Rushing past a thin line of Thai soldiers, hundreds of red-shirted protesters hurled themselves against the glass facade and – suddenly with a crash – smashed their way into the site of an Asian summit. There were screams of jubilation and then the crowd surged through the lobby, searching room after room for Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The storming of the Asian summit in Thailand on Saturday prompted its immediate cancellation and the evacuation of leaders by helicopter. They were lunching at an adjacent hotel and not caught in the melee, which was a mix of mob rampage and frolicking fun. Abhisit was the first to fly out of town, whisked away to the Vietnam War-era U-Tapao military airfield near Pattaya. The leaders of the Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam followed by chopper to the airstrip, where planes were on standby to take them home. Other leaders left by road but all were evacuated within hours of the ruckus. The East Asia Summit brought together the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand for discussions about trade, economic issues and regional security. A Southeast Asian diplomat said visiting dignitaries were not perturbed to see the “captain of the ship” leaving first. “Abhisit was the target of the protesters and if he remained here, the other leaders would have been endangered,” he said. Wives polish off sushi lunch Left behind were shell-shocked delegates and media, who stood amidst the debris including toppled metal detectors, smashed reception tables and small pools of blood where some protesters had been injured by broken glass. Some protesters grabbed flowers from a display and helped themselves to drinks off buffet tables, while others turned over tables full of coffee cups and kicked trash cans. Some used the restrooms and lounged on sofas, while hundreds raced up and down escalators in a chaotic scene that combined young men wearing ski masks and goggles alongside elderly women waving Thai flags. Even a bare-chested foreigner joined them, yelling, “We've had enough of rich people.” Hundreds of soldiers were in the vicinity outside but made no effort to stop the protesters or remove them from the building, where they remained for about an hour. When protesters descended downstairs to the summit's media center they were met by a sea of reporters glad to get a sound bite. “The commotion made us nervous,” said one shaken hotel worker, a young waitress named Sureerat. However, a group of foreign diplomats' wives defiantly polished off their sushi lunch. “We are used to these demonstrations here,” said Janet Rodriguez, wife of the Filipino ambassador to Thailand, while observing that the invasion of the summit venue “is not a sign of strength” for the host nation. Abhisit briefly imposed a state of emergency in Pattaya until the Asian leaders all departed safely. The storming of the building was the culmination of two days of protests and sees Thailand's domestic political troubles thrown unceremoniously – and embarrassingly – into the international spotlight. The weekend's events will also raise questions about how enduring his government can be. Four prime ministers over the last 15 months have failed to resolve Thailand's deep political rifts between the royalist, military and business elite, and a rural majority loyal to ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Investors are likely to see the government's failure to stop the demonstrators from getting anywhere near the summit as a sign of Abhisit's indecisiveness, even if his aim was to avoid bloodshed. It could even threaten the British-born and Oxford-educated Abhisit's leadership of the Democrat Party. Thaksin, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail on a corruption conviction, and is thought to be bankrolling the protests, may have gained some leverage in his campaign to force Abhisit out and get new elections, which his supporters would most likely win. The billionaire was ousted in a 2006 coup, but his reconstituted party regained power after elections, sparking months of protests last year by “yellow shirts” who closed airports in Bangkok and took a huge toll on the economy. The “red shirts” say they had intended to protest peacefully but became infuriated when a group of blue-shirted pro-government vigilantes arrived on the scene, armed with clubs, bricks and slingshots.
