Airport protests break up, but divisions remain deep

BANGKOK, Thailand - Flights in and out of Bangkok resumed yesterday after antigovernment protests that paralyzed the capital's international airport for more than a week ended with a court-ordered ouster of the prime minister.

But most of the explosive issues that have divided the country for more than two years remained unresolved, and long-term prospects for stability were dim.

"It is nothing more than an intermission. It is not over until the two sides of the political spectrum can reconcile, and the prospect of that happening is very bleak," said Charnvit Kasetsiri, a historian and former rector of Bangkok's Thammasat University.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, which has led six months of street demonstrations and the airport protests, warned that it would be back on the streets if a new government maintained links to the man who has torn apart the Thai political fabric since being ousted in a military coup in September 2006, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Although exiled, Thaksin remains extremely popular among the rural poor, and the new government is certain to include his allies. The antigovernment alliance, commonly called PAD, has vowed to eradicate his influence, accusing him of massive corruption and seeking to undermine Thailand's much-revered monarch.

All sides awaited the annual birthday speech today of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who during the last four decades has stepped in to defuse several bloody political confrontations.

"Expectations are very high. If the royal comments are seen as fair and balanced with a way [out of a crisis], people will try to think about that and maybe to push for that way forward," said Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

But Thitinan said the king's guidance, if any, might not be sufficient to heal the deep polarization.

"It's also possible that one side or the other will see it as insufficient, in which case they will not stand down and go home quietly. It is uncertain whether all sides will accept the royal comments," he said.

The antigovernment demonstrators, largely drawn from the elite and middle-class establishment, have been protesting for three years against leadership they judged loyal to Thaksin. He drew his strength by empowering the rural poor, a divisive bid in a country with one of the world's deepest divides between rich and poor.

The antigovernment alliance contends the rural majority is too poorly educated to choose its representatives responsibly and susceptible to vote buying. The alliance wants the country to abandon the system of one-person, one-vote, and instead have a mixed system in which most representatives are chosen by profession and social group.

Yesterday, PAD supporters cleaned up Suvarnabhumi international airport and handed it and the domestic Don Muang airport over to authorities after a weeklong occupation stranded more than 300,000 travelers.

The first commercial airliner to arrive - a flight by the national airline Thai Airways from the resort island of Phuket - landed at Suvarnabhumi at 2:15 p.m.

On Tuesday, the country's Constitutional Court ruled that the three ruling coalition parties were guilty of committing fraud in the December 2007 elections, which brought them to power. Judges banned Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law, and 59 executives of the three parties from politics for five years.

A meeting yesterday among the three ousted parties, which vowed to stick together in a coalition, endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Chaowarat Chandeerakul as the caretaker prime minister.

Charnvit said that despite its losses the coalition was still strong enough to form a government dominated by pro-Thaksin politicians.