Siam Commercial Bank ?
Dec 2, 4:14 am, xis2...@googlemail.com wrote:
> Thailand: Bangkok airport siege is backed by higher powers
>
> By Thomas Bell in Bangkok
> Last Updated: 10:01pm GMT 30/11/2008
>
> Have your say Read comments
>
> Who has got the power to hold Thailand - and a good sized chunk of
> global aviation - hostage? In the weird and manipulative world of Thai
> politics, where the real players hide behind proxies, its not an easy
> question to answer.
>
> Some of the most powerful people in Thailand are rarely mentioned in
> newspapers. They hold themselves above questioning and above answers.
>
> But a few things are clear. The anti-government People's Alliance for
> Democracy (PAD), which has illegally occupied Government House since
> August and now occupies Bangkok's two airports, has only limited
> support.
> advertisement
> # Thai protestors mass at airports
>
> On a big day their crowds swell to twenty or thirty thousand, but just
> two or three thousand is more typical. At Bangkok's international
> airport on Monday afternoon there appeared to be only a few hundred
> die-hards occupying one of Asia's most important transportation hubs.
>
> The PAD will not disclose their donors, but the protest is known to
> have cost tens of thousands of pounds a day for the last six months.
> Anyone who turns up gets free food, free iced water and free live
> music.
>
> The PAD seems to enjoy complete legal impunity for its actions. On
> Sunday one of the group's leaders, retired Major General Chamlong
> Srimuang, met with police to complain about a string of mysterious
> attacks against his supporters. He was not arrested for hijacking the
> country's two most important airports.
>
> Bangkok's international airport carries about 3 per cent of global
> air- freight and 100 000 passengers a day, many of them transit
> passengers. Thai exporters say they are losing =A356 million a day.
>
> The loss of tourism during the Christmas peak system could knock 1.5
> per cent off the country's GDP this year, industry leaders claim, and
> if tourist arrivals fall by half next year it could cost a million
> jobs.
>
> On Monday the finance minister lowered his GDP growth forecast for
> 2009 from 4.5 to 2 per cent.
>
> It is widely assumed in Thailand that the green light to do all this
> comes from senior figures in the royal palace or the army. The army
> has refused to intervene. Queen Sirikit signalled her support by
> attending a PAD funeral in October.
>
> Meanwhile Thailand's elected government - chosen by the poor but
> loathed by the urban and aristocratic elite- has been driven into a
> kind of internal exile, holed up in their electoral stronghold in the
> northern city of Chiang Mai.
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