Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Anew in Bangkok
By SETH MYDANS and THOMAS FULLER
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: May 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/world/asia/17thai.html?th&emc=th
BANGKOK — Heavy fighting and explosions were reported in one area of Bangkok early on Monday in the deadliest and most prolonged conflict in Thailand in many years.
Anti-government red shirt protesters carried a man who was injured during clashes near Bangkok’s Victory Monument on Sunday. More Photos »
Some residents were trapped in their homes, and guests took refuge in the basement of the five-star Dusit Thani hotel. “We didn’t know where bombs and bullets were going to come from,” said a television reporter who was trapped inside the hotel.
More gunshots could be heard in mid-morning and helicopters circled above the site of the fighting. There was no sign of an end to the violence.
As four days of wild street fighting spread to new areas, the British Embassy said on its Web site, “You should be aware that acts of violence or sabotage might be staged outside red shirt protest areas.” It added: “A threat has been made by the red shirts to set off explosions in department stores in Bangkok.”
The red-shirt protesters, who are demanding that the government resign and hold a new election, have taken over the core of Bangkok’s commercial district for six weeks. The official death toll since Thursday rose to 35, with 244 injuries reported, the Erawan emergency center said.
The renegade general Khattiya Sawatdithol, who had sided with the protesters and whose shooting Thursday night was a trigger for the current violence, was also reported dead Monday by Thai news media.
That brings to at least 60 the number of people killed since the protests began as an expression of grievance from Thailand’s poor majority over the country’s long-established hierarchical system in which a mostly urban elite holds power.
The latest casualties included the first death of a soldier in the last four days of violence. The emergency center said he died of a bullet wound near the Dusit Thani.
The violence, which has raged outside the perimeter of a sit-in protest area, began after protest leaders rejected a government offer of an early election, which had been their initial demand. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva then withdrew the offer, halted negotiations and ordered troops to blockade the protest site but not invade it. Troops moved in Thursday and militants outside the site challenged them. Since then, some streets in the area have been filled with the boom and rattle of fighting into the night.
At the Dusit Thani in the heart of Bangkok’s commercial area, guests left their rooms and rushed to the basement as the staff warned that the hotel was under attack, according to a photographer for Agence France-Presse, Pedro Ugarte, who was in the hotel. “I was in bed,” he said. “There was a big explosion near my room. I went out of the room, other people did too and at that moment the wall outside was hit by bullets.” He added, “Everybody is now in the basement, about 100 people.”
Monday is the 18th anniversary of Thailand’s last major eruption of violence, from May 17 to 20, 1992, a time known as “Black May” when 52 people died, according to official figures. Many more people disappeared and were not accounted for.
The Japanese Embassy announced Sunday that it had relocated to temporary quarters. It said that the security situation near the embassy had deteriorated and that access roads had been blocked by military checkpoints. The American Embassy, which is nearby, had already announced its closure, as had several other embassies in the area.
Sunday was a day of conflict in the streets with protesters firing homemade rockets and throwing gasoline bombs at soldiers. Soldiers fired back with rubber bullets and live ammunition.
Some killings appear to have been the work of snipers, and men in military uniform with rifles and scopes have been seen in buildings. There are also reports of unidentified men in black who could be instigating some violence as they apparently did on April 10 when more than two dozen people died and nearly 900 were wounded during a failed attempt to remove the protesters at another site.
Earlier Sunday, the government offered safe passage for any protesters who wished to leave a downtown site where they have camped for six weeks, and a protest leader, Nattawut Saikua, said they would be free to leave. Mr. Nattawut also offered to withdraw militant fighters from the streets and negotiate if the government also called a cease-fire and withdrew its troops. That offer suggested a closer relationship with the violent wing of the protests than Mr. Nattawut had acknowledged.
But he put forward a condition that was immediately rejected by the government, insisting that any talks be mediated by the United Nations. Such a condition would have legitimized the protesters as an internationally recognized party in talks.
