UN secretary general to visit Cambodia

PRIME Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he planned to discuss the Preah Vihear border dispute with Ban Ki-moon when the United Nations secretary general visited Phnom Penh later this year.

In remarks at a meeting on the protection of the Tonle Sap lake at the Ministry of Water Resources yesterday, the premier said that Ban Ki-moon would come to Cambodia for an official visit.

“I will talk [about the border dispute] with Ban Ki-moon on October 27-28 when he visits here,” Hun Sen said.

“I will seek a compromise from the UN representative."

“Thailand should not be afraid of international intervention … and if Thailand is afraid, it means Thailand does not have good intentions.

“Real gold is never afraid of fire.”

A statement from the Thai government’s public relations department on Wednesday said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva would meet Ban during a trip to New York next month.

Abhisit planned to “clarify the Thai-Cambodian rift resulting from the registration of the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site” and “discuss with Mr Ban an exit for the dispute”, the statement said.

Margaret Lamb, a spokeswoman for the UN in Phnom Penh, and Farhan Haq, an associate spokesman for the UN secretary general in New York, said they could not confirm Ban’s visit to Cambodia.

Thai ministry of foreign affairs deputy spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said yesterday that Thailand’s position on the issue was “unchanged in that we believe that any outstanding issues between Thailand and Cambodia should be addressed bilaterally within the existing mechanisms”.

In a speech on Monday, Hun Sen called for an international conference to resolve the ongoing border dispute, saying that the existing bilateral mechanisms were not working. A day earlier, he wrote to the UN Security Council and General Assembly to denounce comments printed in Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper in which Abhisit reportedly contemplated the use of military force at the border.

“No Thai prime ministers have ever spoken of using armed force against Cambodia, only Abhisit Vejjajiva,” Hun Sen said yesterday.

“This matter is very serious, and it looks down on the Cambodian people as well as [abuses] the UN Charter.”

The Thai government has since said Abhisit’s comments were misquoted and “taken out of context”.

The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia stretches back to July 2008, when Preah Vihear temple was listed as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. Both countries claim a 4.6-square-kilometre zone adjacent to the temple.

The latest round of bilateral antagonism came to a head after a meeting of UNESCO’S World Heritage Committee in Brazil that concluded earlier this month.

The Cambodian delegation to the meeting submitted a management plan for Preah Vihear that will be discussed by the committee next year.

The Phnom Penh Post

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Can a new Thailand emerge from the Red Shirt rubble?

The two-month, sometimes violent standoff in Bangkok is over now, with the Thai military having forcibly dispersed the country's red-shirted protestors.

The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva managed to stamp out the Red Shirts bold display of resistance, in which they occupied the city's posh commercial centre and fended off initial military movements against their sizeable encampment.

But the dramatic, days-long conclusion to the standoff brought no resolution to the underlying divisions between the Red Shirts and their supporters, who are typically characterized as representing rural and new-money interests, and their yellow-shirted opponents, who are associated with the traditional Bangkok-led establishment.

Even as the Red Shirt leaders were being rounded-up by authorities, the opposition movement continued to have mass support in most rural areas, and the violence in Bangkok that left at least 88 dead and more than 2,000 injured appears to have only hardened their resolve.

"Before, political conflicts were just between elites, and small groups would sit down to fight it out or to compromise," observes Puangthong Pawakapan, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

This time, she said, "it's dividing all people and compromise is over."

Awakening

In Thailand's revolving door of democracies, coups and dictatorships, regimes have risen and fallen frequently. But the country's Bangkok-dominated political establishment has largely remained intact.

The past 77 years of constitutional monarchy have seen 18 coups, while raucous protests have regularly rocked the capital since the beginning of the country's democracy movement in 1973.

However, the incoming and outgoing factions have generally hailed from the same insular social strata, a factor that has severely limited every new government's approach to fundamental reform, many observers say.

If, in the past, the demands of the electorate were often undermined by tradeoffs among the ruling and business elites, the sheer number of those who are today so passionately engaged in political life has complicated those kinds of solutions.

"The old magic and way of holding things together have become obsolete," says Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

"Thai society has become more complicated. Unspoken arrangements within a limited elite no longer suffice to hold the country together."

Broad-based anger

Indeed, Montesano says, a new resistance movement with a deep grassroots foundation has emerged, uniting rural Thais — whose improved access to information and travel — with a growing urban working- and lower-middle class with whom they share common cause.

During the protests in Bangkok, many of these rural communities, which had previously seen little room for themselves in national politics, were up in arms, holding town rallies and fundraising for the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the anti-government pressure group more commonly known as the Red Shirts.

Discontent in the countryside had been simmering for more than three years, since a military coup overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra, the last elected prime minister, who is now in hiding.

Despite being a billionaire telecom tycoon, Thaksin was seen as the first politician to have substantively dealt with the concerns of the poor.

His populism, of course, has been viewed with a large degree of cynicism. But rural communities in particular gratefully received his rhetorical overtures as well as his development funds and low-cost health care.

More importantly, in the current context, his patronage network remains a significant force behind the protests.

At the same time, though, the protest movement gained much of its strength from farmers, manual laborers and factory workers who were demonstrating a new assertiveness.

In the early, more peaceful stages of the protests in Bangkok, surprising numbers of local residents commiserated with the tens of thousands of rural Thais who flooded the capital — undermining the government's characterization of the Red Shirts as merely hired agitators.

Even more troubling for the government and army, though, was the apparent support, both direct and tacit, for the Red Shirts by monks and even some government security personnel.

Monks carry considerable moral authority in Thai society, while the police, in numerous instances, appeared unwilling to suppress the protestors, who mostly derive from the same humble roots.

A new society?

This social awakening, says Federico Ferrara, an academic at the National University of Singapore and author of Thailand Unhinged: Unravelling the Myth of Thai-style Democracy, is leading to an inexorable disintegration of the existing social contract.

Powerful unelected people and institutions "can no longer continue to use such power to subvert the people's will without encountering some serious resistance or inviting an angry backlash," he says.

But how much change will be consolidated from this backlash is still not clear.

Jakrapob Penkair, a spokesman for Thaksin during his time in office and now an adviser to the fugitive former prime minister, says that the Red Shirt movement, at its purest, is not pushing simply for regime change but for "new guidelines for society."

Jakrapob may not be the best representative of the movement, given that his vehement anti-royalist stance is not shared by most rural Thais. But he does speak to their common belief in the need for an overhaul of the country's political life.

The Red Shirts have mobilized around a gospel of injustice. But while they have enfranchised — at least rhetorically — large segments of the population that were previously subdued, the movement has yet to show clearly how they would transform the political landscape itself.

Only that it can't be done when the cards are stacked against them.

Brendan Brady is a journalist currently based in Cambodia, where his main subjects of interest include the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, human rights abuses, diplomatic disputes and religious tensions. His writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and World Politics Review, among other publications.

Friday, May 28, 2010
By Brendan Brady, special to CBC News
Analysis

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Sacrava's Thai Political Cartoon: Thai Terrorists

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[Thai] Army fears outbreak of terrorism

The army is stepping up its surveillance in fear armed men allied to hard-core protesters could launch terror attacks in Bangkok and other provinces in revenge for the May 19 crackdown, an army source says.

Intelligence reports and an assessment of the situation in the wake of the rally have concluded there is a real possibility of violent retaliation by groups who fled the protest site at Ratchaprasong intersection after the military operation, the source said yesterday.

The revenge could be in the form of car and motorcycle bombs, taking the lives of soldiers and government figures, and arson attacks at locations which are symbols of the government and armed forces. They could take place in the capital or the provinces.

Some red shirt politicians who have connections in the three southern border provinces could hire insurgents from the lower South to launch attacks in Bangkok, the source said.

The concerns have prompted intelligence authorities to monitor the movements of suspected insurgents, especially those who are already in Bangkok.

One incident which led the army to fear possible terror attacks was a car bomb at the Poseidon massage parlour car park on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok on April 4, the source said.

While the army is preparing for the possibility of violence, the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation favours ending the curfew in Bangkok and other provinces tomorrow.

The government will decide today whether to extend the curfew.

Security agencies held talks yesterday to evaluate the situation, consulting with army leaders in other regions and provincial governors.

Many were of the view that the situation in the wake of the red shirt rally was improving and the curfew therefore should be lifted, CRES spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.

But the armed forces needed to be deployed in some key places, while security duty in other areas of the capital should be returned to police if they were ready to take over, Col Sansern said.

Bangkok and 23 other provinces are under curfew from midnight tonight to 4am tomorrow.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said earlier that although the curfew might end, the state of emergency law was still necessary to allow security authorities to arrest so-called terrorists.

"What can be lifted is the curfew but the executive decree will continue," Gen Prawit said after meeting the Defence Council yesterday which was attended by all armed forces leaders.

Defence Ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said Gen Prawit had ordered soldiers to secure their units and local government offices and to stay alert despite the end of the riots.

The minister ordered continuous surveillance and protection at arsenals and fuel yards of the armed forces, he said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has plans to reconcile the country's political divisions but he has vowed there would be no compromise with terrorists, the defence minister said.

28/05/2010
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

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Thaksin launches PR blitz after court issues warrant over terrorism

One day after the Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant over terrorism charges, ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra mounted a global PR blitz to claim his innocence and deny that he financed the red shirts' burning of Bangkok.

He has spoken to three international media outlets - Australia's ABC television channel, the New York Times newspaper and Canada's Globe and Mail daily.

Speaking to New York Times' Seth Mydans ("Fugitive Ex-Leader Denies Financing Thai Protests", published yesterday), Thaksin said he did not finance or organise the red-shirt movement, which ended on May 19 in one of the fiercest upheavals in modern Thai history.

"No, no, no," he said. "I was in Paris - they sent my picture - shopping at Louis Vuitton with my daughter."

He denied helping finance the red-shirt protest, saying the movement sustained itself through donations from both poor and wealthy supporters.

Thaksin also told the newspaper that he was only involved with the protest leaders, but from afar. "I am in contact with them and they ask for advice sometimes," he said, adding that violent incidents had taken place while he was on his way to attend the Cannes Film Festival.

In his interview with The Globe and Mail ("Fugitive Former Thai Leader Warns of Further Violence", also published yesterday), Thaksin refused to disclose his whereabouts. He said national reconciliation in Thailand was "still far away" now that the government has used a military crackdown to bring the two-month red-shirt rally to an end.

"The protesters, they were very angry. They were ready to die because they feel the injustice against them. They want to fight," Thaksin was quoted as saying. "Those who survived are very angry. It's not a good sign. I am very worried � I worry about the anger and I worry the government has cornered them instead of talking to them."

Thaksin also accused Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government, which he said was like a junta, of hunting down the red shirts. He added that he was ready to compromise.

"Those who survived are being hunted by the government. They are innocent people who are being hunted and detained � I'm more worried about that than myself," he told The Globe and Mail. "What I'm concerned about is reconciliation in the country. The government uses the word reconciliation, then creates more conflict."

Agence France-Press reported on Wednesday that Montenegro, where Thaksin has acquired a citizenship, has told the former leader to stop making political comments. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the former prime minister to refrain from making any comments," a Montenegrin source close to Thaksin said.

Thaksin also gave a video-link interview to Australia's ABC television channel, in which he said the terrorism charges against him were politically motivated.

"I can assure this is very, surely politically motivated case, allegation. It is not really a � it has no grounds," he said in broken sentences. "In my mind I always advocate peaceful protest and I always support my own people that we, Thailand, needs reconciliation. I'm always saying that and I always be."

The Nation

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ASEAN: Thailand needs reform

Madrid -- Asean chief Surin Pitsuwan said Thursday Thailand badly needed a major political reform and social restructuring after a bloody protest in Bangkok and major provinces.

The situation may look clam in the capital and provinces after a major crackdown last week and some of protesters return homes safely but Thailand remained task to build permanent peace and stability, he said.

The Asean Secretary General was in Spain this week for an AseanEurope meeting which the issue of peace and stability in the region was discussed.

The Asean earlier expressed its concerns over political dispute in Thailand and had urged all parties to exercise utmost restraint and used peaceful way to solve the conflict, he said.

The Nation

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Democrat MP to seek Jatuporn's impeachment

Democrat Party MP Sathit Pitutecha said Thursday that he is compiling evidence to seek an impeachment of Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan and Wichian Khaokham.

Sathit said the two Pheu Thai MPs are facing terrorism charges so they should be impeached.

Sathit said he would submit an impeachment motion to Parliament President Chai Chidchob for the House committee on ethical code on MPs to investigate the two MPs. Following an investigation, the panel will pass on the motion to the Senate.

Sathit sid Jatuporn and Wichian should not participate in the censure debate next week because of the terrorism charge.

The Nation

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Over 300 red shirts are being detained: Corrections Department chief

Over 300 red-shirt suspects and convicts are being detained in prisons, Corrections Department Director-General Chartchai Sutthikrom said Thursday.

He said about 100 of them are being detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison, including two foreigners - Conor David Purcell, 30, an Australian and Jeff Savage, 49, a Briton.

Chartchai said the remaining 200 red-shirts are being detained in provincial prisons.

The Nation

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Thailand's Thaksin: "We never engage in violence"

Sydney - Thailand's exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Thursday denied bankrolling the Red Shirt rebellion in Bangkok and said the warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges would be ignored by Interpol because it was politically motivated.

"We never, we never, engage in violence," Thaksin said in what Australian public broadcaster ABC claimed was his first telephone interview since the street protests subsided last week.

"We want to see reconciliation because the government always said about reconciliation, but the way they used the iron-fist approach, they are not using velvet-glove approach, that is mean they are more confrontation than more reconciliation," Thaksin said.//DPA

The billionaire businessman predicted that Interpol would not act on the arrest warrant the Thai government has issued.

The Nation

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Is burning buildings [in Thailand] in a political conflict common arson?

Fire was a weapon used by protesters of the Red movement in response to the assault by troops firing rifles on the protest in central Bangkok. Civic and commercial buildings were torched around Ratchaprasong, the site of the two-month peaceful sit-in, elsewhere in Bangkok and in some provinces. These acts have been widely described as arson. But is that apt given the political context of the violence?

Arson generally refers to setting alight of property with malice or for some personal gain for example through an insurance claim. In civil contexts this seems fairly clear cut and usually draws stiff penalties in most societies given the danger it poses to life, the damage it wreaks on livelihoods and hurt it causes to the soul. Arson then is a criminal act that may deliver a material or other benefit to the arsonist. In cases where the fire is set purely for the pleasure derived from watching fire it may be more accurate to speak of psychotic arson.

However burning property during the course of the political violence that is war usually goes without punishment unless it can be shown there was no military advantage whatsoever to be gained from destroying property. Nevertheless given the chaos that reigns on the battlefield and the difficulty in finding suspects and witnesses such crimes are rarely punished.

A comparative may be drawn with killing for which there are various degrees with varying punishments reflecting the context and provocations. In battle killing is legitimized, there is no punishment for the participants. However killing in war outside of battle may be considered a crime. Troops who shot dead protesters resisting their advance along Ratchadamri are not facing investigation over the killings. Neither are commanders or ministers.

In the torching of buildings that followed the disproportionate use of violent coercion by the state to clear the protests protesters took up calls by their leaders to respond with fire. Many incidents of torching were of buildings with political connotations, although some were not. Fire may be considered in this instance a weapon of the weak.

Is it then appropriate to describe the torchings as arson given the common criminal connotations this carries? Does the description of arson serve to delegitimize their protest as political opening the way for categorization as simply criminal, or in the government's narrative of fear as an act of terrorism? Would it be more appropriate to describe the torchings as political arson or political burning? What is appropriate punishment for burning buildings for political motives in response to state excess?

Source: http://thailandtrouble.blogspot.com

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Sacrava's Thai Toon: The Bumpy Road Map

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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Southeast Asia: Reactions to Thailand protests

For two months, Red Shirt protesters occupied the streets of Bangkok demanding the resignation of the prime minister. The protest camps have been dismantled already but the city is still reeling from the political crisis.

The violent confrontations between the heavily armed soldiers and protesters in the past week have stunned the world. What are the reactions of bloggers from neighbouring Southeast Asian nations?

A few days ago, the Thailand government revealed that Cambodian “mercenaries” were hired by the Red Shirts to sow violence in the city. This accusation elicited strong reactions in Cambodia. Khmerization reminds the Thailand government that there are many ethnic Khmers in Thailand who are already Thai citizens.

Many red shirt protesters were mainly made up of ethnic Khmers and Laotians living in the northeastern provinces of Thailand who are Thai citizens. We need to remember also that the Thai media owned by the Red Shirt Movement also accused the Abhisit government of dressing up Khmer prisoners in military uniform and sent them to crackdown on the red shirt recently. How true are these rumours? Nobody knows.

The Son of the Khmer Empire believes the motive for spreading this rumor is to demonize Cambodians

I believe the rumour is circulated intentionally and politically in order to…make the Khmer as scapegaot to appease Thai anger against each other and turn the revenge/hatred towards Khmers and esp. the bloody Thai elite and royal family will not be held responsible for the bloodshed.

