Red-shirts Battle Blue-shirts In Pattaya

[Penquin]

Red-shirts battle blue-shirts in Pattaya

PATTAYA: -- Red-shirted protesters armed with giant firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, sling shots and batons, battled with local people who formed a line to protect the venue of Asean +6 summit venue here Saturday morning.

The clash happened at 8:40 am.

The outnumbered blue-shirted local people was scattered and ran for cover when the red-shirted people attacked them.

Several explosion sounds of firecrackers were heard and the red-shirted people were seen as firing slingshots with bolts at the blue-shirted people who tried formed a line in front of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel.

The red-shirted people formed a line and kept advancing until the two sides stood confronting less than one metre apart and the clash broke out.

The red-shirted protesters were seen carrying Molotov cocktails but none had been thrown at the other side yet.

Terrified local residents closed their houses and many were seen weeping with fear.

So far, the security authorities had not step in to stop the clash yet.

-- The Nation 2009-04-11

Don't be fooled by gorvernment's medias, they lie and give out wrong information like communists.. Red shirt only asking for a new election, they don't care if Yellow Apisit will be won again and he will be a pure PM come from real election. Gorvenment fraud stolen Taksin money, they need to return his money too. He has a reasonable came from real election and country was growing fast because he has a brain not Apisit or this gorvernment.

The military dictatorship behind gorvernment should be cleaned up to for the long term democracy future and no coup done by them ay more.. tired to see this when they were starving, they always do this.

Heard blue shirts attacked red but the rocks, I don't believed red did that. Blue and Yellow are the same people, that they armed and seized the airport and Thailand lost lots of money since from there 200 billions baht.. well where is Apisit will take care of that..? Red shirts are not acted like terrorists.

Just resigned and accepted that you are not an election PM.

Edited April 11, 2009 by Reimar
change color to black

[chevyinasia]

So now we're down to green, orange, purple, white and black that we can safely wear.

This week.

[wxpwzrd]

Sling shots with bolts and fire bombs... Pretty much shows me what I needed to see about red shirt protestors.

You obviously didn't follow the tv and articles about the yellowshirts with guns shown on tv firing at people, or are you one of the baying mob on here kissing the arse of the incumbent government,it appears from a lot of posters here that it was perfectly ok for the yellows to do what they wanted but not for the reds,hypocrites the lot of them, espousing about democracy my arse your just a baying mob most of you and a lot just getting on the bandwagon.

Actually been here a little while. Even was visiting in 2006 when they kicked that scum out of office. At the moment, I do not support weapons being brandished by any protestors here.

It does sound like you have hopped the red wagon though.

[jbowman1993]

Don't be fooled by gorvernment's medias, they lie and give out wrong information like communists.. Red shirt only asking for a new election, they don't care if Yellow Apisit will be won again and he will be a pure PM come from real election. Gorvenment fraud stolen Taksin money, they need to return his money too. He has a reasonable came from real election and country was growing fast because he has a brain not Apisit or this gorvernment.

The military dictatorship behind gorvernment should be cleaned up to for the long term democracy future and no coup done by them ay more.. tired to see this when they were starving, they always do this.

Heard blue shirts attacked red but the rocks, I don't believed red did that. Blue and Yellow are the same people, that they armed and seized the airport and Thailand lost lots of money since from there 200 billions baht.. well where is Apisit will take care of that..? Red shirts are not acted like terrorists.

Just resigned and accepted that you are not an election PM.

Spoken like a true.....ummmm.....believer? LOL

[pepi2005]

10th April 2009. No weapon as per the law. Otherwise they would have been cleared by tear gas.

sorry to disturb you, but I've seen many of them running around armed myself, yesterday and more of them today.

There was definitely a decision to take it to the next level behind the scenes.

What I don't understand is why the government isn't showing any determination to stop this riot.

[sriracha john]

Good to see you back Koo Good Pic

except that her claim...

