BANGKOK, THAILAND — Bangkok shopkeeper Rai Varopaspiman is dead tired. Months ago, she joined anti-government protesters and began camping outside the gates of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's administrative compound, demanding his resignation.
Six days ago, the situation intensified when Rai and thousands of other People's Alliance for Democracy protesters -- some wielding golf clubs, slingshots or pepper spray -- stormed the gates and set up a protest camp inside.
Arrest warrants on treason charges have been issued for nine of the group's leaders, and a court order has demanded dispersal of the crowd, which reports say has reached as many as 30,000 people.
The escalating turmoil, which has spilled to the provinces and shut down tourist hot spots, prompted Samak to declare a state of emergency Tuesday. The decree forbids gatherings of more than five people and restricts news media freedoms.
At a televised news conference, Samak said the emergency declaration was the most gentle way to restore peace in Thailand. He also insisted that he had no intention of stepping down. "I don't understand why people think I'm the bad guy here," he told reporters.
Early today, Samak reiterated in a radio broadcast that he would not resign.
A threatened mass strike failed to materialize by Wednesday night, although hundreds of Bangkok schools and several regional airports remained closed. Razor-wire barricades were erected at entrances to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, where protesters have threatened to disrupt flights.
Sundaravej, elected in January after a junta kept its promise to restore democracy, is accused by opponents of mismanaging the economy and a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand and of serving as a figurehead for deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is in exile.
For shopkeeper Rai, last week's action was only a march of a few hundred yards, but the act of mass defiance and the occupation of the nation's seat of government are powerful expressions of the political instability and social chaos that grip Thailand.
Rai now huddles in a plastic tent alongside other demonstrators and their families trying to avoid the heat, monsoonal downpours and the noxious mud pit that the manicured grounds of Government House have become. She stands in line for meals provided by organizers and sleeps on a rattan mat on the ground.
But like many others, Rai, a 50-year-old mother of four, intends to stay put until the government steps down.
