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Ceremony held to mark Thai unrest (26 May 2010) Monks and other religious figures have held a vigil in Bangkok a week on from the army's operation to clear the capital of anti-government protesters. Several hundred monks led ceremonies which featured Christian, Sikh and Muslim leaders in mass prayers to bless the city. The government says it wants to pursue reconciliation in the wake of the protests. More than 80 people died over the course of the two-month stand-off. On Tuesday, a court laid terrorism charges against former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who the government accuses of fomenting the unrest. He denies the allegations and says they are politically motivated. 'Better future'Ceremonies and prayers were held at several sites across the capital. "It is very important for all of us in Bangkok to forgive and move ahead," said Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, a member of the ruling Democrat Party, who hosted the event. He said the event was meant to "wipe away a bad path and to create a better future". Bangkok remains under an overnight curfew in the wake of the violence. The government says the curfew is needed to prevent further unrest. The nine-week red-shirt protests converted some parts of Bangkok into barricaded no-go zones. Attempts to negotiate a settlement failed, and on 19 May the military moved to clear protesters from the area More than 80 people died over the course of the two-month protests. Several buildings were also burned down by protesters as they left their protest area. The protesters had been calling on the government to step down, saying it came to power illegally. BBC Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page Thai Premier Says Order Restored (21 May 2010) Thailand's prime minister Friday promised an independent probe into ''all events'' surrounding the Red Shirt protests, and called for reconciliation to heal deep political divisions that led to widespread violence and 83 deaths in two months. ''Fellow citizens, we all live in the same house. Now, our house has been damaged. We have to help each other,'' Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in a nationally broadcast address on television. ''We can certainly repair damaged infrastructure and buildings, but the important thing is to heal the emotional wounds and restore unity among the Thai people,'' the Oxford-educated Abhisit said in an emotional speech that contrasted with his typical academic style. Abhisit said authorities have restored order in Bangkok, where soldiers overran an encampment of Red Shirt protesters on Wednesday after a week of street fighting. The crackdown climaxed two months of violence, which left 83 people dead and more than 1,800 injured. He acknowledged that ''huge challenges'' lay ahead in overcoming the divisions, which he said can be achieved through a five-point reconciliation plan that he had announced earlier. ''That plan is based on the principle of participation, democracy and justice,'' he said. The plan includes economic and media reforms and aims to reduce social and economic divisions in Thai society, which the protesters had been railing against. But he made no mention of new elections, a key demand of the Red Shirts. Earlier Friday, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said Abhisit's earlier offer to hold elections on Nov. 14 was on hold until political passions have subsided and the security situation has stabilized nationwide. ''We need to make sure that emotions have cooled to the extent that candidates from all parties can feel safe in campaigning anywhere in the country. Frankly we would not feel safe doing that today,'' he told participants at a conference in Tokyo. Abhisit said the government will allow due process of law and parliamentary democracy to resolve the country's problems with the participation of all Thais. ''At the same time that plan will include an independent investigation of all the events that have taken place during the protests,'' he said without elaborating. The Red Shirts streamed into Bangkok in mid-March and set up an encampment in the historic part of the city. An army crackdown to remove them on April 10 left 25 people dead. Another 15 were killed on Wednesday when the army overran their second, heavily barricaded encampment in Rajprasong, one of Bangkok's most fashionable neighborhoods. In addition, 39 people were killed in clashes between troops and protesters in the week before the crackdown and four were killed in previous related clashes. The protesters, many of them poor farmers or members of the urban underclass, say Abhisit came to power illegitimately and is oblivious to their plight. They were demanding his resignation, the dissolution of Parliament and immediate elections. Wednesday's crackdown triggered widespread arson attacks in central Bangkok on landmark buildings including the stock exchange and major shopping malls. On Friday, security forces swept 10 high rise buildings including two luxury hotels for explosives and weapons, possibly left behind by fleeing protesters. The Four Seasons Hotel and the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the upscale Rajprasong area were among the buildings searched by soldiers, said army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd. Soldiers also led a search of the elevated Skytrain tracks as the service remained closed for the seventh day. IHT Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page More Forces Sent to Bangkok After Firefights (17 May 2010) Chaotic gun battles in central Bangkok marked a new phase of the city’s spiraling violence Monday as residents hoarded food and the government warned die-hard protesters that they should leave their encampment or risk “harmful” consequences. Protesters roaming the lawless streets of a strategically important neighborhood near the protest zone threatened to set fire to a gasoline truck as bonfires, some from piles of tires, sent large plumes of black, acrid smoke into the sky. Security forces armed with assault rifles were deployed in greater numbers across the city after many firefights, including a nighttime grenade attack on the five-star Dusit Thani hotel, a landmark in the city. The attack and a subsequent prolonged gun battle suggested that Thai security