Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a state of emergency on Thursday at two Bangkok airports besieged by anti-government protesters, a minister said, as rumours of a coup swirled round the capital. Deputy Agriculture Minister Thirachai Sankaew said police would be in charge of the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports blockaded by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). “The cabinet agreed to use the emergency decree at the two airports to bring the situation back to normal,” he told Reuters after a cabinet meeting in the northern city of Chiang Mai. The PAD refused to end their protests, which have forced flight cancellations and stranded thousands of travelers. “We will not leave. We will use human shields against the police if they try to disperse us,” PAD leader Suriyasai Katasila told Reuters. It was not clear what action the police would take, but 30 medical teams were on standby in case of a bloody crackdown, the Nation newspaper's website said. Some office employees left work early in Bangkok and the United Nations advised its staff to go home and remain indoors. Thailand's three-year-old political crisis has deepened since the PAD began a “final battle” on Monday to unseat a government it accuses of being a pawn of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup. With rumors of another putsch swirling, Somchai urged the army to stay put and denied that he planned to sack army chief Anupong Paochina, a day after the general urged him to call a snap election. “Troops should stay in their barracks and the prime minister is not going to sack anybody,” spokesman Nattawut Saikuar told reporters. Pressure has built on the military to step in since Somchai rejected calls to quit, but pro-government forces are threatening to hit the streets if the elected administration is ousted, raising fears of major civil unrest. Emergency rule gives the army legal authority to act against the PAD.