A political cartoon about the Red Shirt protest crackdown in Bangkok. Cartoon created by Cambodian artist Bun Heang Ung


Filipino journalist Joe Torres visited a Red Shirt protest site

It was like our EDSA “revolutions.” There were raw emotions, spontaneous actions and a lot of fun. The people, many of them from the countryside, wanted the ruling party out. They wanted “change,” something we hear in our politicians campaign sorties these days.

Kopisusu2 from Indonesia was also visiting Bangkok when the Red Shirts were still in the streets

Many analysts agree the protesters have a point. But as long as the demonstration lasts, the Red Shirts are cutting off the supply of joy to businesses in the Red Zone and impeding its flow to the entire economy.

Our old hotel, the VIP Golden House, is inside the zone. It will stay closed until the protesters leave, said the woman behind the desk with a stoic smile.

i eat padek, who blogs about Laos, reacts

wow. red shirts, yellow shirts, thaksin vs. vejjajivait, it's all really confusing… most people have already heard about the recent violence consuming bangkok, thailand and killing it's land-of-smiles-and-etc tourism industry

Southeast Asian Archaeology newsblog warns that the protests are affecting attendance in museums near the protest zones

Most of you would be familiar with the protests going on in Bangkok, which have recently claimed lives due to clashes between the protesters and the authorities. The Fine Arts Department also report that museum visitorships have suffered greatly because of the protests, as the majority of the museums in Bangkok are located near the protest areas, and in some cases protesters have mistakenly stormed the museums!

Musings from the Lion City, a Singapore blogger, analyzes Thailand’s political situation

Even if he wants to call fresh elections, Abhisit most probably can’t as the Bangkok elite that support him and put him in power will not allow it. They will probably also know that any elections will be won by the rural “Red Shirts”. Mistakes have been made by both sides in this conflict and I’m afraid the mistakes has piled up to such an extent that there’s no longer an easy way out for anyone.

Twitter and Facebook were extensively used to monitor the situation in Bangkok. Jonathan Russell provides a better and clearer context about the usage of social media in relation to the Red Shirt protests

While I do agree Twitter, and more prominently Facebook, amplified hateful comments, many of the vitriol online (though worrying itself) can be put down to extreme opinions which do not represent the popular opinion.

A minority of Thais use Facebook (around 3 million) and Twitter (less than a million), and of these the comments came from a small percentage. For example, an vitriolic Facebook Group with 1,000 is large number but, in the bigger picture, is 0.03% of Thai Facebook members and clearly not representative of any kind of majority.

I agree that the manner in which social networks can legitimize vitriolic groups which grew in Thailand during the protests is worrying. As the average Facebook users is more likely in Bangkok, middle class or affluent, and not a red shirt, much of comments and rage were against the UDD and its protest.

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Some Thais couldn't fathom that their own soldiers shot their own people

Cambodian mercenaries were manning army positions protesters told me at Bon Kai and Din Daeng during the afternoon on 18 May. The only evidence they could offer was that some of the troops they had tried to talk to could not speak Thai. A young woman, who was still selling drinks outside the Erawan Hotel while her baby perhaps just a year old lay sleeping on the ground as the army was advancing up Ratchaprasong, called from within the refuge of Wat Pathumwanaram to tell me it was too dangerous to outside as there were Burmese troops. Later when I reached Siam Square, where there had apparently been fighting between armed civilians and troops I only met Thai infantry.

Could the government find enough Burmese or Cambodian mercenaries, put them in Thai uniforms and train them with Thai weapons at short notice? What benefits might there be other than increasing numbers of dependable troops in light of rumours of many junior soldiers being red?

Or might it be that these rumours are without substance but spread and are believed because they relieve people of having to accept that they are facing, and being shot by, soldiers who like themselves are Thai? Some may be comforted if it is Burmese or Cambodians who are there to impose the state's will and defend its interests because of the generally negative stereotypes attached to these nationalities?

Not dissimilar is the disagreement and even mystery over the identities of a handful of civilians with rifles who it seems fought with troops in and around Siam Square. I got no closer than eight, maybe six, feet to one man with an M16 for just a few minutes. It was not possible to talk. Some protesters say these men are Red, a proto-militia perhaps, but one protester insisted their identity and motives were a mystery. But what could motivate a small group of men other than anger, belief or vengeance to fight against the much greater numbers of the army when their only advantage may have been intimate knowledge of the urban terrain? On the other hand it may not matter because that they were there and fighting troops makes for common cause with people of the Red movement, whether they of the mind to pursue their demands by peace or through force. Thus their exploits may enter into Red mythology. Are these men drawn from the same group of men-in-black caught on film on 10 April? The armed man I saw was only wearing a black jacket, his jeans were blue and he wasn't wearing a hat or balaclava. Being dressed quite differently from the men-in-black may suggest he was from a different group?

There is a large black market in military weapons in Thailand. Hitmen, enforcers and mercenaries are apparently relatively common livelihoods. It may not be difficult for either the government, Reds or other elements to finance hired hands to do violent work. Many hands may willingly take up such duties spurred on by the intensity of feelings and the depths of division in the country. This violent backdrop, the lack of evidence, and the interests of all players to pin blame on rivals for killings forms a difficult environment for building confidence, stability and engagement but a fertile one for rumour and suspicion.

Originally posted at http://thailandtrouble.blogspot.com/2010/05/cambodians-and-burmese.html

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Khmer mercenaries among the Red Shirts: Did the Thais take too much "Yaba" to cook up this story?

AS TROOPS hunted down the remaining anti-government protesters, Bangkok’s citizens came out of their homes, where they had hidden for safety during Tuesday’s violence, and gasped at the damage done to their city.

The Thai government said it had mostly snuffed out 10 weeks of violent protests in the capital. However, burnt-out buildings dot the streets of the capital and finding your way around is difficult because of road blocks and occasional ramshackle barricades of spare tyres that still smoulder.

The government response has been restrained considering that the city centre has been occupied for 2½ months, but there are deeper problems to be dealt with. Many Thais believe the country is being polarised, and that the ultimate price could be civil war.

A curfew has been imposed from 9pm in Bangkok and in other provinces where unrest has been reported. It will be continued for the next three days. However, the streets are largely empty, as people stay close to home – no one quite believes this is over. Die-hard protesters are still to be found in the city, but the impetus behind the fight has largely gone.

There are differing reports of casualties, but the official toll from the fighting on Tuesday is 15 dead and 96 wounded. The total death toll since the occupation began is probably 83.

Large parts of Bangkok are scorched by insurrection, piles of tyres smoulder beyond razor-wire perimeters where police and soldiers still monitor comings and goings to make sure no fresh supplies of weapons reach the Red Shirt resistance.

The list of buildings hit by arson attacks reads like a tourist guide to the city. Some 39 buildings were set on fire on the day of the riots, including the stock exchange, the main electricity provider and various banks, including a branch of the Siam City Bank. Top tourist draws like the Central World mall, Center One, Siam Theatre and Big C Rajdamri were so badly damaged that they may have to be demolished.

Red Shirt leader Veera Musigapong pleaded for an end to the violence, saying the course the struggle was taking would not help the opposition’s interests. “Anger is destructive and the advancement of democracy can never happen by being angry and vengeful,” he told local media.

He insisted that the Red Shirts were patriots who loved their country’s institutions and wanted to support democracy by demanding the removal of prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government and the holding of fresh elections.

Mr Veera was one of three more Red Shirt leaders who surrendered to authorities yesterday. Five leaders gave themselves up the day before and were flown to a military camp south of Bangkok for interrogation.

Once the Red Shirts stepped back yesterday, the violence that followed was carried out by a hardline faction, marked out by their black shirts.

On Tuesday, the violence appeared orchestrated, and many in Bangkok believe that ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was behind their actions. While Mr Thaksin is not loved in Bangkok – his power base is in northern Thailand – the exiled leader does have support among the urban poor in the capital.

Rumours swirl in the capital. Many say the Black Shirt hardcore rioters were made up of Khmer mercenaries from Cambodia. I witnessed one fighter with elaborate Khmer style tattoos on his neck and arms, but these are also popular in Thailand.

A group of police escorted more than 1,000 people – many of them women and children – away from a Buddhist temple in the heart of the former Red Shirt protest zone. Six bodies were found in its grounds. One woman died after an asthma attack during the melee.

Friday, May 21, 2010
CLIFFORD COONAN
Irish Times

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Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Bleeding Victory

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Reconciliation Plan

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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