By Nirmal Ghosh
Thailand Correspondent
nirmal@sph.com.sg

 

IN DIN DAENG, BANGKOK

4:30pm local time

I have just got back from Makkasan, an area between Din Daeng and Ploenchit.

The Red Shirts had burned two buses and tried to push over a telephone pole. Soldiers were out there as well - a double row of riot control soldiers with shields and batons, backed up by armed soldiers. The Red Shirts, numbering about 150, were on the road and on a pedestrian overpass, facing the soldiers. The road was littered with glass from broken bottles obviously used as petrol bombs. Speeches were being made from a sound truck.

There was some volatility and a scuffle between two women in red and an army officer, but in general the confrontation stayed fairly restrained. After a while the Red Shirts simply sat down on the road and the soldiers faced them but had not made any moves by the time I left about an hour ago.

I went up Sukhumvit for a bit and found the Emporium mall and a nearby supermarket open. BTS stations are half shuttered, but the trains are running normally. There is of course far less in terms of the normal Songkran merrymaking - but having said that, just about 100m up the road from the Makkasan incident some youngsters were having a blast in a side soi spraying each other with water and dancing to throbbing pop music from a boombox.

I hear there is a confrontation at Yaowarat ongoing now. Clearly there are several spots around the city where similar confrontations are taking place. The army is bringing additional troops into the city.

Government spokesman professor Panitan Wattanayagorn told me on the phone that the army has "strict instructions not to shoot AT protestors." While the first incident at Din Daeng in the early morning may not have been on those lines, the second pitched battle in the area did show the soldiers firing into the air as I blogged earlier.

I am suspending this blog now, because I have to get to writing my reports.

2pm local time

The soldiers have so far been quite disciplined in pushing back the Red Shirts, firing only into the air. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said on TV that the security forces have the situation under control and will make sure that the safety of foreigners is not threatened. He also said that the military will this afternoon secure key locations such as airports and ports to prevent any further danger to the country.

11.35am local time

Street battles going on at Victory Monument. About 150 fully armed soldiers drove back the Red Shirts, who are throwing rocks - which the soldiers pick up and throw back. I can hear shots being fired as I walk behind a row of soldiers who are pushing the protesters back at the Victory monument; the soldiers are intermittently firing volleys of shots into the air. Some are up on the pedestrian walkway at the monument, and the Red Shirts are moving back. The street is lined with rubble, glass and stones everywhere. A medic is tending to a wounded man sitting by the side. This can only get worse.

11.15am local time

A police officer says it was a mistake to send the army in, the govt should have learned from '92 when it fell after the army was sent out. 'The govt was too hasty'. Police are out of the picture. They feel bad after being blamed for Oct 7, 2008. 'We want this to end soon,' he says. 'I think our politicians are too obsessed with their own
interests.'

Just swung by Sri Ayutthaya road at the ministry of foreign affairs intersection. Reds have blocked it off, burning tyres, sitting and filling bottled with petrol to make molotov cocktails. Reds have taken over Ladphrao @ Central Dept store, part of Sukhumvit at Central World & Paragon.
Report that they have parked the LPG truck at King Power near Victory Monument. King Power backs Newin Chidchob who
defected from Thaksin & allegedly organised blue shirts at Pattaya.
Very dangerous situation there, I don't want to go anywhere near the area in case the gas truck goes off.
At Sri Ayutthaya they have parked a bus & let the diesel leak, turning it into a potential huge fire barrier.

WORD IS THE ARMY IS GOING TO MOVE IN AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON.

News from provimces - residents are demonstrating in Chiang Mai, Udon, Lampang, Lamphun & have closed the friendship bridge at Lao border in Nong Khai.

9am local time

I got here at 6.30am to a very tense situation. Fully armed soldiers have secured a key intersection in the capital, having taken two hours to advance 500m, from about 4.45am. They first used tear gas, then live ammunition.

The Red-Shirt protesters threw petrol bombs from an overhead bridge before soldiers cleared it. The Reds have claimed that two of them were killed on the bridge, and the bodies had been removed by soldiers. Locals are all very agitated - including ordinary non-Reds. One local is showing pictures on his mobile phone of bullet holes in a taxi, and a recording of about one minute of constant gunfire from M-16s at 4.49am.

About 200 soldiers are now surrounded by Reds who have parked buses across the road between the intersection and the Victory Monument about 200m away. They have set fire to tyres, producing roiling thick black smoke. Some Reds are ready with Molotov cocktails. Reds have also siezed a truck full of LPG and are said to be leaking it. Army medics standing by say they are very worried, as if the gas explodes, it could level buildings around.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has said it can't be responsible for journalists outside the Government House protest site. Reds here are roaring up and down on bikes, yelling at soldiers, who are from Aranyaprathet at the Cambodian border. 

I'm now in a police box with a policeman monitoring CCTVs. He is in good humour. He says there is no violence elsewhere, but the Reds are burning stuff. He says he disagrees with the army's use of live ammo. One wonders how long it will be before the Reds burn buildings - something some are talking about.

This is the start of an urban-based guerrilla war, with Reds armed with sticks, stones and firebombs. It's hard to see the Democrat Party winning any election after sending the army onto the streets.