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Thai Army Chief: Dissolve Parliament, call new elections

He also called for protestors to leave the airport and other sites. -Agencies

Wed, Nov 26, 2008
Agencies

Thailand's powerful army chief Wednesday said Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat must dissolve parliament and call fresh elections, after anti-government protesters occupied Bangkok's main airport.

'We will send him a letter to inform that he must dissolve the house and call new elections,' General Anupong Paojinda told a news conference after an urgent meeting of military and business leaders.

Anupong has insisted many times he will not launch a coup only two years after the military's removal of Thaksin
Shinawatra as prime minister, although he has publicly pressed Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to stand down.

After masked PAD members broke into the control tower at Bangkok's $4 billion Suvarnabhumi airport, the latest twist in their seizure of the site, a rival pro-government group planned its own street action, raising the prospect of clashes.

'What they have done are terrorist acts,' Jatuporn Prompan, a ruling party politician and leader of the anti-PAD Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, told a news conference.

A series of small bomb blasts wounded several PAD protesters in the airport vicinity on Wednesday, demonstration leaders said, as chaos ruled inside the terminal, with all flights cancelled.

Anti-government protesters stormed the control tower at Bangkok's main international airport on Wednesday, a day after they stormed the main terminal, forcing airlines to cancel flights.

Read also:
» PAD to intercept Thai PM
» Severe blow to tourism
» Control tower taken over
» Airlines cancel flights
» Govts issue travel advisory
» Bomb blasts rock Bangkok airport
» Photos of the protest
» Video: Thai protestors storm airport
 
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