Stay safe, ThailandDopers!
Oh Happy Day! In a rare display of balls, an army sniper took out that bastard, Seh Daeng. A head shot. He’s not dead, but he’s not doing that well either. I was among a group of Thais when the announcement was made, and the jubilation was deafening. Not many red-shirt lovers among them, no sir. The wife is over the moon.
Reports of gunfire and explosions around that same time too, with reports of injuries. Seems since then some of the brighter protesters decided to march on the army to avenge Seh Daeng and were fired upon. One dead so far.
Hopefully, the authorites will really clean this up now. There are mixed reports, but apparently at least some utilities have been cut off to some areas inside the protest zone. But the situation is confused.
Embassies, businesses and offices near the site closed early today. Trouble was in the air, just like those old Westerns where the townspeople board up and leave town ahead of the big gunfight.
Funny thing, but this afternoon – I swear this is true – the driver of a taxi I was in told me: “Don’t go to Patpong tonight. The army is going to start shooting people.” Huh. Taxi drivers always seem to know the score. Of course, by that time the isolation emasures planned for tonight from 6pm had been announced, and everyone figured it would happen this time, because the government looked so foolish last night.
Yes, one dead and 10 injured.
Well, as bad as the guy was I don’t think it’s healthy to have snipers killing people extra judicially. He wasn’t armed at the moment or threatening anyone so in my opinion it’s not justified to off him like that. Not to speak of doing it in front of international press.
Of course that being from the point of view of a government approved action, which actually I have trouble believing. I don’t think the PM or direct surrogates asked to have him shot, I’d put my money on an Army faction taking matters in their own hands or a small possibility of an inside job from the red shirts, getting rid of someone that was either becoming a liability for the legitimate (as few as they may have) grievances of the movement or a threat to other leaders that may want to enter negotiations with the government. After all Seh Daeng made not so veiled threats against anyone who may have thought of jumping ship or getting soft.
Someone should have shot that bastard a long time ago. The government’s given fair warning they can and will shoot persons deemed terrorists in this affair, which he has been declared. He’s been asking for it for a very long time. I suspect he has a lot of dirt on a lot of people, and that’s probably why he’s been allowed to run amok for so many years with impunity. There are probably people sleeping uneasily tonight, hoping his records are not easy to open.
Friday morning, and the government has not yet issued a statement confirming or denying anything. But again, it should be clear that if the government shot Seh Daeng, it was NOT extrajudicial. The authorities have announced shoot-on-sight powers for anyone on their terrorist list, and Seh Daeng was very publicly placed on that list weeks ago. They were within their rights to take him out at any time, and I hope the other leaders take note. He had plenty of warning to stand down, but like most Thais in a high military position, he placed a little too much confidence in the ability of his amulets and magic tattoos to protect him, more than most even, due to his overall cockiness. He’s still alive but in a coma, so maybe his amulets and tattoos helped a little.
However, the analysts are poring over the incident this morning. Much speculation is that it could have been an army faction acting on the orders of Thaksin, who believed the movement needed a sacrifice to stir the shit some more, what with the government moving to isolate the Ratchaprasong area and that since, as mentioned, Seh Daeng was threatening to take over the movement and kick out any moderates – if they can be called moderates – then he was selected. He could even have been taking it upon himself to transcend Thaksin’s orders, which the big man would not have liked. In the West, I would dismiss this sort of notion as another dubious conspiracy theory, but over here, this sort of thing is not at all implausible.
Hehe. They’re remarking now on how Seh Daeng and the vast majority of red-shirt injured were not taken to Chulalongkorn Hospital, which was right there across the street from them. After the trouble they’ve caused – on Seh Daeng’s orders; as chief of red-shirt security, he would have been the one who ordered the full petrol cans tied to the hospital perimeter to be set off in case of attack, as well as that raid on the facility – they are probably thinking of May 1992, when some doctors and nurses refused to treat injured soldiers and the Hippocratic oath be damned.
Now the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), the body tasked with handling this crisis, has just announced it did not issue an order to take Seh Daeng out. Of course, they probably would say that.
