Reds

Bangkok Calming

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 Well, the most you could say about this recent conflict in Thailand is that even if the rancor remains for decades, there is a whole generation that is now politicized.  The Reds from up-country have undergone a process known here as ta sawang, or a “brightening of the eyes” — an awakening, a realization of a truth they had not recognized.  Unfortunately their eyes followed Thaksin who recognized them as a huge voting block.

But in the northeast the rage goes on. The nation reported this morning that Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiart on Friday formed two panels, one in charge of fact-finding related to the arson attacks of three schools in the Northeast and another responsible for assessing the damage.

During the first day of curfew on Wednesday, two arson attacks were reported in Nong Khai and Yasothorn.

Ban Tha Chiang Krua School in Nong Khai’s Seka district was burned down. The arson happened at Ban Yang Krue Nong Thom School in Yasothorn’s Muang district.

During Thursday’s curfew, Ban Wang Keng School was torched at Khon Kaen’s Nam Phong district.

Police Confront Reds Near Don Muang Airport

Posted on by Laughingnomad

About 2000 protestors in trucks and on motorcycles from the Saladaeng rally site were led by Red leader Kwanchai Phraiphana on a march to Talad Thai Market near Don Muang Airport to urge people to join the rally site. Hundreds of police fire rubber and live bullets in air but protestors sat on the highway and refused to budge until they were told by a Red leader to desist and return to the rally site.

Traffic is chaotic and Don Muang urged passengers to expect 3 hrs to 4 hrs for traveling to airport.

Local media reports police shooting rubber bullets and live ammunition in the air to stop protestors but CNN reports “gun battles” at more than one point which implies shooting on both sides. I’ll wait for local reports.

Kwanchai Phraiphana, the red-shirt leader, was arrested near the clash site at Don Muang (when Red Shirts ran into a gas station,) Thai Rath Online reported.

The paper said Kwanchai was arrested at 2:41 pm while was trying to flee back to Rajprasong.

The BBC is reporting that one soldier was killed by a shot to the head and 10 people injured.

Offer Refused By Thai PM-Reds Expect Crackdown

Posted on by Laughingnomad

   So talks are off and Reds say they are expecting a crackdown within 48 hours. Apparently military watermelons are leaking information to the Reds about military build-up and movements. Apparently the military said they have to wait for the right time and separate out the women and children before they crackdown on the “terrorists” and arrest the Red leaders.  But how the heck they would do this I have no idea. One never knows how to take these pronouncements.

In the meantime, groups of Red Shirts in the upper NE are converging on Mitraphap Rd. in Udon Thani to stop 178 policemen from joining the security forces in Bangkok.  Some people are fearful that the resistance will migrate out into the provinces and plunge the country into anarchy.

The Prime Minister went on a public TV station this morning to be interviewed and explain the government’s position but it was scrambled after the first few minutes by somebody.  This would be like President Obama giving an address to the nation but Dick Cheney’s inside hacks scrambling the station.  It’s interesting that I was shocked but the hotel employees I was watching it with were not.  Just that enigmatic Thai smile that can mean anything. Eventually, the station was broadcasting again.  Wish I could have understood it but by this time the bilingual hotel employees were watching another station.

Back at the rally site,  Reds have decided to abandon their Red color and they are already distributing different colored shirts this morning…obstensibly to become unidentifiable if the military intervenes.

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A Pull Back From The Brink?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The Reds who have been holding Bangkok hostage for six weeks have given the government an offer today with the following conditions:

  •  That the government stop threats and harassment
  •  That an independent body will undertake an investigation into recent violence.
  •  That the  Abhisit government dissolves the House within 30 days.If the government agrees to dissolve the House within one month, after the House dissolution, the government will have another 60 days to prepare for elections.

Also, Army chief General Anupong Paochinda has ruled out the use of force to resolve the political predicament, saying that “the use of force would only cause untold damage and far reaching implications but the problem will not end.”

Now we are waiting to see how the government will respond. Prime M Abhisit Vejjajiva has already offered to hold elections by the end of 2010 – one year ahead of schedule, to cease the political deadlock caused by red shirts rallies.

One wonders what the arrest of an actor turned activist has to do with this:

BANGKOK (NNT) — A key supporter of the anti-government United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD or Reds) disclosed that the black-clad firemen captured on video were involved in the 10 April attack on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, according to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI).

The actor-turned-activist Methi Amornwuttikul, who is also a leading supporter of the UDD (Reds), was nabbed yesterday by police while carrying heavy weapons. He was suspected to be involved in armed attacks against state troops on 10 April.

According to DSI Chief Tarit Pengdit, Mr Methi gave out information on the source of armories he was holding. He revealed that the men in black, who were caught on tape firing grenades during the 10 April clash, were also involved in the series of bomb blasts on Silom Road on Thursday night.

Mr Tarit stated that the authorities were compiling information and evidence, which could not yet be unveiled.

