Angry farmers call off protest at Bangkok airport

Angry farmers driving hundreds of tractors called off a threatened protest at Thailand’s international airport on Friday, offering a reprieve to the country’s embattled prime minister and to travellers fearing a repeat of a major 2008 blockade of the airport.

The farmers cancelled the protest at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after striking a last-minute deal with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who agreed to make long-delayed payments on last year’s rice crops by next week. They vowed, however, to stage the protest next week if the payments are not made.

The farmers’ protest is one of many headaches for Yingluck, who appears increasingly powerless against a wider anti-government movement pressing for her resignation. Protesters have camped out with virtual impunity for weeks at major intersections of Bangkok and near the Government House compound. Yingluck has been forced to work out of a variety of alternate offices since December.

The anti-government demonstrators, who have been protesting for three months, draw most of their support from the urban middle and upper classes and residents from the south who are loyal to the opposition Democrat Party. They want Yingluck’s elected government to make way for an interim, unelected ‘people’s council’ to implement what they say are necessary reforms to fight corruption.

Yingluck faces a possible impeachment vote over accusations by the National Anti-Corruption Commission that she improperly handled an expensive rice subsidy programme.

Under the programme – a flagship policy of Yingluck’s administration that helped win the votes of millions of farmers – the government bought Thailand’s staple grain at above-market prices. But the programme has accumulated losses of at least US$4.46 billion and has been dogged by corruption allegations.

Thailand’s farmers have been paid 65 billion baht (HK$15.5 billion) for last year’s crops, but are still owed 110 billion baht.