A military spokesman said that the government was prepared to evacuate women, children, the elderly and any others who wanted to leave; a nongovernment group offered to help. “I’d like to tell parents who brought their children to the demonstration to leave immediately if you decide to leave,” Mr. Nattawut said. “But I will stay here.” He added: “If you choose to stay and resist, you should take your children to a safe place.”
Another leader, Jatuporn Prompan, said he was ready to fight to the death. Many protesters at the site also insisted late on Sunday that they would stay, and protesters have warned of a wider uprising if they are attacked.
On Sunday the government extended a state of emergency to five more provinces, in addition to Bangkok and 17 provinces that were already covered.
“You are being used as tools,” the prime minister said Sunday on television, addressing protesters and suggesting that they were being manipulated by people bent on fomenting violence. Broadcasts like this, however, do not reach the controlled airwaves of the protest site.
Attacks on such crucial infrastructure elements as electricity transmission towers, an aviation fuel storage depot, banks and military installations have taken place in concert with the protests over the past two months. Some analysts see an invisible hand behind the protests and believe these attacks, in conjunction with the protests, were part of a campaign to destabilize the country.
There is no proof of these claims, but the attempts to damage infrastructure using what the government describes as “weapons of war” remain unexplained.
Thai Government Rejects Cease-Fire Talks
By THOMAS FULLER and KIRK SEMPLE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: May 18, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/world/asia/19thai.html?hp
BANGKOK — The Thai government on Tuesday rejected an offer for peace talks, calling the protesters’ pleas for a cease-fire insincere and demanding that they disperse from the strife-torn streets of central Bangkok.
Although soldiers continued to clash with protesters in at least one neighborhood, the violence appeared less intense than it had been on previous days, and many demonstrators were listless in their increasingly putrid-smelling encampment, cut off from the outside world.
According to a government monitoring center, 6 people were wounded in clashes Tuesday, bringing the total number to 284 since Thursday, when much of the mayhem was set off by the assassination of a rogue general allied with the protesters. At least 35 civilians and 2 soldiers, including the general, have been killed in clashes.
A top government official made the case Tuesday that negotiations with the protesters were being stymied by demands for amnesty by Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister whose removal in a 2006 military coup was the genesis of the protest movement.
Mr. Thaksin was convicted of abuse of power in October 2008 and sentenced to two years in a highly politicized case.
Korbsak Sabhavasu, an aide to the prime minister who has led negotiations with the protesters in recent weeks, said he had told protest leaders that the government would not provide amnesty for Mr. Thaksin.
“Every time we come close to a deal, Khun Thaksin sort of vetoes it,” he said in an interview, using an honorific to describe the former prime minister, who lives overseas. “It’s gotten to the point where if they cannot negotiate in good faith there’s no point in doing it.”
The role of Mr. Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon whose fortune was partially confiscated by the government earlier this year, remains as murky as the violence wracking the streets of Bangkok. Deep fractures in Thai society, including rifts and rivalries in the military and the police, have provided a volatile cocktail of instability.
Protest leaders minimize Mr. Thaksin’s role in the protests, describing him as an inspiration for the movement.
Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, said in an interview Tuesday in the protest encampment that he was unaware of any financing provided by Mr. Thaksin for the protest movement. “Maybe he did,” he said. “But he never gave any money to me.”
The government says it has evidence that money linked to Mr. Thaksin was distributed to finance the protests.
“There were cash withdrawals, lots of them,” Mr. Korbsak said.
Protest leaders proposed early Tuesday that members of the Senate mediate the conflict. Mr. Nattawut said he was hopeful the negotiations would last only one or two days in what appeared to be a sign of his eagerness to end the protest. The government rejected the offer hours later, leaving the two sides in a stalemate.
Protesters and the government continued to trade accusations over the reasons for the mounting deaths and injuries.