forces were up against more than just protesters with slingshots and bamboo staves. The mayhem of the crackdown, which follows two months of demonstrations by protesters who are seeking the resignation of the government, has made it difficult to understand who is battling whom. A government spokesman Monday ruled out talks with the protesters unless they dispersed and rejected an offer by one protest leader for unconditional negotiations. The government suggested that Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup, was behind the shadowy forces battling the army on Bangkok streets. Satit Wongnongtoei, a minister in the prime minister’s office, spoke of a “commander who lives overseas” who is intent on “causing violence and loss of lives to the people as much as they can by using the war weapons.” The government on Sunday issued a ban on certain banking transactions linked to companies and accounts held by Mr. Thaksin and his family. The protest movement defiantly encamped in Bangkok began as a reaction to Mr. Thaksin’s ouster but has expanded to resemble a large social movement by less affluent segments of Thai society rebelling against what they say is an elite that tries to control Thailand’s democratic institutions. On Sunday, Mr. Thaksin issued a statement through his lawyer that called on “all sides to step back from this terrible abyss and seek to begin a new, genuine and sincere dialogue between the parties.” It seems plausible that some of the attacks in recent days have been carried out by disaffected elements of the military or police. The attack on the Dusit Thani hotel in the early hours of Monday may have been a retaliatory move by a faction loyal to Khattiya Sawatdiphol, a renegade major general who was shot on Thursday. Security experts speculate that General Khattiya, who died on Monday, was shot by a sniper in the Dusit Thani hotel, which has served as a base for hundreds of security personnel members in recent weeks. The government has insisted that soldiers fire only in self-defense, but the death toll has been lopsidedly among civilians since violence intensified last Thursday. Government statistics said that 34 civilians and two soldiers — including General Khattiya, a protest supporter — had been killed since Thursday, and 256 people been wounded, almost all of them civilians. Protesters have attributed some of the deaths to snipers who are stationed in several places around the city on top of tall buildings. The Foreign Ministry explained in a memo distributed on Monday that the sharpshooters had been deployed to “look out for danger and protect others.” The memo summarized in chilling detail a video taken of a military sniper shooting someone suspected of carrying a “bomb,” the memo said, without more detail. “The shot was made in a controlled manner,” the memo said. One of the soldiers in the video is then quoted saying, “Man is down! I see it!” Most of the violence has occurred in the streets that surround the protesters barricaded encampment, where protest leaders appear increasingly anxious. Nattawut Saikua, a hard-line protest leader, said he was prepared to negotiate without preconditions if the government would accept a cease-fire. He dropped the demand he had made Sunday for mediation by the United Nations. The government responded that there would be no talks while the violence continued. With the apparent involvement of various armed groups, the fighting may have moved beyond the point where any protest leader can declare an effective cease-fire. The protest site, in the heart of Bangkok’s main commercial district, which at its peak was filled with tens of thousands of demonstrators, had thinned to perhaps 2,000 on Monday afternoon. Where entire families had camped in a festive atmosphere, mostly men remained. Garbage was strewn everywhere. Army aircraft circled above the site dropping leaflets urging people to leave. Guards in black with red scarves escorted people who chose to leave. A man circulated among the guards handing out small packets of sticky rice along with 100 baht bills, about $3. Protesters filled small Red Bull energy drink bottles with gasoline and then demonstrated their plan to propel them by swinging a golf club. Small groups of people occasionally looked up and pointed at surrounding department stores where they said they believed snipers were hidden. Outside the site of the sit-in, on Rama IV road where much of the worst fighting has taken place, trucks loaded with tires raced in, unloaded them as if at a racetrack pit stop, and sped away. Crowds watching from a safe distance applauded. The tires were stacked by the road to replenish a continually burning barricade. At one point in midafternoon, the crowd, at a new makeshift stage near the Khlong Toey slum, faced the burning wall of tires and sang the national anthem. Tension radiated from battle zone, and at one point unknown gunmen carried out an attack on a hospital. Hundreds of businesses and bank branches were closed after the violence caused the government to declare a national holiday and postpone the opening of schools. The American Embassy in Bangkok canceled a “town hall” meeting about the security situation scheduled for Tuesday because of the risk that those attending would be put in “harm’s way,” a statement from the embassy said Monday. Embassy officials will instead address concerns of Americans living in Bangkok on the Internet. One American photographer, Paula Bronstein of Getty Images, described being trapped in the Dusit Thani when the attacks occurred. “If you’ve ever heard the sound of a grenade, it’s really loud if it goes off really close,” she said. “It didn’t take long before we realized the hotel was under attack. The gunfire was just indescribable. It was just nonstop. And it was coming from both directions.” After the attack guests were told to go into the basement of the hotel, where they remained until morning. “There was a woman who had fainted, and they were trying to make her come to and it was really just more confusion and everyone was yelling,” Ms. Bronstein said. The hotel closed its doors to guests Monday afternoon. NYT Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page Thai Government Takes Harder Stance as Clashes Continue (15 May 2010) The Thai government struck a combative tone on Saturday, saying it would continue