In Thailand, attackers and those behind the plots or involved with what is officially being termed as “terrorism,” could face death sentences for their actions against public order and well being.  A plea bargain against conviction could sure make Mr. Tarit sing.

Panel Discussion On Thai Conflict At FCCT

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Six weeks have passed since the mostly upcountry Reds launched protests in Bangkok and two since the occupation of Ratchaprasong intersection. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has not wavered in his resolve to stay on as premier amidst calls for him to step down, and the country remains in an increasingly intractable crisis with no clear end in sight.

Thailand’s ongoing political impasse reached it’s most recent boiling point on Saturday April 10 when troops clashed with red shirt protesters leaving 25 dead and 840 injured.

Last night, Thursday April 22, at the very moment that the grenades were going off at the Sala Deang sky train station, the second Red rallying site, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand was hosting a panel discussion on the conflict to speculate on what could possibly be done to end it with any lasting results.  The presenters, however, weren’t about to expose themselves politically by giving any clear answers even if they had any.

The panelists:
-His Excellency Lennart Linnér, Ambassador of Sweden to the Kingdom of Thailand since 2007 stressed the need for the international community to speak out and for responsibility of the press to not distort the facts which could possibly further divide the country and tip it into chaos and possibly civil war.

– Prof Thanet Aphornsuvan, former Dean of Liberal Arts at Thammasat University where he currently is the Associate Professor of Liberal Arts. He brought his perspective from his student days as an activist during the 1972 riots that left hundreds dead. He said that in spite of what you think about the Reds, the mainly agricultural and poorly educated people from upcountry, that that population has now become politicized which may be the point at which the people begin to stop looking up to the “caretakers” (or the elite if you want to call them that) for answers and instead become participatory members of Thailand’s democracy, such as it is, which has never happened before in the history of the country. He also spoke of Thailand’s need for it’s governmental structure to become “modernized,” whatever that means to him, and more participatory. To many of us, it implied a reference to the future of the Monarchy.

– Prof Gothom Arya, director of the Research Centre for Peace Building at Mahidol University. Professor Arya taught electrical engineering at Chulalongkorn University in 1997 and subsequently became an Election Commissioner until 2001. After that, he was Chairman of National Social and Economic Advisory Council. He spoke about the possibility (or not) of negotiation and peace-making at this point in the conflict where both sides have only become more entrenched in their positions due to the tactical errors of the government. For example, why was it necessary to issue an emergency decree which only served to place the government in the position it is in now wherein to follow the rule of law they would be required to unleash the military on thousands of it’s own citizens who are refusing the order to disband. They were a nuisance, he said, but were they really a threat?

My question: At what point does rhetoric cease to become free speech but instead a means of inflaming enough anger to send a country into anarchy. The Reds have been saying since the beginning that they intend to burn down the city. I don’t know Thailand’s position on free speech. I have been thinking about a similar issue a little closer to home…the fiery rhetoric of radio commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and the others at Fox News that are continuing to distort the truth for millions of an uninformed electorate. To what extent is their rhetoric causing a meteoric rise in the number of extremist militias in the U.S.? To what extent will we follow what is happening in Thailand now and try to bring down a corrupt government through violence instead of the ballot box? But this discussion is for another day.

– Dr Pijaya Nagavajara, director of BMA General Hospital (Klang Hospital), the nearest hospital to the clash area that had a capacity of around 80 beds but had to triage and treat over 800 hundred injured and dead people the night of April 10. Definitely could put him into that arrogant attitudinal category of the “elite,” in my opinion! One amazing fact: “his hospital,” (he repeated this at least 30 times) the nearest to the site of the melee, is public, and injured Thais are required to go their first to be triaged before being shipped out again to other farther-flung and private hospitals. My physician husband who was with me just shook his head.

In a few minutes, at 4pm Friday April 23, the supposed pro-government “no coloreds” or “rainbows” will gather at the Royal Plaza… promising to bring in 100,000 people. Renaming this group of people doesn’t take away the fact that they are really led by the Royalist PAD, and you can be sure they and their Yellow Shirts, who held the Government House hostage for 193 days and took over the airport in 2008, will be among them. Their fiery leaders were impressive speakers at the meeting I attended with a Yellow Shirt friend last Saturday at Rangsit University. They decided at this meeting (or before) that if the government and the Reds didn’t resolve the conflict in 7 days they were “coming out.” Did we see them at the Sala Deang sky train station on Silom Rd last night? But hey, today is Friday, “and it is the 7th day!”

No one expects an end to this any time soon. But to end this on a lighter note, you should have seen my husband, who is here from his home in Jomptien Thailand to visit me in Bangkok before I leave, scamper past the Red’s encampment, down Sukhumvit from the Maneeya building, to the nearest Chid Lom sky train entrance last night after the FCCT meeting! LOL

Reds And Anti-Reds Clash AT Sala Deang

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Pro Government Protestors had grouped around the Saladaeng sky train station on Silom Road beginning Monday night as a response to the Red’s second rally site at the Silom/Rama IV intersection across the road from the station.

The Reds had been threatening to take over Silom business district and the people there (and probably not a few Yellow Shirts) were vowing to stop the Reds.  The two groups  had been taunting each other since I was there late Monday afternoon.

Finally on Thursday night April 22, tempers boiled over when one of the Silom protestors burned a red handkerchief and all hell broke loose.

Hundreds of police, lined up 30 deep in the intersection between the two groups, had difficulty keeping them separated from each other’s bottles, sling shots and other lethal flying debris.  The army was holed up on the sky train flyover.

The clash reached it’s height when five M-79 grenades apparently were launched from behind the Rama VI statue in Lumpini Park, behind the rubber tire and spiked bamboo Red barricade, where many Reds were grouped. The Reds are denying they were responsible.  Many people are wondering if it was indeed some rogue Reds or a “Third Hand.”

The first hits took place a little after 8.00pm. Police said three explosions, believed to be M-79 grenades, were fired at the third floor of the the sky train. The explosions sent people waiting at the station running out in panic.

The fourth explosion hit the roof of the sky train station shortly after.

The fifth bomb attack took place in front of Bank of Ayudhya’s Sala Daeng branch near Sala Daeng skytrain about 20.45pm. The blasts killed one woman and injured nearly 80 people, four of them foreigners crazy enough to be there.

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Photos again courtesy of Gary Jones, British journalist based in Hong Kong.

Away From The “Reds” In Bang Phra Fishing Village

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The “Reds” are trying to force the fall of the government in Bangkok by bringing in a promised half a million or a million of rural folks in pickups to paralyze the city.  The government is threatening to impose a state of emergency.

Ordinarily a groundswell of rural people would illicit some kind of sympathy but in Thailand nothing is ordinary.  They are supporting the return of a very corrupt  former Prime Minister who bilked the country out of a couple billion dollars, was convicted by a court of corruption and who lives abroad to avoid a three year jail term. The premier has rejected the crowd’s demands to dissolve parliament and call elections which are scheduled for next year anyway.  It is generally thought that Thaksin, who issued $25 loans plus interest to the farmers before he was deposed, is using them to gain reentry to the country so he can appeal the court’s decision and reclaim his money.  Go figure.

At a press conference held by the Reds at the Thai Foreign Correspondent’s Club that I attended last week, they wouldn’t admit to the Christian Science Monitor to paying people. “Most of them are volunteers” was all they would say.  But a YouTube video shows them handing out two 1000 baht bills (about $60) and their pickups are nice and new.  Their strategy, they say, is to peacefully paralyze the city…forcing the government to either fall or [get baited] into a fierce bloody repression.Well, today is March 14, the day of the big Bangkok rally and the Bangkok Post claims 80,000 people…others estimate 100,000…but the week is not over. 

Ex Prime Minister Thaksin has been in Dubai and rumored earlier to have flown to Siem Reap Cambodia where he has struck up an odd alliance with President Han Sen…no friend of the people there.  Today the Bangkok Post reports that Thaksin claims to be joining his family in Berlin.  Who knows where he is. But one thing is sure…he wants back into Thailand where he can appeal the Supreme Court’s decision to freeze much of his assets. I watch the news on Thai TV but of course cannot understand any of it. I just watch the video and photo parts.In the meantime, many people in Thailand are just shrugging their shoulders.  They’ve seen 16 military coups in the last 30 years…the most recent when the elected Thaksin was toppled in a 2006 military coup. 

Oxford educated Prime Minister Abhisit came to power in December 2008 after a controversial court decision removed Thaksin’s allies from government following an airport blockade by the Royalist Yellow Shirts. Yeah, I’m confused too.

So I decided it was a good time to explore a fishing village about an hour and a half NE of Bangkok. I am here in a separate room in a family compound. They are spoiling me rotten…bringing me breakfast, lunch and dinner…all of which I cannot hope to eat… and all manner of other things like water, coffee, beer and daily copies of the Bangkok Post. Music and announcements wafts over the village from the nearby Wat.  Thai hospitality at it’s finest!A brother has retired here after 30 years living in Texas so his English comes in handy.  A niece works as a Health Prevention manager. The sister wants me to stay here in April while her husband spends the month as a monk in a monastery.  I have no idea what he does…or did. But this is an educated and accomplished family.

The room I am in is a big dorm room…usually used for students at the university near here. But when my friend Jiraporn, who is a professor of fisheries at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, and has some of her students working on a fishingcrab study here, brought me here the family happily consented to rent the room to me.My room has aircon but the family set up a table outside…with a fan…where I can fiddle with my WiFi-linked computer set up by a nephew who is a computer programmer…after taking early morning walks to the sea…actually the Gulf of Thailand…where I can watch the fishing and crabbing boats come in with their catch.  The families boil the tiny fishingcrab, used in soups, in big pots fired by propane.  Little children run around unattended…happy and at home on the entire beach.How long will you be here, the family asks.  Maybe I stay forever, I say. We all laugh. Sigh.