Thai airport occupation is part of a wider struggle

A bewildered British traveller summed up the complete chaos that has taken over Bangkok and brought Thailand to the brink of countrywide conflict. "I don't understand what it's all about," he said, as his wife comforted their two children, tired out after a 12-hour flight from London.

They sat dejectedly among their luggage at the Thai capital’s gleaming new Suvarnabhumi Airport as hundreds of yellow-shirted anti-government protesters milled around - many of them also uncertain about what was now ahead of them.

A parade of political commentators, academics and journalists appeared on Thai TV throughout the day trying to make sense of a situation that threatens to spin dangerously out of control.

With responsible members of government nowhere to be seen and Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said to be somewhere in mid-air on his way back from a Pacific Rim summit in Peru, it was left to the leader of the Thai Army, General Anupong Paojinda, to look for a way out.

It is felt Thailand’s ruling party provoked the crisis by appointing Somchai PM

His proposed solution, dissolution of parliament and new elections, has been tried before, however, when the military took power in a bloodless coup in September 2006. And it didn't work then either, leading only to the present confrontation after a no-change election last year which only succeeded in prolonging the crisis.

Leaders of the anti-government extra-parliamentary movement, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), tossed today's compromise proposal back at the general, vowing to occupy the airport and other key positions around Bangkok until Somchai resigns.

PAD demonstrators have been occupying the government compound in central Bangkok for two months, forcing the administration to move its offices to Bangkok's old airport, Don Muang.

But Don Muang is also now under siege and today government ministers were meeting at a secret location to avoid the attention of an increasingly violent PAD mob.

Some flights were successfully diverted to Don Muang and passengers slipped through the PAD cordons. But hundreds of flights were cancelled at Suvarnabhumi, a major southeast Asian hub, creating huge disruption, threatening to bring tourism to a virtual halt and alienating the regional business community.

So where do Thai politics go from here? While the general public in Thailand are frustrated with the PAD methods, there is still strong support for the movement's basic demand - the resignation of Somchai.

General Anupong's conciliatory role in