10th April 2009. No weapon as per the law.

is hardly provable by it...

nor is it reflective of what more and more media reports are saying...

but yeah... other than proving nothing and being disproved by the media.... "good pic"

[Penquin]

Thailand analysis: 'land of smiles' becomes land of lies

Thailand, sad to say, is in a terrible mess. With the very future of the monarchy at risk the stakes could not be higher. The country is deeply polarized with goodwill, moral authority and the truth itself in desperately short supply. Thailand could be heading for a very hard landing.

By Thomas Bell in Bangkok

Last Updated: 6:38PM BST 05 Apr 2009

One side is led by Thaksin Shinawatra. The former telecoms billionaire and deposed prime minister is a dubious champion of democracy. During his six years in power Mr Thaksin launched a "war on drugs" in which up to 2,000 alleged dealers were summarily executed by the police.

In government he was dogged by corruption allegations, apparently unable to distinguish his own business interests from those of the country. He was no friend of the free media, although censorship is worse now than it was in Thaksin's day.

On the other side is... who? Mr Thaksin has many vehement enemies among the middle and upper classes. It is difficult to tell how many because in Thailand opinion pollsters never ask the only question that really counts – who would you vote for?

They particularly object to Thaksin's alleged corruption and his government's challenge to Thailand's rigid social hierarchy. Qualms over the deadly "war on drugs", on the other hand, are mostly limited to hand-wringing foreign liberals.

These well-healed opponents control most major institutions. They also claim they are acting to "protect the king", and this is where it gets difficult.

Strict laws make any criticism of the monarchy punishable with up to 12 years in jail – in practice almost any discussion of the monarchy is prohibited. Last week a man, the breadwinner for his family, was jailed for 10 years for posting "insulting" pictures of the royal family online.

King Bhumibol, 81, is "above politics" and he is widely and sincerely loved. Many Thais credit him with steering their country's modern development and intervening to solve periodic crises. The country's official doctrine of "sufficiency economics" is the king's own invention.

When politicians claim to act in the king's name they often accuse their opponents of disloyalty, potentially punishable by 12 years in jail. That can make politics very hard to talk about. Bhumibol, for his part, has been mostly silent.

In 2006 Mr Thaksin was accused of disloyalty to the king and overthrown by a military coup. Nevertheless, with Thaksin in exile, voters returned his supporters to power in elections at the end of 2007.

Mr Thaksin's one great virtue as a democrat is that he and his supporters have won each of three elections so far this decade. He is popular because for the first time in Thai history he campaigned on policies aimed at the rural majority – and then delivered. He earned massive admiration for schemes such as affordable health care.

The pro-Thaksin government elected after the coup lasted less than a year. Protesters, some of them armed with golf clubs, bombs and guns, overran first Government House and then both Bangkok's airports, costing the economy untold millions. They wore the royal colour, yellow, and claimed they were acting to protect the king from Thaksin's alleged republicanism. The movement received the public endorsement of the queen.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, as the movement is misleadingly called, argued that democracy does not work in Thailand because the peasantry are too simple to vote. They want a "new politics" in which 70 per cent of parliament is appointed.

Last year's protests found widespread support among the conservative media which, in its rush to finish the Thaksinites for ever, abandoned factual reporting.

Thaksin denies that he is a republican, although some of his supporters undoubtedly are – or they are now.

At the end of last year a court dissolved the elected government and the army brass summoned political bosses to hoist a new prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to power. The leaders of the airport protests were never punished – one even became foreign minister.

Now Thaksin has dropped his bomb. In live video addresses to rallies around the country he identified two retired generals who are close advisers to the king and a small group of top judges as the conspirators who plotted his 2006 ousting and have allegedly been invisibly pulling Thailand's strings ever since.

The government is in a funk, panicking about how to block the transmissions. The army is said to be furious: Thaksin has broken the omerta and the government could not stop him. Commentators say he has gone too far and newspapers are openly demanding censorship to stop the revelations being heard.

Yet although the people Thaksin named have offered desultory denials, no one is seriously disputing the truth of his revelations. Apparently that it is not the point – in Thai politics the truth is not meant for public consumption.

