In Bangkok

ONE of the men in black spotted the black Mercedes Vito as it arrived out of the night and parked behind the tent.

He blew a shrill blast on his whistle. The other young men in black, with their black hats blazoned with the words ''Warriors for King Taksin'' stopped horsing around and straightened up as the occupant of the car stepped out carrying a loudhailer.

Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, in camouflage pants and hat and a black jacket, a whistle around his neck, strode up and shook hands with me, his eyes gleaming in the white sodium lights.

Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol is also known as 'Seh Daeng'.
Source: Nirmal Ghosh

Inside the tent he sat and spoke with me and a couple of other journalist friends. The tent, with lights and a shaky fan powered by a generator, is a makeshift base for combat training of several dozen youths, and an Internet radio station run by an ex-Thai Navy soldier who calls himself K Tong and refers to the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which is camped a couple of kilometers up the road at Government House 'the enemy'.

The tent is at one end of Sanam Luang, the vast grassy rectangle the size of two football fields in the heart of historic Bangkok.

The major general is not an ordinary man. He is 'Seh Daeng' - a folk hero in Thailand for his combat exploits from Laos to Cambodia to Aceh.

He speaks animatedly, eyes intense, face animated, gesticulating decisively.

He gets up and takes down a poster showing the covers of several books about him. They show him riding a white stallion, brandishing weapons, and dressed as a Muslim in an undercover mission in Aceh.

Seh Daeng is a larger than life figure in Thailand - a notorious, fearless maverick who famously laughs in the face of enemy fire. He said if it was up to him, he would clear Government House of the PAD protestors in no time. He would first cut off all supplies including water and electricity, then use water cannons on the thousands camped there -  and drop snakes on them from helicopters.

He had proposed the solution to then-prime minister Samak Sundaravej, he told us – but it had been turned down.

Now he is training the young men in black as a counterforce to the PAD. He stresses that they are not the same as the pro-government groups loosely called the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) whose supporters dress in red to distinguish themselves from the royalist yellow of the PAD.

Source: Nirmal Ghosh

The idea, K Tong explains in asides between barking into his radio microphone, is to provide the UDD with protection when it is on the move.

It is a ragtag militia, which trains in full public view with the sticks but in an undisclosed location with real guns. But Seh Daeng is confident they can do the job of standing up to the well-organised PAD guards with their golf clubs, baseball bats and slingshots – and some guns.

Seh Daeng adopted the project after the midnight clash of Sep 1-2, when one pro-government supporter was killed.

Seh Daeng is voluble, speaking in rapid Thai. 'The police couldn't help, and the army ignored government orders' he told me. 'My men are not an army, they are resistance. I am not on the side of the reds or the yellows, I am independent. The PAD say they want to save the country. But they are dragging the monarchy down into politics.'

'This situation needs tough leadership. But the government is weak, no one is capable of sorting this out, not even the army. Everyone is afraid of the PAD. The only one they are afraid of is me.'

Asked how he as a serving military major general (he is attached to army headquarters in an administrative job) he is able to train a private  militia, he laughed and told us 'I have fought for the dignity of the country.'

'Nobody messes with me, I am a warrior, I am Seh Daeng.'