its efforts to cut off antigovernment protesters from the rest of the city despite a rising death toll and determined resistance from the demonstrators. Throughout the day and into the night, gunfire and explosions shook neighborhoods in central Bangkok that ring the one-mile area where the protesters have camped for weeks in an attempt to bring down the government. The government reported that 8 people were killed Saturday, bringing the death toll from three days of clashes to 24, with 198 people injured. “The government cannot turn back,” Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister, said in a nationally televised address on Saturday night. “Ending the rally is the only way to prevent calamity.” Shortly before the prime minister spoke, leaders of the country’s powerful military appeared on television in what may have been a deliberate show of unity for an army notorious for its divisions and intrigue. Unlike last month, when the government withdrew after a failed crackdown that left 25 people dead, the military said losses were unavoidable, and began calling in reinforcements, adding to the thousands of troops already here. With both the government and at least some protesters appearing to take a harder stance, fears were rising that the violence could spill out to other parts of the city. On Sunday, Mr. Abhisit said his government was considering imposing a curfew in Bangkok, along with other measures, Reuters reported. Already on Saturday, many streets near the center of the capital were deserted and some residents woke to find their neighborhoods suddenly within the battle zone near the cordon set up in recent days by the military. In an attempt to keep troops out, some protesters set barricades of tires on fire, sending up tall plumes of smoke.There were many reports of snipers firing at protesters, and as night fell, the government turned off street lights in some neighborhoods, leaving them in near total darkness. After a night filled with the flash and boom of explosions, of shouts and gunfire in the dark, two huge plumes of black smoke from burning tires rose above the high-rise skyline Sunday morning as if to tell the city’s residents, “We are still here.” The violence in recent days led the United States government to offer a voluntary evacuation of nonessential personnel in its embassy in Bangkok and to advise against all travel to the Thai capital; it had previously only advised against nonessential travel. Other countries also issued warnings about visiting the city. Despite the worries that violence would escalate, the government has powerful reasons to show restraint. Officials have held back for weeks for fear of causing a bloodbath — further tarnishing Thailand’s reputation as a business and tourist-friendly country — or of inciting unrest in other parts of the country sympathetic to the protesters. Rather than forcing a showdown, the military could instead choose to continue to try to divide the demonstrators, hoping that more moderate members will leave the area as they run out of food and water. Over the last several days, the military has set up checkpoints on roads leading to the protesters’ encampment, keeping supporters with new supplies out and checking the identity of anyone trying to enter the area. Sudsanguan Suthisorn, an associate professor of criminology at Thammasat University and a member of the protest movement, said that only limited supplies of food and water remained in the cordoned-off area and that with municipal power cut off, fuel was running low for generators. The protesters, who began their demonstration here two months ago, have demanded the resignation of the government and new elections. But the movement — made up of farmers and the urban poor, many of them supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister deposed in a 2006 military coup — has fractured and its demands are now unclear. In his television appearance on Saturday, Mr. Abhisit tried to explain the government’s tougher stance, saying that he feared armed groups, which he said were siding with the demonstrators, could overthrow the government. “We cannot let the country remain in this condition, where people do not respect the law,” he said. Lt. Gen. Dowpong Rattanasuwan, the deputy chief of the army, said Saturday that “forces with weapons are hiding among the protesters” and that soldiers had been authorized to use their weapons in self-defense. Inside the protesters’ barricaded encampment the crowds were thinner and more subdued than they had been before the clashes began Thursday. Under rows of tents and in a plaza in front of a sound stage, plastic chairs stood empty, and protest leaders did not offer their accustomed rousing speeches from the stage. At a small news conference, one of the leaders, Nattawut Saikua, asserted that it was no longer possible to control some of the protesters. Among the casualties of three days of clashes was an emergency medical technician who was riding a motorcycle when he was fatally wounded and four journalists, all of whom were wounded but survived. One photographer reported seeing two dead or wounded victims unattended in a street for a long period because of the fear of snipers. The military was not allowing ambulances to pass a roadblock, the photographer said, which meant that rescue workers had to run in a crouch with stretchers to carry out the victims. In one neighborhood, the military posted a banner declaring a “Live firing zone.” A Thai television station reported that the banner was taken down late in the afternoon. The violence occurring Saturday is likely to harden divisions between the country’s poor majority, which forms the base of the protest movement, and its elite establishment, which feels threatened and discomfited by the long occupation of the city’s upscale commercial center. Underlying the protests is a rising awareness among the poor of their rights and a demand for a greater share in the country’s wealth and political voice. Mr. Thaksin, the deposed prime minister, remains abroad; he is wanted in Thailand on a conviction for corruption. He had mobilized the poor as a political base, and the demand for democracy that is often heard among them now reflects a sense that their vote was stolen from them when he was ousted. NYT Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page |
