Civil Strife Grips Thailand

Earlier, Reds leaders had tearfully announced the end of their protest movement in front of a large crowd of emotional supporters, including many women and children.

"I know that you are suffering. Some of us are speechless. But we want to stop any more deaths here," said Jatuporn Prompan.

"I know that if the military comes here many of you will sacrifice your lives and we cannot stand to see that."

"We are ending the protests here," said Nattawut from the main protest stage. "I know this is unacceptable to some of you and some of you do not want to hear but we cannot stand against this cruelty."

"We will exchange our freedom with your safety. We have tried our best."

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Updated: May 19, 2010, 3:36 a.m. E.T.
With army tanks, troops and police moving into their rally site, Thailand's antigovernment Red Shirt leaders called an end to their two-month-long occupation of Bangkok's main commercial district on Wednesday afternoon and said they would turn themselves in to the police. Meanwhile, on the streets outside the protest area, gunfights still raged between armed Red Shirts and their sympathizers and government soldiers.

"We have tried our best for the sake of the country, but when we see so much death, it has to stop," said protest leader Nattawut Saikua as the 2,000 or so Red Shirts remaining at the main rally site shouted that they wanted to keep demonstrating. "I declare we are ending the rally at this site, but not our struggle," Nattawut said at about 1:30 p.m. Protest leaders said they would surrender at the police headquarters, which is inside the Red Shirt barricades at Rajaprasong, the three-square-mile area the protesters had occupied since April 3. As Nattawut spoke, witnesses at the rally site said police with riot shields were entering the area. Shortly afterward, explosions were heard near the main stage and plumes of black smoke rose over Rajaprasong.

As the army moved in, gunfights continued on the streets outside with one Italian journalist reported killed and three journalists wounded. In total, five deaths and 19 injuries had been reported by early afternoon. A Red Shirt street fighter was shot in the chest in the Klong Toey slum area where Red Shirts were burning tires and exchanging gunfire with soldiers. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanyagorn told a press conference that security forces were trying to minimize loss of life. At the main protest site at Rajaprasong most women and children had been moved into a Buddhist temple compound for safety.

The operation to disperse the protesters began after attempts to mediate a settlement by a group of Senators broke down. Onstage at the Rajaprasong rally this morning, where fewer than 5,000 protesters, many of them women and children, remained, Red Shirt leaders had told their followers that the troops were coming and that they should remain still and calm. Meanwhile, street battles still raged around the capital as Red Shirts outside the main protest area and their sympathizers burned tires and some buildings and exchanged fire with soldiers at checkpoints meant to choke off access to the main rally. TV footage showed Thai government armored personnel carriers rolling past makeshift bamboo fortifications along the perimeter of the protest areas.

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Thai troops hunt militants as Bangkok smoulders
Posted: 20 May 2010 2005 hrs

Thai troops hunt militants as Bangkok smoulders

BANGKOK - Thai troops Thursday hunted for militant protesters who left parts of Bangkok in flames as the authorities extended a night curfew in the capital despite tentative signs of a return to normality.

The top leader of the anti-government "Red Shirt" movement urged supporters to halt the mayhem that left major buildings smouldering and in ruins after a deadly army crackdown ended a six-week rally in the retail heart of the city.

"Democracy cannot be built on revenge. Good things are built on non-violence," Veera Musikapong said after surrendering to police along with other top leaders in the face of the military offensive that left 15 dead.

The toll from Wednesday's offensive rose after authorities said nine people had been killed in a gunbattle at a Buddhist temple inside the Reds' ruined camp, where thousands of protesters cowered in fear overnight.

Under the watch of saffron-clad monks, the bodies of six of the victims were laid out in the temple garden, under a portrait of Thailand's revered king, who has been hospitalised since September and has not commented on the crisis.

After the terrified protesters were led out through a police cordon, the army said it was not responsible for the deaths, in a "safe zone" where many women and children had sought shelter.

The stock exchange and the nation's biggest shopping mall were among dozens of locations set ablaze in the chaotic aftermath of the campaign to end the Reds' occupation of Bangkok's top retail district.

Political observers warned that Thailand's troubles were far from over and that more civil unrest in the capital and the Reds' rural heartland was likely as a split widens between the kingdom's elite and the rural and urban poor.

"It's not the end of the conflict, it's just the beginning of another phase of war -- whatever you want to call it, civil war, guerrilla warfare," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Bangkok prepared for a second night under curfew, and authorities announced the measures would continue until Saturday as they work to stamp out pockets of resistance among the Red Shirts movement.

The curfew has been extended to cover 23 provinces as the conflict spread outside the capital. Four provincial halls were targeted by arsonists Wednesday, and some 13,000 rallied in rural areas, the army said.

Soldiers fired warning shots Thursday as they took up positions in the ruins of the Reds' rally site in the capital, attempting to restore order but warning that rebel snipers were still positioned on high rise buildings.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said both sides had committed "serious abuses" during the confrontation.

But the unruly mobs that had roamed Bangkok late Wednesday before the curfew began appeared to have retreated and the flashpoints of the last few days were quiet.

A clean-up operation got underway in a vast area of central Bangkok where demonstrators had set up camp with areas for sleeping, eating and washing.

Government offices, schools, the stock exchange and banks have been shut for the rest of the week to keep civilians off the street, and the city's two main train networks were closed.

Since the Red Shirts began street rallies in mid-March some 82 people including two foreign journalists have been killed in clashes and blasts, and some 1,800 injured.

"At this moment we are at the most difficult point in Thai history," said Thawil Pliensri, secretary general of the country's National Security Council, urging the government to tread carefully or risk inflaming the situation.

Troops and police moved in Wednesday in an overwhelming offensive, punching through the Reds' towering homemade barricades made of tyres and razor wire and triggering battles with hardline protesters.

Those militant elements ran amok after their leaders turned themselves in to police, starting fires that left 35 locations in the capital ablaze including the vast Central World mall which is now partly collapsed.

Three more protest leaders surrendered to the authorities, bringing to eight the number of top Red Shirts who are now in police custody.

"Police finished the surrender process with initial questioning and health checks," said Lieutenant General Thangai Prasajaksattru, commander of Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau.

The Red leaders were being moved into a military camp in Phetchaburi province southwest of Bangkok, he said.

The Reds are mostly supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who is now accused by the government of bankrolling the protests and inciting the deadly unrest.

- AFP/ir

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Finn McCool said:

What inflicted the injuries those soldiers had in the "Extremely graphic" photos? The only thing the Red Shirts have that could do that is a grenade. Also nothing I've read indicated that soldiers had been killed storming the camp. Seems like we've got evidence to contradict that.

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rhino123 said:

The red shirt do have homemake weapons like pistols and rockets. Although from various report these rockets are actually improvise firecrackers. But I think some of the red shirt actually know how to use these weapons effectively.

I notice the soldier who had his leg 'opened' out had burn mark all over the edge of the wound, which actually suggest being struck by one of these 'rockets'.

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rhino123 said:

Actually I am wondering, if some of these red shirt actually serve some time in the military... or were actually part of the military that had revolted against current government.

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