From Yannawa to South East Asia: The Red Shirt protest - A personal diary - Part 6: 15. - 18. May - "Cruel May" - พฤษภาอำมหิต

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 4: 21. - 30. April 2010 - Mob Rules
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 7: May 19 - the crackdown
The Red Shirt protests - Part 8: 21. May 2010 - after the crackdown

Zur DEUTSCHEN Version!

"Cruel May" - พฤษภาอำมหิต - Part 2

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15. May

The streetbattle at Bon Kai-bridge:

the army at Rama IV road

The Abhisit government, the CRES and the army accused the Red Shirts again and again of terrorism and human rights violations because of their (alleged and actual) attacks on civilian targets.
This image above on the other hand shows an assault by the Royal Thai Army on some armed gun fighters who digged themselves in inside Lumpini park. The soldiers used the parking area of the Dusit Hotel at Rama IV/SalaDaeng intersection as a base of their operations for the attacks on the Red Shirts (so they claimed), although there were still dozens of guests and hotel employees present inside the hotel at that time.
By using civilian structures as bases for the assaults on the Red Shirt camp the Royal Thai Army obviously endangered deliberately the lives of non-involved civilians by provoking counter attacks by the Red Shirts. Endangering innocent people by using civilian structures as a shield or as base of operations is a war crime!

A soldier fired with live ammunition at several windows at Lumpini Tower at Rama IV. Then he was asking for binoculars to check his success.
The reason therefor was that some civilian bystanders claimed they saw some suspicious movements behind the windows. At that time there were still ordinary people living inside the building and those suspicious persons were propably frightend residents only, who dared to have look at the situation outside their tower.

The leadership of Royal Thai Army and the Abhisit government always claimed that they did not use live ammunition for the attacks on protesters at that time. But these bullet holes in the concrete near the roof tops of surrounding buildings (12th or 13th storey building at Rama IV, near the Muay-Thai-Stadion) were telling a different story. They were definitely too big for rubber bullets or shotgun ammunition.

This image shows an army sniper stationed on the second floor inside a two storey building next to the Muay-Thai-stadion at Rama IV. From here the sharp shooters had a good view into the protest camp at Bon Kai-bridge despite the burning barricades. Only a view minutes after this picture was taken we heard several shots being fired. By radio the soldiers next to us received the information that a protester wearing a red helmet had been shot in the head and was killed outright.

No-Man's-Land

the protesters at Bon Kai bridge

By burning tyres the Red Shirt supporters at Bon Kai-bridge tried to block the sharp shooter's view on the protest camp.

No tyre is worth risking your life.

The LIVE-FIRE-ZONE began right behind the yellow barrier tape.

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16. May

"oppressive silence"

Sathorn road - the vivid road of Bangkok's embassy-, banking- and business district

Silom road - the feisty shopping and entertainment district

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17. May

Ratchaprasong

Despite the Red Shirt camp at Ratchaprasong and the closed off area around the camp were declared as "LIVE-FIRE-ZONE", several thousand protesters refused to leave and endured, among them many children and elderly people.

Although the army tried to block the food supply for days, there was no shortage of food and drinking water inside the camp. However, the CRES finally succeeded in cutting off the power and water supply, therefore the hygienic conditions were rapidly deteriorating and the sanitary facilities of Wat Pathum Wanaram couldn't cope with rising demand.

When we arrived at Wat Pathum Wanaram that morning, an old, grey-haired woman approached us, shouting:"Where do you come from? Are you journalists?" Then she burst out in tears and stammered:"Please, don't leave us alone, tell the world what is happening". After whispering some words in Thai we didn't understand she continued in English:"They are coming, the soldiers are coming! They will kill us all. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the will kill us - the soldiers are already on their way. Please, don't leave us alone, spread the word of what is happening."

A short while later Nicola was doing an interview (near the main stage at Ratchaprasong) with a mother who refused to leave the camp despite the danger for her daughter and herself. She trusted in the assurance of the government, the CRES and the Royal Thai Army that in case of an assault they could retreat to Wat Pathum Wanaram and the soldiers would not attack the refugees inside this sanctuary.
She should be bitterly disappointed because the responsible generals of the Royal Thai Army ignored all agreements. They sealed off the escape route at Rama I Road although they agreed (in negotiations with Red Shirt leaders and the police) to leave a open an escape passage for unarmed protesters. They also opened fire on Red Shirts, bystanders and paramedics inside Wat Pathum Wanaram, which was said to be a sanctuary.

While Nicola was still talking to this woman, a group of young girls (between 8 and 10 years old) was rushing towards me and were grinning like Cheshire cats. One of them was poking my belly, two others touched my left hand and my arms. Then they giggled and rushed off. I hope they escaped the carnage on May 19th.

Stunned I was still gazing after them when I recognised a group of men sitting on wooden boxes in front of the Eriwan shrine listening to the radio. One of them was crying. Around 10.40 A.M. we were told that "Seh Daeng", major general Khattiya Swasdipol had succumbed to his injuries.
Even though there had been a deep rift between "Seh Daeng" and the UDD-leadership (Khattiya considered most of the core leaders as sissies and crybabies), most of the Red Shirts still venerate him as their hero.

The word of "Seh Daeng's" dead was spreading like wild fire.

Around noon we left the camp and went home to get some sleep - finally. Over the last weeks we slept at most 3 to 4 hours a day, sometimes less or not at all. And we knew, the Royal Thai Army wouldn't start it's assault on the camp before late evening our the early morning hours, therefore we decided now is time for us to get some rest. The long waiting for the final crackdown had just begun.

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18. May