In Bangkok
KAMOLWAN Meunnoo, 26, couldn't get a taxi home from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest at Government House in Bangkok on the evening of November 29, a Saturday – so she decided she may as well sleep the night there with all the rest of the PAD supporters who want to oust the government.
She never got to see the sun rise. Today, she lies comatose in a hospital bed, her brain showing no activity. Only her young heart pumps, while outside on the balcony some two dozen of her relatives and friends gather disconsolately, waiting for the inevitable but hoping for some ray of light.
A grenade exploded in the middle of the night near young Kamolwan, a native of Phattalung in the south, who worked as a cashier at Suzuki, the motorcycle manufacturer. Shrapnel pierced her skull and brain. Her aunt Niporn Tapchai out on that balcony in Bangkok's labyrinthine Ramathibodhi hospital, fishes out an ID card that shows a pretty fresh-faced girl.
''We never thought it would happen to us'' she says. ''The doctors say she is still alive only because of medical technology.''
''We can't say for sure who fired that grenade. But if the two sides have a problem, they should talk to each other, not do this to ordinary people.''
''Even our own family is split over politics, but we still respect each other, we don't fight.''
Close to 10 people have been killed in the last four months of Thailand's political crisis. At the PAD rallies middle aged women sing and dance excitedly, their leaders egging them on. Some have children in tow. The atmosphere is festive, almost picnic-like. I have spoken to many PAD supporters, and have almost always warned them as I leave, to be careful. When the violence starts, I tell them, you don't want to be here. Get out fast.
I have often left with a slightly sick feeling in my gut as I think of the innocent young and middle aged men and women, many of them so idealistic, who seem to believe that their ''revolution'' is a carnival.
On Nov 28 Unicef released a statement saying it was ''deeply concerned about the well being of children who are with parents and other family members participating in the demonstrations at Don Muang Airport and Suvarnabhumi Interational Airport''.
''Unicef calls upon authorities and the leaders of the demonstrations to take all steps necessary to ensure the safety and well being of all children at those locations.''
PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul has openly stated that he will use "human shields" to protect his supporters from police.
Clearly, the PAD's ''revolution'' is not a carnival. On the perimeter of their ''revolution'' are packs of trained young men with an array of weapons, ready to use explosively brutal tactics against anyone they perceive as a threat.
The website of the Matichon daily features a series of pictures from Suvarnabhumi, showing PAD ''guards'' chasing and savagely beating a man with clubs. That is only a small fraction of the violence perpetrated by the PAD, often on complete innocents.
Perhaps freelance guerrillas on the other side have responded with steady and deadly harassment – grenades launched out of the darkness on sleeping protestors; the offices of PAD supremo Sondhi Limthongkul raked with gunfire in the middle of the night; a PAD sympathizer pulled from his car and executed in Chiang Mai.
As I write this, it is possible that Kamolwan will have gone, her life support withdrawn. A young woman in the prime of her life, with hope and idealism, crunched under the wheels of an intra-elite fight for the future of her country.
0800 hrs, Dec 2nd: A friend just called to inform me Kamolwan has died.