Bangkok flights resume as airport occupation ends
Thursday, December 4, 2008 by Shrish Pandey
"Flights into and out of the Thai capital’s international airport, Suvarnabhumi, are gradually resuming after anti-government demonstrators ended their week-long siege of the airport on Wednesday morning. Hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists had been left stranded, waiting to go home.
The prospect of a return to chaos looms, however, as the political party forced from office by the country’s courts prepared to regroup in order to maintain its hold on power.
On Wednesday evening, a passenger jet departed for Sydney, making it the first international flight to depart from Suvarnabhumi airport since the seizure of the airport by the anti-government demonstrators on 25 November.
The chairman of the board of Airports of Thailand (AoT), Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, noted that airport operations would return to normal levels within a few days.
On Tuesday, the airport saw the resumption of cargo, emergency and military flights, said spokeswoman Monrudee Kettuphan.
After the Thai Constitutional Court dissolved the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat’s party, and prohibited the prime minister from holding political office for five years, the demonstrators ended all anti-government protests.
The government of the now-deposed prime minister has been accused by the protesters as being a front for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who they are hoping to see tried on corruption charges.
The court found that the ruling People Power Party committed electoral fraud in the last elections, and barred Somchai Wongsawat and more than 100 other top party officials from holding office for five years."
(ASAP)
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