soon we can.
   
"But the two main airports in Bangkok are still closed, so we are looking to use a military airport 150km away and one in Phuket."

Mr Smith said once extra flights were organised to take Australians home, officials would organise buses to take the stranded tourists on the long journey to either Phuket or Utapao.
   
In the meantime, he hoped the political turmoil gripping Bangkok would be resolved peacefully.
   
"We are urging a peaceful and political resolution to it and the last thing we want to see is a military resolution," he said.

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Australians stranded in Bangkok following the invasion of the city's two main airports by protesters are being urged to be patient until arrangements to fly them home are finalised.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Thursday (early Friday AEDT) that Australian officials were working with Thai authorities to help hundreds of Australians leave Bangkok.

"There will be a large number, hundreds, of Australians who have been inconvenienced," Smith told reporters in London.

"The Thai tourist authority has effectively put Australians who have been inconvenienced up in hotel rooms for last night and again for tonight.

"Our officials are doing everything they can both with the Thai authorities and also with the airlines to try and make arrangements for Australians to return to Australia.

"We are trying to do the best we can to resolve that inconvenience but I am much more concerned about their safety and security.

"They should stay in their hotel rooms and as best they can patiently await an improvement in their travel arrangements."

Thailand's Tourism Minister Weerasak Kohsurat said on Thursday the government hoped it could begin flying thousands of stranded tourists home from military bases near the capital within 48 hours.

The Thai government has declared a state of emergency at Bangkok's two airports, which were stormed by thousands of anti-government protesters on Tuesday.

All flights in and out of the airports have been cancelled while the protesters continue to occupy their terminals.

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Somchai Wongsawat says he has a legitimate mandate to rule, despite escalating tensions in Thailand.

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Thai premier Somchai Wongsawat has rejected a call by the army chief to hold new elections, in a major escalation of tensions with protesters who have seized the country's main airport.

In a televised address, Somchai on Wednesday insisted the government elected in December was "legitimate" and said he had ordered an urgent cabinet meeting to restore order after thousands of tourists were stranded by the airport blockade.

His defiance of the powerful army chief in a country that has seen 18 coups added to the sense of crisis spreading through Thailand, with one political activist dying in a clash.

"I reassure the people that this government, which is legitimate and came from elections, will keep functioning until the end," Somchai said from the northern city of Chiang Mai, where he arrived earlier from abroad.

'Democracy destroyed'

He added: "The protesters have broken the law with arms, have seized government house (his Bangkok office, occupied in August) and the airport. They have destroyed democracy with mob rule."

Shortly after he touched down in Chiang Mai, having diverted from protest-hit Bangkok, a man was killed in a fight between pro and anti-government supporters in the city.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement says the government is a corrupt proxy for their arch-foe, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in September 2006.

After thousands of PAD activists stormed Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday night in a major escalation of their six-month campaign, army chief Anupong Paojinda said the demonstrators should leave the premises.

But he also urged Somchai to call new polls -- less than a year after Thaksin's allies won the troubled kingdom's last election, thanks largely to Thaksin's support base among the rural poor.

'This is not a coup'

"We will send him (Somchai) a letter to inform that he must dissolve the house and call new elections," Anupong told a news conference after an urgent meeting of military and business leaders to address the crisis.

"This is not a coup," the army chief said, dressed in his uniform.

The plight of angry, hungry and tired foreign tourists left stranded at the $US3 billion Suvarnabhumi Airport underlined the turmoil threatening Thailand's vital tourism industry and hitting the economy.

Earlier a grenade attack outside the airport wounded two protesters, while two other attacks left five others injured.

Airport director Saereerat Prasutanont said 3,000 people were stranded early Wednesday. The passengers, many of whom had nothing to eat or drink overnight, had earlier begun leaving on buses provided by airport authorities. But some remained.

"I went to ask the staff at the counters but no one was there. Then I didn't know that they had buses for the tourists so I am still stuck here," said Andre Weise, 37-year-old tourist from Germany.

Busy airport grinds to halt

As the passengers trickled out of the airport -- the world's 17th busiest -- many of the 8,000 PAD demonstrators who had been rallying outside entered the terminal, setting up makeshift food stalls and floor mats.

A Bangkok court later ordered them to vacate the premises.

The PAD is a coalition of royalists, Bangkok's old elite and the middle class that loathes Thaksin -- who is Somchai's brother-in-law -- and wants to replace the one-man, one-vote system with one that includes non-elected members.

Thaksin remains in exile after being convicted in absentia for corruption.

Somchai's administration has been effectively paralysed since protesters occupied the prime ministerial offices in central Bangkok in August.
 

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