Protesters lay siege to Thai government complex

Political tensions in Thailand grew on June 20 when thousands of protesters, demanding that the five-month-old government quit, pushed through police lines to lay siege to Government House. The demonstrators, who have rallied for 26 straight days in the capital, Bangkok, scuffled with riot police who eventually broke ranks, allowing the protesters through to the country's seat of power. The previous night the leaders of the collection of anti-government groups vowed to remain until the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej -- who they regard as a proxy for the deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- steps down. Chanting "Get out, get out," the protesters waved flags and swarmed around the wrought-iron railings as riot police looked on casually. The political drama, which led to falls on the stock market and in the Thai currency, the baht, is also provoking fears of another coup, only months after a general election to restore democracy. Analysts fear that if the protests degenerate into violence Thailand's royalist-military elite will use it as an excuse to send troops on to the streets to restore order and unseat the government once again. But despite tough talk from police chiefs heading the 8,000-strong force that had been brought into Bangkok from all over the country, there were only scuffles and a few minor injuries as the police gave way. The protesters, headed by the People's Alliance for Democracy, whose months of demonstrations in 2006 eventually led to the coup that ejected Thaksin, converged on the government complex from eight directions. The 1920s buildings house the offices of Samak and his ministers, but on June 20 all were elsewhere. Samak had met King Bhumibol Adulyadej the day before in an effort to defuse the tensions, with the monarch urging the prime minister to stand by his pledge to do good for the nation. "I expect that you will do what you have promised and when you can do that, you will be satisfied," the king told Samak. "With that satisfaction, the country will survive. I ask you to do good in everything, both in government work and other work." Government offices and schools near the ministerial complex were closed for the day to avoid the risk of civil servants and pupils being caught up in violence. But for many of the protesters, who numbered about 25,000 rather than the 100,000 the organizers had predicted, the atmosphere was more carnival than confrontation. Bangkok academics, business people and unionized workers, united in their hatred of Thaksin, roamed the avenues of Bangkok's old quarter waving Thai flags or yellow banners to symbolize their devotion to the king. When confronted by the police lines most of the groups sat down in the road in the shade of trees, waving and cheering, their mood in contrast with that of other protesters who had armed themselves with baseball bats and shields. Police came prepared for a confrontation, with teargas and water cannon, and parked prison trucks across the main thoroughfares as barricades. One group several thousand strong burst through a five-deep line of officers amid some jostling and lined the railings around the Government House complex. But their leaders said they did not intend to storm the compound, but merely to remain until Samak quit. Samak's People Power party, which inherited the mantle of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, won the election in December that ended the rule of the military-appointed government and demonstrated the electorate's disillusionment with the 18 months under the military.