Thai airport prepares contingency plan

A Thai policeman checks a pedestrian in front of the residence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in Bangkok yesterday.

Thailand’s main international airport, which was besieged by protesters in 2008, said yesterday it had readied contingency plans for anti-government rallies expected in Bangkok this weekend.
Suvarnabhumi Airport said the plans were to deal with travel disruption or a possible blockade from March 11-23, the period when a special security law is in place for protests by backers of deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
“There are concerns that travelling plans of passengers may be disrupted,” said a statement issued by the airport, advising international travellers to check in three to four hours before flying.
The airport’s general manager, Nirandra Theeranartsin, said there was also a contingency plan in case the so-called “Red Shirt” protesters attempted to seize the airport, as the rival, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirts” did in late 2008.
Then the capital’s two airports were closed for nine days as protesters staged a sit-in to force Thaksin’s allies from government, caused huge economic damage and badly dented Thailand’s tourist-friendly image.
The government is invoking a tough internal security act that allows it to call out troops, impose curfews and ban gatherings.
The Reds’ leaders have said theirs will be a non-violent protest and that they will not occupy public or private buildings, including Suvarnabhumi or the mainly domestic Don Mueang airport.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) said it too had prepared measures to ensure that trading was not affected between March 12 and 15.
“SET has set up a special team to constantly monitor the situation as well as set up security measures for the SET building, its employees and the necessary infrastructure to ensure that trading and other significant systems will not be affected if the situation deteriorates,” SET President Patareeya Benjapolchai said in a statement.
Thailand’s central bank yesterday kept its key interest rate unchanged at 1.25 percent, citing the country’s political instability, including the protests this weekend.

Thaksin texts rallying cry

Meanwhile fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra issued a rallying cry to thousands of supporters yesterday, sending text messages ahead of an anti-government rally this weekend.
Leaders of the so-called “Red Shirt” movement say they expect up to 600,000 demonstrators to start gathering in the capital from Friday, after last month’s court ruling confiscating 1.4 billion dollars of Thaksin’s fortune.
“On [March] 14, come and gather to bring back our lost democracy and justice for future Thai generations,” the twice-elected tycoon, deposed in a coup in 2006, said to subscribers to his text messaging service.
Thaksin, who made his fortune in telecommunications, has also been egging on his supporters via videolink and his Twitter page from self-imposed exile in Dubai, where he is living to avoid a jail term for graft.
Yesterday current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva chaired a meeting with ministers, top armed forces and security officials to discuss plans for controlling the rally.
“Intelligence showed that there will be sabotage,” he told reporters afterwards. “The public does not need to panic but please be cautious.”
The Internal Security Act will be in force between March 11 and 23, allowing authorities to deploy troops on the streets during the rallies and to impose curfews and ban gatherings.
Under the law the government also banned farm vehicles from the capital in an apparent bid to block the movement of protesters from Thaksin’s heartland in the rural north.
Security officials said at least 30,000 troops and police would be deployed or on standby along with thousands more civilian security volunteers, although final numbers had yet to be determined.