A spokesman for the Thai army, Sansern Kaewkamnerd, labeled Mr. Nattawut as a “major terrorist” on Tuesday. The government says militants who are allied with the protest movement are responsible for attacks on police and soldiers.
Protest leaders, for their part, have accused government forces of singling out civilians.
“How could the civilized world allow this to happen before your eyes?” asked Weng Tojirakarn, one of the protest leaders. He said the government was acting as if it had a “license to kill.”
The victims have included four journalists shot last week in separate episodes while covering the protests, prompting an outcry from journalist advocacy groups.
“The confusion reigning in various parts of Bangkok does not suffice to explain the shooting injuries sustained by several Thai and foreign journalists since April,” Reporters Without Borders said Sunday in a statement.
But two of the wounded journalists said in interviews this week that they did not believe they were victims of a concerted campaign against them.
Subin Namchan, a photographer for Matichon, a Thai newspaper, said he was in Lumpini Park when someone opened fire on the protesters a group of protesters nearby. A bullet hit him in the thigh.
“There were a lot of shots at the time,” he said. “There was a lot of chaos.”
He added, “I think I was an incidental victim.”
The protests, though largely confined to a limited area in central Bangkok, continued to disrupt life for many of the city’s more than 10 million residents.
A government spokesman said that government offices would remain closed for the rest of the week, and the operators of the city’s subways and sky trains announced that service on both systems would be suspended for at least another day, according to the Web site of The Bangkok Post, an English-language newspaper.
Thousands of businesses in and near the protest zone — a grid of wide boulevards and narrow alleyways that encompasses some of the capital’s most expensive residential and shopping districts — have been forced to close or open temporary offices elsewhere. Among the affected businesses are several luxury hotels, including the Hyatt, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn and Four Seasons, and several high-end malls.
Foreign diplomatic compounds near the protest zone have also shut down, including the United States Embassy, which has offered to temporarily relocate families of American staff members.
Mariko Takayasu contributed reporting.
Thai soldiers overrun protesters' camp; 'red shirt' leaders surrender
By Andrew Higgins
Copyright by The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 19, 2010; 9:44 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/19/AR2010051900369.html?hpid=topnews
BANGKOK -- Thai soldiers launched an assault against "red shirt" protesters in a military operation that forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender but left parts of Bangkok in the grip of near-anarchy. Enraged by the offensive, protesters set fire to Thailand's stock exchange and southeast Asia's biggest shopping mall, looted luxury boutiques and fired grenades and guns in areas previously untouched by the mayhem.
In an offensive launched at daybreak Wednesday after days of escalating confrontation, armored vehicles smashed through barricades made of sharpened bamboo poles and rubber tires while heavily armed troops raced deep into territory occupied for more than a month by protesters.
As the military advanced toward the center of the fortified encampment, protest leader Jatuporn Prompan announced that he and other "core leaders" would turn themselves in to police. He pleaded with followers to leave the area to avoid further bloodshed.
"We have no more words to speak because all your hearts are already far beyond death," Jatuporn said. "Today we will stop the death but we will not stop fighting. People keep dying, let's stop the death together."
An angry mob ignored the appeal for an orderly retreat and set fire to parts of Central World Plaza, an upscale nearby shopping mall, under the gaze of fashion models pictured on billboards advertising luxury clothing. Thick smoke billowed from the shopping center and also from Siam Theatre -- a popular movie house -- a government-owned bank and other buildings. Rioters set fire to the Thai stock exchange, which had closed early because of the violence. Some protesters began setting up new barricades and fought running battles with soldiers.
The government said it had the situation under control but also declared that a curfew would go into effect at 8 p.m. and continue until 6 a.m. Dazed tourists struggled to get back to their hotels through military checkpoints amid sporadic rounds of gunfire. Electricity went off in residential areas far from the protest zone.
There also were reports of unrest elsewhere in Thailand, a close military ally of the United States and popular tourist destination that touts itself as the "land of smiles."
