The story I hear in all the papers (I’m in Singapore) and the interviews on TV seem to make it look like Abhsit is out of touch with the people, etc. Nobody seems to be running pieces on how the reds are basically being paid to attend rallies, or how that rogue army general was advocating bringing molotov cocktails into Bangkok.
I don’t quite understand the spin, though. Why make it look like the reds have any legitimacy at all? Was Thaksin that chummy with the whole world’s politico?
Thaksin may be nothing more than a gangster, but he is a dollar billionaire and on the boards of several multinational companies with people like George HW Bush. He knows a lot of people. Montenegro and Nicaragua have granted him passports in exchange for acting as an economic adviser. He frequently flies into Phnom Penh, having been named as an adviser to that country’s government last year; no passport from there, but Hun Sen likes to thumb his nose publicly at Thailand by being chummy with him in front of the press. (Word is Thaksin has expressed in private how horrified he was at Hun Sen’s lack of any economic knowledge whatsoever.) He is a fugitive, having been convicted – under the administration of his brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat, a supporter – of corruption and sentenced to prison; his billions are going a long way toward keeping Interpol at bay. He just had almost US$2 billion confisctaed by the Thai government in February, but he still has plenty stashed away.
The main problem with Abhisit is he cannot control the army. (But then, no PM can; when they get too big for their britches, like Thaksin did, the army always steps in.) He may not be completely in touch with some of the population, but he’s not quite as out of touch as the red shirts and the press like to portray him. Actually a good man and rather honest, for a Thai politician. He has acted buffoonishly in handling much of this crisis, but then it would be a tough situation for anyone.
Update! This just being announced on the news: Seh Daeng has died! Woo Hoo! Happy Dance! Happy Dance! 
The Dusit Thani hotel (in front of the rioters fortress in Sala Daeng) has been hit by 2 or 3 RPGs.
Not surprisingly, hotel occupancy in central Bangkok is about 10% at the moment, from what I’ve heard.
Yes, mentioned in #160 above. They’ve asked all guests to check out by noon today. Previously, they had offered to move guests to their other properties, but some people still stayed. Mostly reporters, I gather.
There’s a decent analysis here about how the red-shirt filth have shot themselves in the foot by reneging on their initial acceptance of the offer for November elections.
Seems the aforementioned two-day holiday is only for schools (which are now not supposed to start until next week or later anyway, but some universities have activities) and government offices, not for everyone. Still, it’ll reduce traffic some.
Well, I’m of into the Mean Streets of Bangkok. Not much else going on now that I’ve heard. Will check back tonight if I don’t get a grenade up my ass.
The guy threatening to set Bangkok ablaze is not a general, he is a washed out pop singer that somehow ended up as a red leader. See him here evading arrest swinging from a wire while the red mob holds the police at bay.
By the way, the red leaders had promised to give themselves in to justice on the 15th of May… they didn’t say which year though. :rolleyes:
The general (Mayor General Khattiya Sawasdipol) was the one killed by a sniper. As far as I know he didn’t threat to burn down the city with Molotov Cocktails, he seemed to prefer grenades and used to wear a hat decorated with many grenade pins.
It’s unfortunate that internationally this is distilled into “The oppressed poor fighting against the ruling elites for democracy, freedom and puppies”. I tremble to think what it would be to have the reds succeed and take over the country. (Another of the top red leaders, Weng Tojirakarn is a Maoist)
Waiting for the earth shattering kaboom…
Right now rioters are trying to blow up an oil tanker at a gas station at Bon Kai.
Very wise to back the Yellow Shirts, all e-mail in Thai is checked over by the government as “rent” for allowing the u.s. to have a listening base in Esan.(Probably spelled it wrong).
Its a foreign country, like history, the people do things differently there.
I would advise any visitors to never, ever criticise the King or the Royal family, ever.
I don’t know about other posters here, but I have no love or use for the yellow shirts neither. They can all go to hell on the same hand-basket for all I care.
Although, to be fair the yellow shirts don’t seem to have such a militant and violent arm as the reds. Bad as the yellows protest was it didn’t spark the sort of havoc we are seeing now.
Pfft! The yellow shirts are just as much scum. There are very few good guys in this dogfight.
The situation remains hugely confused, but some progress seems to be in the making. This freezing of the accounts of the 106+ people and companies is already proving a godsend. One red-shirt leader in particular not only seems to have 100 million baht (US$3 million) that he cannot account for. He also has two Bt10-million-baht houses and some luxury cars. A true man of the people all right, uh huh. :rolleyes: He has not been named yet, but if I had to bet, I’d bet it’s Jatuporn. Whoever it is will be named publicly this week.
Two aides of Thaksin’s ex-wife have also been caught withdrawing large sums on her behalf. They’ll have to answer for that. They should have checked bank accounts weeks ago! I can only imagine they waited this long because the Anti-Money Laundering Act gives the authorities the right to freeze and even confiscate – they can have the money taken away for good, hehe – any funds that are deemed connected to “terrorist activity.” And the activity has indeed been increasingly of a terrorist nature lately. It’s sure to stick.
A red-shirt leader called an aide to the prime minister tonight asking for a truce. The government says just as soon as the protesters leave, sure they can talk.
