Saturday, April 10, 2010

Thai Protest : Finally The Government Takes Action

Unlike my previous posts on Thai protest, this time i will just post the highlights of today's protest.

At about 11.00am today, two police officers from the Metropolitan Police Bureau with warrant of arrest in hand went to Rajchaprasong Intersection to arrest 3 leaders. After not able to locate them, they went to the back of the Reds stage and during the commotion with the protesters, a table where a Buddha statue of the Reds collapsed causing the Buddha statue to break into two pieces. Guards rushed to cover the Buddha statue with newspaper and would not allow photographers to take photos. It was reported that the Red leaders turn pale when they saw the broken Buddha ( perhaps a bad omen to them )


At about 1.00pm, a large group of Reds gathered and tried to storm into the 1st Region Army base to demand the army to stop following Abhisit's intstructions were they were confronted by more than a thousand army who use tear gas and trained water cannon into them causing the protesters to retreat. It was reported that rubber bullets were also used by the army to disperse the crowd there. Reds claimed that the army wanted to kill innocent lives.














( Wow, this monk is intimidating enough to take centre stage )


Today is the most violent day in Bangkok after almost a month of protest. Police and soldiers clashed with protesters at two locations, Phan Fa Bridge and Ratchaprasong Intersection. The clashes resulted in more than 300 injuries and more than 10 deaths including a Japanese journalist. 3 soldiers were also reportedly had died. Reds dragged dead bodies of their supporters on stage to show to their protesters to provoke them. The Reds posted gruesome graphics of their injured and even death supporters on Facebook because they wanted the world to see what the army had done to them but these photos were immediately removed because they violated FB regulations. The army started with tear gas ,water cannons and rubber bullets but had to resort to shooting with live bullets when they were confronted violently by the Reds who threw grenades and even shot at them with live bullets. One westerner was shot by a soldier with rubber bullet after yelling 'f... you' at him ( the soldier )

Rumours were circling wildly ( started by the Reds ) that the PM and his deputy would try to flee the country tonight and a military coup is imminent.














( what is this guy doing ? begging the army to retreat ? )

The government had vowed to take control of all the roads seized by protesters in the past days/weeks so that lives would return to normal in Bangkok. Meanwhile more than a thousand Reds supporters seized a town hall in Chiang Mai to protest against the government crackdown on protesters in Bangkok
(This dog doesn't want to be left out from the protest too)













The following photos were taken before the clashes at other locations
This only happens in Thailand














Also only in Thailand, a protester helping an injured soldier

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