Most of the trouble outside Bangkok took place in northern regions, the main base of support for Thailand's exiled former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire former police officer who wants to return to Thailand and to power. In Khon Kaen, a major city in the north, protesters seized the town hall. In another big northern city, Ubon, about 1,000 red shirt sympathizers forced their way past soldiers guarding a government compound and set fire to city hall, gutting it completely, according to a resident.
Such incidents show that far from settling Thailand's deep political divisions, Wednesday's assault threatened to polarize the country further. The protesters first gathered in central Bangkok more than two months ago to try to force early elections to replace the government, which was chosen by parliament, not by a popular vote. It took power from a government loyal to Thaksin, who was himself overthrown in a military coup in 2006. What began as a peaceful movement for change, however, became increasingly unruly as hard-line militants took up arms and protest leaders lost control of their own cause.
In Bangkok on Wednesday, trouble spread beyond the "red zone" into Sukhumvit, a main thoroughfare usually clogged with foreign tourists. A group of men on motorbikes raced down the street and fired at security officers standing near the Landmark Hotel. One person seemed to have been injured, said a hotel employee.
Further down the same road, red-shirt sympathizers set fire to tires outside a police station at Asoke, a major transportation hub, and blocked the street with buses. A crowd of bystanders cheered. A fire truck was chased away, leaving the fires to rage unchecked. It was later put out and the crowd dispersed.
Jeremy King, a private fund manager and longtime British resident of Bangkok, said the cheers from onlookers signaled a surprising degree of "grass-roots support for the red shirts," but he said he was also surprised by "how quickly the crowd evaporated . . . and the fires were put out when the order came to stand down."
Estimates of casualties varied widely. News agencies initially reported at least four killed and more than 50 injured in the army operation. Among those reported killed was an Italian news photographer, and three other journalists were wounded. Casualties were expected to rise.
The military halted its advance on the center of the protest zone, saying it wanted to let people leave. Although the government clearly won the battle Wednesday, it now faces the more difficult task of winning what will likely be a long campaign to restore enduring calm and to prevent pockets of resistance coalescing into a threat that could jeopardize the entire country's future stability.
The stakes are also high for Washington, which risks embarrassment if the military push produced major bloodshed. The United States has long-standing and close relations with Thailand's armed forces. The two countries hold regular joint military exercises, the most recent of which, a naval exercise off the Thai coast, began late last week -- just as the Thai authorities declared parts of Bangkok a "live firing zone."
Moving into red shirt territory early Wednesday, soldiers advanced down a garbage-strewn avenue that had been one of Bangkok's most exclusive shopping and business districts. A billboard advertising BMW cars declared, "Joy is here, there and everywhere." Soldiers also took positions outside the U.S. Embassy, on the edge of protester territory, and moved on foot along an elevated rail line over the center of the camp. Later in the day, parts of the city's mass transit system seemed to be on fire.
When news of the military advance first reached protesters gathered around a makeshift stage, they battled panic by singing a Thai folk song called "No Problem." A crowd that had numbered more than 3,000 quickly dwindled, with many taking refuge in a Buddhist shrine designated as a safe haven.
When they first moved to the capital in March, protesters -- many of them farmers and other red shirts from the north -- occupied just a single bridge. But they steadily expanded territory under their control, paralyzing the center of a capital city of more than 9 million people. As troops moved in last week to choke off supplies to the protest area, militant elements took up arms and fought running battles with the Thai military. At least 39 people were killed.
Washington, in public comments, had tried to remain aloof from what it termed a domestic political crisis. But behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats in Bangkok worked to find a peaceful settlement. They held informal talks with both government officials and red shirt representatives, diplomats familiar with the discussions said. It was not clear whether the United States was informed beforehand of the Thai military's advance Wednesday.
Special correspondent Nate Thayer contributed to this report.
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