They’ve arrested a 12-year-old for setting a lot of the fires around the Din Daeng area. He is with the red shirts but seems to have been setting fires just for fun. What a good lad! He’ll go far, all right. :rolleyes: Story on that here. I suspect the reds handed him over pronto, figuring this sort of thing would nt go over well.
BBC has reported the government rejected the phone-in offer of a truce as “nonsense.” Haha! Good for them. Wanker reds. They know well what they need to do for a truce. Again, there’s no telling what’s going on behind the scenes. In Thailand, there is always, always behind-the-scenes activity; you never know the real situation.
Plan to get in bed relatively early tonight, so if you don’t hear from me until close to this time tomorrow, don’t worry. I probaby have not gotten a grenade fired up my ass.
Ah, I keep forgetting. Another Town Hall Meeting for American citizens only was planned for this afternoon (Tuesday afternoon) at a hotel farther away from the strife this time. But then the embassy sent this notice changing it to a virtual meeting:
**AMERICAN TOWN HALL NOTICE
Due to ongoing security and safety concerns, the Town Hall meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 at 2pm has been re-formatted into a virtual Town Hall meeting to be held on-line. This will allow for a greater number of American citizens residing in Thailand to participate in a discussion with the Ambassador, the Embassy Security Officer and our American Citizens Services Chief. We regret any inconvenience this may cause but believe this will be a more effective means of reaching the greatest number of people without putting them in harm’s way. The safety of American citizens remains our primary concern.
The virtual Town Hall meeting will be held from 4 - 5pm on Tuesday, May 18.
The Ambassador and other key embassy officials will be available to take your questions.
If you are unable to join us, a transcript of the webchat will be made available on our Embassy website at http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/
Questions may be submitted in advance of the Town Hall webchat beginning at 8:00am on the morning of Tuesday, May 18 at 8:00am (Bangkok time). Just enter the site above to submit your question.**
End of message. I simply don’t have time to attend this sort of thing. I’ll be out and about then anyway. There was a Letter to the Editor after the last Town Hall Meeting, I think in the Bangkok Post, questioning the wisdom in this day and age of announcing to all and sundry the location of a large group of Americans. Hehe, they may have a point. There are some al-Qaeda affiliates way down in our deep South.
The official holiday for schools and government offices has been extended throughout this week. It’s a moot point for the wife, who can’t get to her office anyway. The Skytrain and subway are still down today; no word on tomorrow yet.
No deaths today, thank goodness.
Remember Nuttawut, the bozo in the video I linked to? the one threatening to burn down Bangkok? Has been labelled a terrorist by the government. Karma is a bitch, a putative Buddhist should know.
Now this red shirt leaders are starting to feel the heat, when they were booed on stage by the hoi polloi when they hinted at a peace process. If their followers turn on them they’ll find themselves in the proverbial space between a rock and a hard place, specially with the ones accused of terrorism which can even carry a death penalty. I expect this guys to begin singing and pointing fingers about three seconds after their fall from grace.
Now of course that leaves a bunch of angry protesters free to roam like headless chicken…
The financial measures are also piling up, dozens of other presumed financiers (individuals and companies) have had their accounts frozen while they are combed over to see where the money came in and went out. I expect this to have a pretty significant effect in the protest, more than once I’ve wondered about how the whole logistics of the protests was financed.
The government also nabbed Seh Daeng (General Grenade) right hand, apparently he’s spilling the beans and pointing at Nuttawut as heavily involved with terror attacks in the city.
I’m cautiously optimistic that this events are the beginning of a solution to the crisis; actually I’m starting to think good things could come out of this.
For one, Thais seem to be more politically aware since the start of the ordeal, for example my GF, from not voting ever now is following the politics closely, making commentary and debating in some forums and I noticed most of her friends doing the same.
This may finally discredit and exhaust Thaksin to the point of becoming of little relevance; he may have gone for broke in this attempt.
Wednesday morning, and there has been an incredible development. A HUGE conflagration is raging by Chulalongkorn Hospital. One side of our bedroom faces that direction, and I woke up to see a gigantic cloud of smoke off in that direction. About two or three miles from here.
Seems the red filth has torched a BUNCH of tires in the road in front of their encampment, which is across from the hospital, because they said they saw snipers on top of that building. The smoke is SO thick that no one can see inside to know exactly what is burning or where it is burning. But the fear is whatever it is, even if it is just tires, could spread to the hospital. Water cannons are being moved into place nearby on Silom Road, and troops are (finally!) moving closer. Could this be what it taks to clear this scum out finally? It’s about 8:20am right now.
There are some shots of the huge clouds of black smoke on my friend’s website at 2bangkok.com.
Elsewhere, on the other side of the red zone, in Din Daeng district, some buildings of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board have been set on fire. They say for that one, it’s more punk teenagers starting fires. This time, I would guess they chose the target specially; perhaps it’s a little personal.
That’s becoming a big problem with this protest. So many of the “protesters” are simply the street droputs from society you see coming up to wash your window while waiting at intersections and such. Homeless anyway, they and other delinquents are taking this to be one big party and an excuse to run riot. It sounds like even the red-shirt “guards” are having trouble controlling them.
Yesterday, the government did make it illegal in Bangkok and the surrounding provinces to sell used or second-hand tires without special permission after ascertaining what the tires would be used for. But whio knows how many the red filth already have stockpiled.
BBC TV is reporting the authorities are moving in to move the reds out, but I’m doubtful. I think the announcer in London is confusing action against the giant fire in front of the hospital with an anti-red operation. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the fire.
I’ll add that it’s inpatients being evacuated. As reported in recent weeks, there are no more inpatients. But the hospital had reopened some services for inpatients.
Local TV news is reporting the red filth poured gasoline down into Klong Toey subway station and lit it, then threw grenades down into there. The subway is not running today anyway; it and the Skytrain will remain closed. I think the station must have just this porous metal grating coming down the entrance, which would allow grenades to be pushed through.
Okay, scratch the Klong Toey subway-station report. A little exaggeration by witnesses. Seems they saw some guys using a rock to break in, and they thought it was a grenade. The guys did pour petrol around, but the red-shirt “guards” chased them away. No fire.
Probably more of that street-delinquent element I mentioned.
Well, the army is definitely moving in. The barricades at the Sala Daeng intersection, by Chulalongkorn Hospital and the entrance to Lumpini Park, have been smashed through by armored vehicles.
Kasikornbank in Soi Ngam Duphli, off of Rama IV Road, is on fire. That is confirmed. But I don’t know how big a fire.
We’re seeing a big plume of smoke from our unit from that direction. The TV is showing thick blackness in front of the bank from burning tires, and it looks like the bank is burning really well.
