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BANGKOK : Thai police on Friday fired tear gas and scuffled with protesters who are demanding the premier step down, as escalating turmoil in the kingdom heaped pressure on the seven-month-old government.
As protests spread across the country, shutting airports in the southern tourist hotspots, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej again insisted he was not going to give in to the protesters' demands.
"I will not quit. At this moment, I will not declare emergency rule, I will wait and see tomorrow," he told reporters on Friday.
Up to 25,000 protesters have barricaded themselves in the main government complex in the capital, accusing Samak of being a figurehead for ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and insisting he must step down.
Skirmishes broke out throughout the day as police used shields and batons to deal with angry mobs, causing slight injuries to a handful of protesters.
A crowd of about 2,000 demonstrators left the besieged Government House compound and marched to the nearby police headquarters on Friday evening to demand the officers involved in the clashes be handed over, prompting police to fire tear gas, witnesses at the scene said.
A government-run medical emergency centre said it had treated 35 people after the incident.
Samak has vowed to end the crisis without violence, and reiterated earlier Friday that there were still no plans to forcibly break up the rally.
"Police will still adhere to my earlier order -- they merely went to post a court order, not to clear protesters," Samak told reporters, referring to a court injunction posted at the site ordering protesters to leave.
Deputy national police spokesman Major General Surapol Tuanthong said the crowds had swelled and 25,000 people were now in the grounds of the compound.
As the situation spiralled Friday, the powerful army chief again reassured the nation that the military would not intervene unless asked.
"There will be no coup because a coup will not be able to solve the problems," General Anupong Paojinda told reporters, adding: "I am confident that police are able to oversee the situation."
Police, however, appeared to be struggling to contain the demonstrators, with Surapol telling AFP that all the officers who were stationed inside the compound had now withdrawn because of the risk of clashes.
"There are now up to three thousand police deployed outside Government House," Surapol said.
The restraint of the police seems to have emboldened the so-called People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement.
"I am convinced that the military will not forcibly crack down on us," PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila told reporters.
"PAD must go ahead and intensify the protest -- we think that more unions will join us and it will lead to more airport closures."
The PAD has been demonstrating against Samak for months, but events took a new turn on Tuesday when protesters stormed a TV station and barricaded themselves inside the Government House grounds.
The courts have ordered the protesters to leave the site and issued arrest warrants for nine of the ringleaders on charges including rebellion.
Outside Bangkok, thousands of protesters forced the closure of three airports in the south. Phuket International Airport was the first to shut its doors after PAD sympathisers invaded the runway.
Similar rallies soon prompted officials to close Hat Yai and Krabi airports, said Sereerat Prasutanont, president of Airports of Thailand.
The State Railways of Thailand, meanwhile, said 248 drivers and mechanics called in sick on Friday, halting a quarter of all services in the kingdom.
The PAD -- which despite its name is trying to bring down Samak's elected government -- began its campaign at the end of May, just over three months after the coalition government was formed.
PAD protests helped lead to the 2006 coup that unseated Thaksin, and the entry into government of his ally Samak after elections in December has infuriated the country's old power elites in the military and palace.
They also object to Samak's plans to amend a constitution drafted and approved under military rule following the coup.
- AFP /ls
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