BBC TV is reporting a clash within the past hour at the Silom Road intersection, between army and protesters. Says the power has been cut off completely to the rally area, but of course they have their own generators.
The Skytrain will be stopping at only nine stations today. It won’t even pass through the area of the protest: On the Sukhumvit Line, one end will travel from Morchit Station to Ratchathewi Station and return, while the other end will travel from Onnuj Station to Asoke Station and return. I’ve not heard about the subway.
Of possible interest is this series of photos from Seh Daeng’s unauthorized visit to Thaksin in Dubai last year. It’s a pdf file.
We live not too far away from the Silom intersection, maybe a couple or three miles, and we’ve heard a helicopter pass by a couple of times this morning. I’m guessing it’s the one they just said on the news was just fired at with some sort of skyrocket fireworks by the protesters when it flew in to take a look from above.
The protesters seized four container trucks about 2am this morning and used them to block Rama IV Road. Traffic was completely halted.
Heard there was some trouble with the protesters trying to extend their barricades farther, but the soldiers would not let them. That must have been the clash BBC reported a little while ago.
Just heard that helicopter again.
I guess the other red-shirt leaders, or at least some of them, figure they could be next. They’ve reportedly gone in hiding, under the protection of certain army elements.
Two subway stations are closed today: Silom and Lumpini. Otherwise, the line is operating normally.
From the 2bangkok.com website (which is run by a friend of mine):
**Colonel Romklao’s revenge - May 14, 2010
Assuming the military is behind the sniper attack on Seh Daeng, and we believe this is a very likely scenario, it was likely not a difficult decision for them to resolve to take him out.
From correctly predicting multiple attacks on the Commander-in-Chief’s headquarters, warning that judges would be assassinated, and implying at every turn he was behind armed resistance to the government, Seh Daeng was provoking a very dangerous foe–the Thai military at the defense of the nation.
Recent years have been anomaly for the military. They have tolerated provocation and resisted being provoked by pro-Thaksin forces. This is historically unusual behavior for the military which, in the past, always sprang forward to clumsily defend itself despite any negative ramifications.
Those with only memories of the past decade perhaps have forgotten what a dangerous beast the Thai military can be when roused to action. It was an incredibly preposterous notion that protesters could take off their red shirts could somehow escape a crackdown. Once the military gives a final warning, all are fair game and are dealt with in broad strokes. Such an organization does not hesitant carrying out what it sees as necessary action–even when their target is being interviewed by the international press.
As we have previously noted, the existence of armed resistance to the military in the city culminating in the apparent targeting of Colonel Romklao on April 10 likely set in motion the final fate for Seh Daeng.
Once it was clear Seh Daeng was also standing in the way of the government brokered end to Red rally at Rajprasong, and even trying to put together a more radical leadership bent on revolution, even the government likely went along with his removal from the scene.**
Colonel Romklao was the officer killed in the April 10 clash. As I believe I mentioned earlier in this thread, the military always – and I mean always – takes revenge for something like this. The Seh Daeng shooting could very well be it.
From a Bangkok Post story:
Observers said the attack on Maj Gen Khattiya could lead to the red rally ending soon. ‘‘It’s a clear attempt to decapitate the red shirt military leadership,’’ said Anthony Davis, a security consultant with IHS-Jane’s. ‘‘It’s a smart tactical move that will cause confusion in the red shirts’ military ranks and send a message to the leadership that if they don’t want to negotiate and come out, they can expect extreme consequences,’’ he told Reuters.
And The Nation is reporting some red guards were slipped some sedative-laced beverages last night. Amusing if true.
The latest word on Seh Daeng is he has a “low chance of survival.” After reading and listening to all of the analyses so far today, I don’t for a second believe the red shirts themselves were behind this. I believe my friend’s analysis in post #130 above to be the most likely scenario, that Seh Daeng was shot by the army in revenge for last month’s killing of Colonel Romklao, among other things, and the government was only too pleased this time to go along with what is essentially their military masters.
