Thailand’s army commander urged protesters yesterday to leave Bangkok airport and called for elections to end the country’s political crisis after a day of chaos in which thousands of travelers were stranded.
All flights were canceled and frustrated passengers bused to hotels, as protesters shut down Suvarnabhumi Airport in a major escalation of their four-month campaign to oust the prime minister.
“The government should give the public a chance to decide in a fresh election,” General Anupong Paochinda said at a news conference after meeting with high-level government officials, academics, economists and security officials.
PHOTO: AP
Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protesters, said the group would not abide by the army chief’s plea.
“Right now, our demand remains the same. If the government does not quit, we will not quit,” he said.
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat returned from an APEC summit in Peru yesterday and said that he had not decided whether to heed the call to dissolve parliament.
The protest group, the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), appears intent on forcing the military to intervene and bring down the elected regime.
There was no word on when flights might resume.
Early yesterday assailants threw four explosives at PAD demonstrators, including one targeting a group about 1km from the airport.
A second was tossed into a crowd at the domestic Don Muang airport, injuring three others, police said. The two other explosives did not injure anyone. It was unclear who staged the attacks.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday reminded Taiwanese nationals in Thailand to exercise caution.
Taiwanese citizens who need help can call the ministry’s representative office in Bangkok at 081-666-4006 around-the-clock, Department of Information and Cultural Affairs deputy director-general James Chang (章計平) said.
The Taipei Association of Travel Agents said about 1,000 Taiwanese travelers have been affected by the flight cancelations at Bangkok’s main airport, including about 500 who were scheduled to fly to Thailand yesterday and 400 who are stranded in Bangkok. Those stranded in Thailand may have to wait another day before they would be able to return, while tourists preparing to fly to Thailand may need to postpone their schedules for a few days, a spokesman for the association said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS