four_five_one
Infinition
The situation in Thailand appears to be reaching its brutal conclusion. The current death toll is now 33, not including those who died on April 10, as far as we know, all were unarmed civilians: http://uk.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/how-many-people-have-been-killed-and-injured - from earlier, 8 more deaths since then.
This amounts to no less than state sanctioned murder. Abhisit Vejjajiva has now officially surpassed General Suchinda (in terms of protesters killed, including April 10th): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_May_(1992).
Some links: - http://bit.ly/9Sw0yb - http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/05/16/nick-nostitz-in-the-killing-zone/ -- many reports indicate that inexperienced, raw recruits who are in no way trained for crowd dispersal or indeed urban warfare, have been firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.
Abhisit seems to have the full support of the elites and many from the middle classes are cheering on his crackdown, happily calling for yet more "rural buffalo" or "uneducate people" to be slaughtered (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117557918280498&v=wall&ref=mf -- roughly translates as "let's enjoy the deaths of the red terrorists").
Deaths include a ten year old kid, two medics, innocent bystanders who aren't even part of the protest & several foreign reporters have also been injured. The Thai government maintains that thus far it has only fired at "terrorists". Apparently, red shirts are heavily armed and dangerous, yet no soldiers have been reported dead as of now. As CNN & BBC haven't reported seeing any red shirts with weapons, an impromptu smear campaign has begun against them: "international media free speech is one thing. mind you own business is another". http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=397495867234&id=615520846&ref=mf http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122351831122683&v=wall - http://uk.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/rationale-response-to-news-you-don-t-agree-with
The government has engaged in a very effective media war, with thousands of webpages blocked - these are not all dissenting, controversial web pages, far from it, today CNN was blocked. Videos shot by media associations and bystanders alike are routinely accused of being faked, whilst photos of dead protesters are always "a photo shop job". All of the TV channels in Thailand are slanted towards the government (some much more than others), that, along with the censorship, makes it very difficult for 'neutrals' to get an accurate idea of what's actually happening...
Edit: Should make it clear, so this doesn't seem completely one sided: Red shirts are armed, with home made rockets, catapults, molotov cocktails and rocks. Some have witnessed hand guns being used. No one has seen any "black shirts" with heavy ordinance yet, that I know of. I gather people are mostly afraid of the their tendency to set tires alight, as neighboring buildings have already accidentally caught on fire. There's also a video circulating of red shirts beating a soldier, and one soldier being shot in close proximity to the red shirts (but not clear who shot him - he didn't die). One soldier is now confirmed dead, but thought to be a result of friendly fire. Both sides likely to lose all control of their "war machines" today.
Map of the conflict: http://maps.google.co.th/maps/ms?hl...3.74247,100.545073&spn=0.057444,0.077162&z=14 (via https://twitter.com/RichardBarrow)
Feel free to follow my twitter account back a bit for some indication of what's been going on: http://twitter.com/on_off_course
This amounts to no less than state sanctioned murder. Abhisit Vejjajiva has now officially surpassed General Suchinda (in terms of protesters killed, including April 10th): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_May_(1992).
Some links: - http://bit.ly/9Sw0yb - http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/05/16/nick-nostitz-in-the-killing-zone/ -- many reports indicate that inexperienced, raw recruits who are in no way trained for crowd dispersal or indeed urban warfare, have been firing indiscriminately at anything that moves.
Abhisit seems to have the full support of the elites and many from the middle classes are cheering on his crackdown, happily calling for yet more "rural buffalo" or "uneducate people" to be slaughtered (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117557918280498&v=wall&ref=mf -- roughly translates as "let's enjoy the deaths of the red terrorists").
Deaths include a ten year old kid, two medics, innocent bystanders who aren't even part of the protest & several foreign reporters have also been injured. The Thai government maintains that thus far it has only fired at "terrorists". Apparently, red shirts are heavily armed and dangerous, yet no soldiers have been reported dead as of now. As CNN & BBC haven't reported seeing any red shirts with weapons, an impromptu smear campaign has begun against them: "international media free speech is one thing. mind you own business is another". http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=397495867234&id=615520846&ref=mf http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=122351831122683&v=wall - http://uk.asiancorrespondent.com/bangkok-pundit-blog/rationale-response-to-news-you-don-t-agree-with
The government has engaged in a very effective media war, with thousands of webpages blocked - these are not all dissenting, controversial web pages, far from it, today CNN was blocked. Videos shot by media associations and bystanders alike are routinely accused of being faked, whilst photos of dead protesters are always "a photo shop job". All of the TV channels in Thailand are slanted towards the government (some much more than others), that, along with the censorship, makes it very difficult for 'neutrals' to get an accurate idea of what's actually happening...
Edit: Should make it clear, so this doesn't seem completely one sided: Red shirts are armed, with home made rockets, catapults, molotov cocktails and rocks. Some have witnessed hand guns being used. No one has seen any "black shirts" with heavy ordinance yet, that I know of. I gather people are mostly afraid of the their tendency to set tires alight, as neighboring buildings have already accidentally caught on fire. There's also a video circulating of red shirts beating a soldier, and one soldier being shot in close proximity to the red shirts (but not clear who shot him - he didn't die). One soldier is now confirmed dead, but thought to be a result of friendly fire. Both sides likely to lose all control of their "war machines" today.
Map of the conflict: http://maps.google.co.th/maps/ms?hl...3.74247,100.545073&spn=0.057444,0.077162&z=14 (via https://twitter.com/RichardBarrow)
Feel free to follow my twitter account back a bit for some indication of what's been going on: http://twitter.com/on_off_course
Last edited: