Friday, April 16, 2010

Protests Turning Very Ugly

Last Saturday, seventeen protesters and two soldiers were killed when gun fire broke out at the Ratchasong intersection protest site.  A Japanese news cameraman was also killed.  The gun fire was allegedly started by masked men wearing all black.  Incidentally, the red shirt security forces are all donned in all black, and many of them are masked.   There are reports of videos of the black attired gunmen firing at both the red shirts and the army.

Soon after, the red shirts paraded the bodies of two of the slain protesters around the city.  The Bangkok Post reported that the red shirts refused to return the body of one slain protester to his mother, who wanted to take his remains home for a religious ceremony.  The red shirts said that he was a martyr for the cause, and they would perform the ceremony.  I guess he gave his life and his body for the cause.

There have been three bomb explosions at at power plant in Ayutthaya that provides electricity for northern Bangkok.  The authorities have not ruled that it is connected to the red shirt protests, but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and has a sign hanging around its neck identifying it as a duck....you get the idea.

Today the government tried to arrest some of the protest leadership in a hotel where they were hiding.  The raid failed, as the targets were alerted to the plan and made their escape.  There is a photo of one of the leaders being lowered down three stories from his room to escape the police.

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