Thai Pm's Compound Stormed As Anti-government Protests Grow

Anti-government protesters stormed the compound of Thailand's prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, today.

The protest came amid a series of demonstrations across Bangkok aimed at forcing his resignation.

The demonstrations, by the rightwing People's Alliance for Democracy, began with a pre-dawn raid on the main studios of the government-operated National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, closing the TV channel down.

"We are now controlling most of the key government offices to prevent them from coming to work," Sondhi Limthongkul, a co-leader of the alliance, said.

"Today we declare a long, long holiday for the government."

The group's strategy appears to be to provoke a violent crackdown from the government with the aim of winning public sympathy and perhaps compelling the army to step in to restore order.

However, General Anupong Paochinda, the country's army chief, said the military would not stage a coup and the crisis could be solved politically.

After the government was forced to move its weekly cabinet meeting to a military compound, Samak appeared on television to warn that his patience was running out.

He said his interior minister had been given direct control of the police to "bring the situation back to normal".

The People's Alliance for Democracy, which aligns itself with conservative factions of the monarchy and military, alleges that Samak is a proxy for the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup over alleged corruption and abuse of power in 2006, is now in self-imposed exile in England.

The alliance has accused Samak of trying to amend the constitution to help Thaksin avert a string of corruption charges against him.

It also accuses the government of failing to aggressively prosecute cases against Thaksin and refusing calls to extradite him to face justice.

The movement has proposed replacing the country's electoral democracy with a system that would be dominated by appointees from the bureaucracy and the military, claiming the country's rural majority is not sophisticated enough to choose good public servants.