BANGKOK, Thailand—Protesters laying siege to Bangkok’s two main airports have agreed to hold formal talks today with Thai authorities following initial contacts, a police commander said.

Hundreds of police had also moved into position outside Suvarnabhumi international airport but it was “not for a crackdown,” regional police deputy commander Maj. Gen. Piya Sorntrakoon said yesterday.

Embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat imposed a state of emergency around the airports on Thursday night and ordered the facilities cleared of protesters but security forces feared a raid could spark a bloody confrontation.

Leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which have refused to end their siege of the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports, agreed to talks tomorrow after officials said earlier that initial overtures had been conducted over the telephone.

The talks would involve the governor of Samut Prakarn province where Suvarnabhumi is located, a representative of Airports of Thailand, the chairman of the national Human Rights Commission and the media.

‘Fight to the death’

A PAD leader earlier said that demonstrators would “fight to the death” against any attempt to evict them from either airport.

The protesters are calling for the resignation of the government elected in December, saying it is a corrupt proxy for former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.

Thailand’s powerful Army chief on Wednesday urged Somchai to dissolve parliament and hold fresh elections but the premier refused, deepening fears of a bloody end to the airport siege.

Airlines began flying stranded air travelers out from a naval base yesterday, but tens of thousands of passengers are believed to have missed flights after four days of unrest that have badly hit Thailand’s tourist industry.

The protesters braced for an assault overnight yesterday, extending razor wire cordons to about three kilometers around the flagship Suvarnabhumi international airport and blocking access roads, witnesses said.

“We are not afraid. We will fight to the death, we will not surrender and we are ready,” one of the main protest leaders, Somsak Kosaisuk, told a crowd of supporters at Don Muang.

Police say around 4,000 protesters from the PAD—a movement backed by elements of the Palace, the Army and Thailand’s Bangkok-based elite—are occupying Suvarnabhumi for a fourth day.

Another 2,500 are at Don Muang, where the Cabinet’s temporary offices have been located since protesters seized their headquarters at Government House in Bangkok in August, calling for the government to resign.

The airport blockades are the latest twist in the PAD’s six-month campaign to unseat an elected government it accuses of being a puppet of Thaksin.

Somchai, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, has refused to quit, but policymaking has been paralyzed, intensifying concerns about the export-driven economy’s ability to cope with a global recession.

Somchai’s attempts to assert his authority by declaring emergency rule and authorizing action to clear the airports were apparently undermined by the police announcement of further talks with the protesters.

Gentle way

“We will use the gentle way first. The priority is to negotiate and not crack down immediately—we are all Thais,” said Piya.

Late Friday, Somchai’s office announced the dismissal of the national police chief, police Gen. Patcharawat Wongsuwan.

The statement did not give a reason for the dismissal, saying only that the country’s top policeman had been “ordered ... to move to the prime minister’s office.”

Police Maj. Gen. Prateep Tanprasert, the inspector general, has been appointed acting national police chief.

The Army has already said it is opposed to the use of force against the protesters, stoking tensions between the government and the military in a nation that has seen 18 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

The PAD has vowed not to quit until Somchai resigns, alleging that its arch-foe, exiled former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, is the puppet master behind the government elected in December.

The military denied rumors on Thursday that it was planning to launch a similar putsch, following reports that Somchai was about to sack the powerful Army chief Anupong Paochinda for calling for the dissolution of the government and holding new elections.

Yet in a further sign of the civilian-military rift, government spokesperson Suparat Nakbunnam said Somchai would remain in Chiang Mai “indefinitely ... for his safety.”

Possible scenarios

The following scenarios examine what might happen next:

Negotiate a way out. Police began talks with PAD leaders yesterday to try to end the sit-ins peacefully. Whether the PAD will take these negotiations seriously is doubtful.

Their leaders have said previously that Somchai must resign before any serious talks can begin. The PAD’s intention is to trigger a military coup and anarchy is its main weapon.

Police storm airports. Police have gone out of their way to avoid a fight with the PAD this week, mindful of the hundreds injured in last month’s clashes outside parliament.

Evicting the protesters by force is the “last step,” a police negotiator said yesterday. It would probably be bloody.

PAD “security guards,” armed with clubs, scythes and golf clubs, are dug in behind barricades of fire trucks, luggage trolleys and razor wire.

PAD leaders deny their members are armed, but television footage of two PAD militants firing pistols at government supporters this week suggests otherwise.

PAD backs down. The PAD has never backed down in its six-month campaign, which has seen the movement occupy Government House since August, disrupt parliamentary sessions at will, and defy court orders.

But the movement’s backers may be getting nervous.

“The longer this crisis goes on, the more exposed and compromised the PAD’s backers have become. And the PAD is continually dragging them down to the cut-and-thrust of Thai politics to their own detriment,” analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University, wrote this week.

The PAD, an alliance of businessmen, academics and activists, says it gets 1 million baht ($28,000) a day in support from the public.

Analysts suspect it is also bankrolled by anti-Thaksin business interests, parts of the Army and Palace figures.

Military coup. It’s never wise to rule out a coup in a country that has had, on average, one successful or attempted putsch every four years since the end of absolute monarchy 76 years ago.

Army chief Anupong Paochinda again suggested Somchai should quit this week, but insisted he was not putting pressure on the prime minister.

Anupong has repeatedly said he will not seize control, and the Army could face a violent backlash from supporters of the elected administration. But some top-ranking officers do not agree with Anupong, as shown by the coup rumors swirling in Bangkok on Thursday.

King intervenes. Regarded as semi-divine by many, King Bhumibol Adulyadej carries huge informal political clout and in six decades on the throne has intervened in several disputes, favoring both elected and military administrations.

However, the 80-year-old king has stepped in previously only after major bloodshed, and his advancing years and deteriorating health raise doubts about his ability to calm any new outburst.

With the crisis affecting Thailand’s ties with the rest of the world, the secretary general of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) traveled to Thailand to assess whether the kingdom was still fit to host the Asean leaders’ summit scheduled for December in Chiang Mai.

“Part of my trip here is to discuss the Asean summit with the Thai government. I have to listen to the Thai government first,” said Asean head Surin Pitsuwan, a former Thai foreign minister, speaking by phone to AFP as he made his way overland to Bangkok from Singapore by way of Malaysia.

“The Thai government should make a decision on its readiness and the internal situation,” he said.

Thailand, which is the current Asean chair, has previously said it will go ahead with the December summit even as protesters stepped up a six-month campaign to topple the administration.

Options considered

However, Somchai told reporters on Friday that he was still considering his options.

“I have not decided whether to postpone it, but to postpone it will damage our country’s image,” he said.

“If we can re-open airports I still think that we can organize the meeting in time because we have almost completed our preparations,” he said.

Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have raised the possibility of postponing the summit due to the worsening political crisis in the country.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday urged Thailand to put off the summit.

“In my opinion, the postponement of the Asean summit is necessary given the current complex situation in Thailand, in which there is no one who is able to control this anarchic situation,” Hor Namhong told reporters.

Thailand announced in late October that the summit would be moved from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, a Thaksin stronghold.

The government said it was because of northern Thailand’s cooler climate, but the antigovernment protests are believed to be a key factor. Reports from AFP and Reuters