From Yannawa to South East Asia: The Red Shirt protest - A personal diary - Part 4: 21. - 30. April 2010

Links:
A personal diary - Part 1: Prologue and March 2010
A personal diary - Part 2: 1. - 17. April 2010
The Red Shirt protests - Part 3: 18. - 20. April 2010 - the barricade and the arrival of the security forces
The Red Shirt Protests - Part 5: 01. - 14. Mai - grausamer Mai/ "Cruel May" - พฤษภาอำมหิต- Teil/Part 1 - (German Version, only English captions, headlines and some English text translations)
The Red Shirt protests - Part 6: 15. - 18. Mai - "Cruel May" - พฤษภาอำมหิต - Part 2
The Red Shirt Protests - Part 7: May 19 - the crackdown
The Red Shirt protests - Part 8: 21. May 2010 - after the crackdown

ZUR DEUTSCHEN VERSION

The Mob Rules

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21. April

Violent Riots

In the evening, mostly at the beginning of dusk, a larger crowd, the so-called "Silom Lovers Group" (SLG), gathered at Silom Road near Sala Daeng Station to protest against the Red Shirts. At first, the group consisted of shop owners and residents working and living around Silom area. Later it were Yellow Shirts and Multi-Coloured Shirts who joined the Anti-Red Shirt protest, and the crowds were getting larger day by day. Finally, the SLG was joined by juveniles, motorcycle gangs and young men and women who were not really interested in the protests, but in violence. A friend told us, that he knew some of these people and that they are just hooligans interested in making trouble. Obviously, the police forces could not cope with the situation, for the chain of command didn't work and the officers-in-charge didn't dare to make decisions independently.

On that evening, supporters of the SLG (Silom Lovers Group) had already insulted or threatened bystanders several times when they suspected persons of being Red Shirts or UDD supporters, when suddenly the whole situation was getting out of hand. Several men, armed with wooden clubs and iron bars, started to attack an old, red coloured and already slightly damaged car. Until today, we have never learned the reason why they attacked the car, perhaps just because it was red coloured or old or maybe both. Shortly after the image was taken, somebody smashed the window on the driver's side. Immediately several men tried to hit the driver's head with their clubs and iron bars. Thanks to the courageous intervention of some of the SLG-guards, the driver could escape unharmed. After this incident, the police forces completely lost control of the situation, the police officers were pushed aside and the SLG supporters ran down the barriers.

When the anti-Red-Shirt protesters reached the Sala Daeng intersection they were welcomed with a storm of stones and bottles from beyond the Red Shirt-barricade. Furthermore, the UDD-guards, armed with slingshots, fired pebbles, screws and glass marbles at the fast-approaching attackers. The SLG supporters answered the"rain of missiles" by throwing cobblestones and bottles.

The image below shows a "nice" collection of projectiles used from both sides.

Around 9.52 p.m. the mob tried to lynch another young man. Some of these SLG-hooligans saw him leaving the Red Shirt camp and concluded that he had to be an UDD-supporter. When this young man was passing the policemen and arrived at Silom road, he was attacked by a large number of mostly very young men. Interestingly enough, in this case the soldiers immediately intervened and protected the man. They even fired shots in the air when the hooligans didn't stop their attacks. Without the massive intervention and the show of force by the soldiers, the rioters would have killed the young man for sure. Later, after he was taken to a secured area where he was guarded by a number of heavily armed soldiers, we were told by an observer, who had talked to one of the soldiers a short while ago, that this young man was just a soldier in plain-clothes who was ordered to gather more information about the Red Shirt camp. After this incident the situation calmed down at Silom road and we didn't witness any other attacks that evening.

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22. April

The Escalation Of Violence

By now the so-called Silom-Lovers-Group staged an anti-Red Shirt-rally at Sala Daeng station everyday from 12.00 - 02.00 p.m. At times more than 1.500 supporters joined those peaceful demonstrations.