Well, I must go out and about into the city. Unfortunately, my flak jacket is at the cleaners, and I left my helmet in the back of a taxi. But I promise to be careful.
Oh dear, there seems to be a battle going on in and around Lumpini park.
There’s still gunfire and grenades going off. Apparently a car bomb was also found and defused.
Siam Sam, please don’t take this the wrong way - I don’t mean to insult you, or downplay the fact that you’re one of the guys who actually has to live through this mess.
But if I may ask - at what point is it no longer fair for a government to announce it has determined someone is a terrorist and will shoot them on sight, with no trial or judicial recourse, whether or not that person is currently engaged in violence? I confess I find the idea of a government gunning down its citizens in the street to be a troubling one.
I’m not Siam Sam, but let me answer anyway.
These people are despicable terrorists, armed with military weapons, who’ve refused orders to disband. The ringleaders are surrounded with well-armed bodyguards, a human shield, and have been assassinating government security forces. Look what they did to Chulalongkorn Hospital.
If a similar scenario were playing out in Manhattan, can you imagine U.S. forces not using lethal force?
That. I find the question extremely bizarre. Seh Daeng was a truly evil man. May he rot in hell, once he finally dies. The bastard is still hanging on, barely. And I’ll drink a toast to the good soul who pulled that trigger.
Well, it’s been a long, long day, and I am knackered. Nothing disrupts traffic like civil unrest, and it was hell moving around the city. But I can tell you a newspaperman I know confirmed to me today that the Seh Daeng shooting was indeed army revenge for the April 10 killing of Colonel Romklao. Said there was no doubt about that in anyone’s mind he knew. What’s more, Colonel Romklao was a member of the Queen’s Guard, and so the revenge was not only on the part of the army. There was a little bit of revenge courtesy of a Family That Must Not Be Named. Which is all I will say about THAT aspect.
But there is a great deal of speculation that one of the group of reporters interviewing Seh Daeng helped set him up for the hit. It seems one of them had a video camera for filming him, and the moment, the very second, the light came on the camera, lighting up Seh Daeng’s face, POW! The shot was taken. It’s as if the sniper was waiting for the light to guide him. Interesting if true. That New York Times reporter who was in the group reckons the bullet must have whizzed right past his ear. Of course, the bastard was out in the open all the time in the daylight, but possibly the cover of darkness was wanted for discretion, as well as to sow fear among the crowd.
As for today, it’s been a day of running street battles. Lots of shooting, lots of explosions. 7 dead so far just today, only red shirts thank goodness and may they rot in Hell. More than 100 injured. Sala Daeng Skytrain Station was bombed yet again, but not until after all Skytrain service was shut down at 4pm. (All subway service was suspended at 5pm.) A potential car bomb was discovered on Ram-Indra Road, loaded with TNT, and police defused that. It’s after midnight now, and the fighting is continuing. But the army has still not pushed forward heavily. They say they won’t tonight, too dangerous, but something may be planned for tomorrow.
Also, Thaksin was told by the Montenegrin government he may no longer use his time in that country for political activities against the Thai government. He was based in Dubai until the government there recently told him the same thing, so he relocated. But he’s free to return to Dubai as far as I know,
And with that, I’m off to bed. It promises to be another long day tomorrow.
Saturday morning now, and the death toll from yesterday has risen to 16, with 157 injured as of 6am this morning, about 2-1/2 hours ago. That according to The Nation newspaper. The Bangkok Post has not updated their 7-dead figure from late last night, while BBC TV has it pegged at 8. I don’t think anything major occurred during the night, but the standoff continues.
Looks set to be another hot day in Paradise, and I don’t mean the temperature. Already this morning, after the army blocked pickups trying to take food to the protest site, protesters set fire to telephone booths, police boxes and CCTV cameras on Convent Road. The Bangkok Post and BBC have both updated the Friday death toll to 16.
And we’re heading out into the city. Wish us luck!
Hoping for your safety, Siam Sam and, err, Siam Samantha.