Traffic was largely better today outside of the trouble areas. Must have been the declaration of the holiday for many. But it got a little hairy when, as Ale mentioned earlier, the red filth commandeered a huge gas tanker with 6000 liters of gasoline and tried to blow it up on Rama IV Road! They lit tires underneath its rear end, they even shot it up, but it has not blown up yet. Still sitting there, on Rama IV Road right by Soi Ngam Duphli. There is a cooking-gas shop close by, too. The authorities say they’ll try to put it out with foam if they succees in lighting it. I wonder if they’ll draw straws, and the short straw has to go put it out!
The reds said they wanted to burn down Siam Skytrain Station today too and started tossing tires onto the tracks. The army moved in against them, and what happened then is a little confused, but the station was not torched.
I mentioned earlier that one red-shirt leader was telling the crowd they could leave if they were nervous about the 3pm deadline, but it seems other leaders were saying they couldn’t leave, because it was just a trick, and the soldiers would shoot them. One grandmother with two grandchildren told a reporter later that she was told the soldiers weren’t even Thai, that they had brought in foreign soldiers specially, just to shoot them. !!!
Much mayhem today, but those are the headlights. Again, I am knackered. It’s been a long day. I can tell you my friend on the board of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand today told me of a friend living and working in the Yasothon area of the Northeast. The guy speaks the local dialect very well, and it’s a staunch red area. However, he said that stupid hospital raid has turned even them against this protest. It was simply wrong they say, and they are not so quick to support these leaders. Similar sentiments are starting to appear around the country. The reds shot themselves in the foot first with that hospital raid and then reneging on the November elections.
Oh, and this photo has been making the rounds. Maybe it’s real, maybe not, but it’s been in the news all day today – news sites, TV. Taken last Saturday, it shows Thaksin shopping for luxury goods in the Champs Elysee in Paris with his daughter. The daughter is the one kneeling in the background, not the girl in front; that one looks like some Thai girl who spotted Thaksin and took the opportunity to have her photo taken. The tall man in the dark suit to the left of Thaksin I recognize. That’s one of his regular bodyguards; I’ve seen them together here in Bangkok in the past. Shopping for Louis Vuitton while his followers are dodging bullets. Mmm-hmmm, he’s JUST the man to lead the poor, isn’t he?
Skytrain and subway closed again tomorrow (Tuesday). Hope I’m not rambling too much, but it’s been a very long day.
Haha, that’s right, he is, isn’t he? I’d completely forgotten about that. They don’t make much fuss over communists anymore these days. I remember when the Thai army used to burn them alive in trash barrels. Really! Today’s army seems to be a pale shadow of their predecessors.
Actually it was later revealed that the tanker was empty, thank Og, after having delivered the fuel to some stations in the area. I couldn’t say if the rioters or the terrified neighbours knew that though. Still a big tanker full of gas fumes could make a mighty bang.
There’s some very good pictures of the riots in the Boston Globe Big Picture page. The first thought I had when I saw #13 was that it looks like a zombies movie, but instead of “Braaaains!” the zombies go “Yupsaphaaaaa!” (Dissolve parliament) instead.
More photos here.
Here’s an article that shows the level of commit… err, brainwashing of some protesters.
Finallya video showing armed protesters. (although in fairness some of the shots are of protesters displaying weapons they seized from authorities… in further fairness not all of them were returned)
Is it really empty? The Bangkok Post is still reporting it has 6000 liters inside. Not that they’re always right! And yes, fumes can blow too, and then there’s that cooking-gas shop nearby. :eek:
There’s a story here about what they’re finding in the frozen bank accounts.
In fact, I believe the fumes are actually more flammable than liquid gasoline. Supposedly, you can toss a lit cigarette into a bucket of gas to no ill effect. Not that I would recommend the experiment.
Indeed, the fumes is what goes kaboom, the liquid goes fwooomp. The info I read was a statement from the company that owns (or rather owned) the oil tanker.
Of course an explosion would be bad, but thousands of liters of flaming gasoline running down the streets can be quite destructive too.
Tuesday morning, and the death toll is 37 since Friday. Seems relatively quiet now. The tanker is still there. Troops are retaining their security cordon around the protest area. It’s another declared holiday for government officials and schools. I guess even though the schools aren’t open yet, the teachers still have work to do for the new school year, which was supposed to have started yesterday for many schools but has been postponed at least a week.
A red-shirt official has for the first time openly admitted they get money from Thaksin. He’s acting like it’s no big deal, says sure they have expenses, they need money, so why not? Well, it’s a big deal because all involved used to deny any financial support from Thaksin. It was deemed to be too hot to be connected to this corrupt wanted fugitive, and they used to portray their funding as coming from “the people.” Now that they’ve frozen bank accounts and are looking at the money, their tune is changing. See here.
That linked story contains part of this same photo I linked to above. It seems to be real after all and is still being made much of in the local news. Hope Thaksin enjoys his Louis Vuitton while his supporters are eating hot lead in Bangkok.
A vacant four-story building in Din Daeng district is ablaze, across from the Century Park Hotel, which they threatened to storm and burn down the other night, and near a Bangkok Bank building. Red-shirt guards claimed some teenagers walked in there with a bottle of oil, then suddenly there was a fire.
BBC is playing up that phoned -in offer of a truce last night, but it’s barely being mentioned locally. As far as I know, the caller was told when the protesters stood down, then they’d talk. But there’s no telling what discussions are going on behind the scenes.
And I like the BBC reporters’ big bulletproof vests that have “PRESS” prominently displayed in English. That’s just for show. The soldiers don’t read English. The protesters don’t read English. But now even some Thai reporters are wearing the same thing, because it’s become chic for your battlefield reporter.