Thai rail starts partial strike in anti-government rally

By Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai rail workers began a partial strike on Thursday, joining a protest by thousands of people barricaded inside the prime minister's official compound whose leaders vowed to stay until his government fell.

As many as 80 train drivers and mechanics at a key rail junction connecting central Thailand to the north and northeast called in sick, disrupting at least five trains and stranding thousands of passengers, state rail officials said.

"We have told our union members to call a leave of absence to join the rally in Bangkok to oust this government, which has been damaging the country over the past seven months," State Rail labour union leader Sawit Kaewvan told Reuters.

Sawit, who also heads an umbrella group of all state enterprises' labour unions which has 200,000 members, said more unions including electricity and water would announce action against the government on Friday.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who ordered police to break up the rally at Government House on Wednesday, softened his stance after failing to exercise arrest warrants overnight for nine leaders of the three-month-old anti-government campaign. The protesters defied a court order to leave the compound.

"I've told the police not to break up the crowd, but to encourage people to leave," Samak said of the 10,000 supporters of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) camped on the Government House lawn behind makeshift barricades.

"After thorough consideration, it would be too dangerous to do so," Samak told reporters at army headquarters after being forced to abandon his main office this week.

The PAD leaders have been charged with trying to overthrow the seven-month-old government through a violent insurrection, a crime that can carry the death penalty.