The violence reached a peak on Friday when Bangkok police fired teargas and rubber bullets to repel an assault on their headquarters by around 2,000 protesters. -- PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK - THAI Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej turned to parliament on Sunday to try and defuse protests that have blockaded his offices and briefly shut airports, but insisted he would stay in power.
He is still looking for a peaceful way out of the crisis that began on Tuesday when thousands of anti-government protesters rampaged through Bangkok's historic district and invaded his offices, demanding his immediate resignation.
Govt supporters mass in front of Thai parliament
More than 500 government supporters gathered outside Thailand?s parliament on Sunday, police said, ahead of a special debate on street protests that have threatened to bring down Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.
They took routes that avoided areas of Bangkok where
anti-government protesters are massed, including Mr Samak?s
official compound, which thousands have occupied since Tuesday, forcing the prime minister to work from a military building.
After police briefly clashed with rowdy demonstrators last week and protests spread outside the capital, the premier called the emergency parliament session, but he has so far ruled out declaring a state of emergency.
'We cannot let the situation in the country go on like this,' Mr Samak said in his regular Sunday television address.
'It must be over, but I will not do anything that will create a bad atmosphere. The announcement of an emergency decree would create a bad atmosphere in the country and to the world.'
Mr Samak said that so far protesters had not paid any attention to government pleas or court injunctions ordering them to leave the Government House compound and seeking the arrest of nine protest leaders.
'Let's see what parliament can do,' he told the nation.
Lawmakers will make suggestions about how to resolve the crisis although there will be no voting.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) objects to Mr Samak's plans to amend the constitution and his close ties with ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who they helped unseat with protests in early 2006 ahead of a coup later that year.
Mr Samak's coalition took power in February after securing nearly two-thirds of parliament's 480 seats in elections last December, and the premier has accused the PAD of trying to spark another putsch.
'What they are trying to do now is overthrow the government,' Mr Samak said. 'They seized government offices, airports. Is this democracy, or is this the people's alliance to destroy democracy?'
Sunday's extraordinary parliament session opened with opposition Democrat Party MPs questioning Mr Samak, as about 1,000 pro-government demonstrators gathered outside under the close watch of police.
'We are worried that the PAD will come here so we are here to protect the people,' Police Colonel Somchai Choeyklin told AFP.
Brief clashes between police and protesters on Friday raised tensions in the coup-prone kingdom, but the atmosphere around the besieged government compound has since cooled.
On Sunday morning numbers had dwindled, although ambulances remained on standby outside.
Police officials told AFP that between 14,000 and 17,000 people remained on the grounds of Government House, where they have barricaded themselves in with coils of barbed wire, bamboo poles and piles of tyres.
Mr Samak late on Saturday flew down to the king's residence in the beach resort town of Hua Hin. Mr Samak has not revealed details of the discussion, but said his stance had not changed.
'I told you before that I will not resign - I will stay on to run this country,' he said.
Despite the demonstrators regularly invoking the king, both in speeches and with royalist imagery, he has remained silent in the current standoff.
Protests spread outside Bangkok for the first time on Friday, with blockades shutting Phuket, Hat Yai and Krabi airports, and a railway workers' strike halting a quarter of all services.
Phuket airport - the second busiest in Thailand - reopened on Sunday, while Hat Yai reopened on Saturday. A railway official, meanwhile, said services were still disrupted across the country.
Chamlong Srimuang, 73, a retired army general and one of five PAD leaders, said the alliance would wait and see what happened in parliament before planning its next move.