But later in the early evening hours, many ordinary SLG-protesters were replaced by rioters. Around sundown they usually started to shout insults and threats in direction of the barricade. Often shortly after those verbal assaults they also started to throw stones and bottles across the road.
When we approached Silom road via Soi Sala Daeng 1 that evening, we heard several explosions. Somebody had fired five M79 grenades in direction of Sala Daeng station. All we knew for sure was that the explosives were launched from inside the Red Shirt-occupied area. But until today it is unknown who fired them or who might be responsible for this assault. Of course, the government and the army immediately accused the Red Shirts, and of course the UDD denied any involvement into those attacks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/22/us-thailand-idUSTRE63H06E20100422

At least one woman died and more than seventy people were injured that evening.

08.50 p.m.: Soldiers and volunteers were carrying an injured woman to the next ambulance.

Ambulances of nearby hospitals arrived immediately after the attack.

The entrance area of this bank was a popular spot for observers to take shelter when the violence was escalating. Several times we got ourselves to safety at this place when stones, bottles and projectiles were raining down at Sala Daeng. Luckily we arrived late this evening so we escaped the grenade attacks.

The Lynch-Mob

At 09.00 pm we heard shouting and loud screams coming from a crowd which gathered in front of the driveway of the Robinson Shopping Mall car park. A group of 10 to 12 men, armed with wodden clubs and iron bars, e.g. golf clubs, attacked a motortaxi-driver, who was heading in direction of the barricade and wore a "Truth Today"-scarf around his neck. When I arrived at the scene, I was shocked by the brutality of the mob who was attacking this helpless man, already lying motionless on the ground. When I tried (without thinking too much) to calm down the situation and attempted to stop some attackers from beating up that poor guy some of the mob turned on me. Only because of the fast and bold interference of some SLG-guards I could escape unharmed. (Yes, I know, it was stupid and wrong to intervene, because among other things I breached the journalists and photographers codex of neutrality not to interfere in a crisis situation, but sometimes you just can't help it).
When the soldiers finally stepped in, the motorcyclist was not moving anymore. One of the soldiers examined the body and just shook his head. After the soldiers carried the body out of sight into the car park, no ambulance arrived and no car was leaving that area. It seemed that the hooligans killed the man.
Later, when I was sitting on the steps which lead to the Robinson car park, trying to calm down, one of the attackers, a very young man approached me, tears in eyes and trembling all over, and apologized to me. This young guy obviously might just have realized what has happened just minutes before and what he had done. That he, in his rage, had become a murderer.
Still shocked I shook his hand and all I could say was mai pen rai, mai pen rai.

I never heard or read anything about those violent acts against Red Shirts or alleged Red Shirts in Thailand's English language media.

A Japanese cameraman's leg was hit by a steel pellet, but around 30 minutes later he was already filming again.

10.22 p.m.: After the grenade attacks the nerves of some soldiers were on the edge. When someone claimed he saw a suspicious movement behind an open window in one of the nearby buildings, the soldiers immediately started firing with their M16-rifles. Whether there really was a suspicious person or not is unknown, because the room behind the window was completely dark.

11.41 p.m.: When the mob attacked the Red-Shirt barricade again, finally the police forces intervened. The police officers sealed off the intersection and pushed the rioters back. Therefore the hooligans accused the police to collaborate with the Red Shirts and attacked the policemen with stones and bottles. Now, the operation command of the police force finally gave the order to crack down on these hooligans.

The rioters were breaking away from the approaching police forces.

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23. April

"Viewpoints"

The banner reads: Not Terrorists Not Violent
Only Peaceful and Democracy

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25. April

Inside the Red Shirt camp

Can-knockdown with Abhisit Vejjajiva.

UDD-guards were protecting a man who was attacked by an angry crowd of Red Shirts. Someone claimed that this guy allegedly was spying for the Yellow Shirts. The security guards brought him to safety in the secured area behind the stage near the media centre. Later, they escorted him out of the camp in a van. We witnessed similar attacks on alleged "spies" or alleged Yellow Shirts several times inside the Red Shirt camp, including two attacks near the skywalk opposite a branch of "a well known fast food chain" at Amarin Plaza.

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26. April

"The Multi-Coloured"

Anti-Red-Shirt-rally of the Multi-Coloured Shirts (a right wing royalist and anti-Red Shirt movement) at the Victory Monument. Instead of the expected 10.000 supporters less than 1.000 protesters showed up.

After those violent incidents the days before, the police forces at Silom road were equipped with new protective gear.

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28. - 30. April