Thailand aspires to be a serious country, a Western ally and a destination for tourists and investment, yet in the past few years the "land of smiles" has been more like the land of lies. A light cast on what takes place in the comfortable sitting rooms of power is long overdue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...nd-of-lies.html

Edited April 11, 2009 by Reimar
change color to black

[wxpwzrd]

Don't be fooled by gorvernment's medias, they lie and give out wrong information like communists.. Red shirt only asking for a new election, they don't care if Yellow Apisit will be won again and he will be a pure PM come from real election. Gorvenment fraud stolen Taksin money, they need to return his money too. He has a reasonable came from real election and country was growing fast because he has a brain not Apisit or this gorvernment.

The military dictatorship behind gorvernment should be cleaned up to for the long term democracy future and no coup done by them ay more.. tired to see this when they were starving, they always do this.

Heard blue shirts attacked red but the rocks, I don't believed red did that. Blue and Yellow are the same people, that they armed and seized the airport and Thailand lost lots of money since from there 200 billions baht.. well where is Apisit will take care of that..? Red shirts are not acted like terrorists.

Just resigned and accepted that you are not an election PM.

Spoken like a true.....ummmm.....believer? LOL

Spoken like a true something... I haven't figured it out yet.

I am sure the renewed protests will bring out the crazies on both sides.

[drunken]

Hammered!... are you seeing this for the first time in Thailand.... ? if so I got nothing say ... but then if you where here last year... have you seen YELLOW shits doing terribly dangerous protest all over Bangkok and in other provinces ... So what you see today is not even a friction of what yellows did last year...

Edited April 11, 2009 by Reimar
change size of fonts.

[hammered]

For anyone who wants to follow developments in English TOC have far more recent updates on developments than any other site right up to Japan's statement they intend to stay for the meet.

[LennyW]

Red shirts, Yellow shirts, Blue shirts, Brown shirts and Dark green shirts, they are all a complete disgrace to Thailand.

Pitiful display of control during an international event such as this!

For a country that puts so much emphasis on not losing face....have they no idea how foolish they look in the eyes of the world right now?!

Edited April 11, 2009 by LennyW

[Penquin]

10th April 2009. No weapon as per the law. Otherwise they would have been cleared by tear gas.

sorry to disturb you, but I've seen many of them running around armed myself, yesterday and more of them today.

There was definitely a decision to take it to the next level behind the scenes.

What I don't understand is why the government isn't showing any determination to stop this riot.

Why don't PM resigned like a gentlemen, no one excepted him, don't be such a fool so there is the end.

[tropo]

Sling shots with bolts and fire bombs... Pretty much shows me what I needed to see about red shirt protestors.

You obviously didn't follow the tv and articles about the yellowshirts with guns shown on tv firing at people, or are you one of the baying mob on here kissing the arse of the incumbent government,it appears from a lot of posters here that it was perfectly ok for the yellows to do what they wanted but not for the reds,hypocrites the lot of them, espousing about democracy my arse your just a baying mob most of you and a lot just getting on the bandwagon.

Exactly right!

Go Reds!

[StrandedBusinessPerson]

Wait, the last time I was stranded at the BKK airport there were yellow shirts and red shirts...what's a blue shirt? Nice shirts, by the way. Bought one at MBK cheap. Cheers!

[hammered]

Hammered!... are you seeing this for the first time in Thailand.... ? if so I got nothing say ... but then if you where here last year... have you seen YELLOW shits doing terribly dangerous protest all over Bangkok and in other provinces ... So what you see today is not even a friction of what yellows did last year...

I have been here for decades. Whaty happened last year was wrong but that doesnt mean what is happening today is right,. Vicious power struggle and both sides have their armed thugs. Innocent people should always be protected. Violence is always wrong.

[Lizard]

Red-shirts battle blue-shirts in Pattaya

PATTAYA: -- Red-shirted protesters armed with giant firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, sling shots and batons, battled with local people who formed a line to protect the venue of Asean +6 summit venue here Saturday morning.

The clash happened at 8:40 am.

The outnumbered blue-shirted local people was scattered and ran for cover when the red-shirted people attacked them.

Several explosion sounds of firecrackers were heard and the red-shirted people were seen as firing slingshots with bolts at the blue-shirted people who tried formed a line in front of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel.

The red-shirted people formed a line and kept advancing until the two sides stood confronting less than one metre apart and the clash broke out.

The red-shirted protesters were seen carrying Molotov cocktails but none had been thrown at the other side yet.

Terrified local residents closed their houses and many were seen weeping with fear.

So far, the security authorities had not step in to stop the clash yet.

-- The Nation 2009-04-11

Send in the "PINK Shirts", katouy ladyboys will use defence of kissing all opposing colored shirt sides, red, yellow, blue, black, white, green, orange or any other color that might appear.

[bangon04]

Demonstrations and mobs during summits are not something new or strange. In UK and France, we had some last week for the G20 and Otan. Far stronger. But Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel and John Major :-) managed to chat together.

Thai police is probably one of the weakest or the less trained in the world.

Are the helicopters made for the dogs? Is Thailand too poor to provide a aircraft / PM?

It should be a source of national shame that the country cannot provide basic security for a prestigious meeting of important neighbours. The ASEAN members are important for the future and development of Thailand. The news from Pattaya has become lead story on the BBC and no doubt other international channels.

The Thai police and ragtag security forces are shown up on the international stage as a joke, a laughing stock. Why should our neighbours take Thailand seriously if this shame is allowed?

[GayGordon]

Blind leading the blind id say,........did anyone else notice that at the exotic car showroom ? on sukomvit the cars in the window had been moved back in a row,,i wonder if it was for safety ,or so as not so show the disgusting amount of money sat in there,.....

[Penquin]

Enough is enough!! These people in red make me want to 'puke'. They have IQ's that can be counted on their fingers. When one backs a man who gives them 200 baht and promises them the ability to get government loans, THAT THEY MUST REPAY, you know they qualify for 'DIM-WIT' status. When there was controversy in the USA about the 2000 and 2004 general election, you DID NOT see the people who lost gathering in Washington D.C. and doing what these people in red are doing. Thailand is years off of being a Democratically run country, as greed and power are the only driving factors. Just think how selfish and stupid the previous PM was: 76 billion baht and not one baht DONATED to the good of the country: i.e. donations to schools; hosptials; environment; ad infinitum........if he had done this with no outside urging, he would still be PM. His days are numbered, but he doesn't get it still. Why don't his followers ever question how a policeman can become on of the richest men in the country........it sure wasn't by hard work......other elements were at work...don't kid yourself! I think it is now OK for the police and military to step in with VERY HEAVY HANDS!!!! To the reds: when you play with fire you will get burned....tum dii, die dii, tum chua, dii chua!!!!!

It might not have happened in the USA but it certainly happened here when the yellow shirts lost, take off your rose coloured specs, and Thaksin without a doubt financed the reds so who do YOU think financed the yellows, and one things for sure the reds are no more cretinus than the yellows, and I do not support either.

I think you should really what Taksin has done for the poor people and helped kid's education, he helped this country with his money 76 billion baht.. done more any gorvernment in the history that's why they love them and this gorvernment cut all thise budgets just because of they hate Taksin to reduced their benifits down because unneccessary to have, so made them angry and turned out to take over them with nasty ways.

Just resign, this PM has no brain.. he is a puphet sting by the gay military leader who just lucky to be a top advisor that has ruined Thai democracy over the dacades.

The yellows financed themself. Every time my wife went there she gave 2-4000 Baht. My staff always gave 50-200 Baht. I know a lot wealthy people who always donated relative large amounts.

Edited April 11, 2009 by Reimar
change color to black

[wxpwzrd]

Sling shots with bolts and fire bombs... Pretty much shows me what I needed to see about red shirt protestors.

You obviously didn't follow the tv and articles about the yellowshirts with guns shown on tv firing at people, or are you one of the baying mob on here kissing the arse of the incumbent government,it appears from a lot of posters here that it was perfectly ok for the yellows to do what they wanted but not for the reds,hypocrites the lot of them, espousing about democracy my arse your just a baying mob most of you and a lot just getting on the bandwagon.

Exactly right!

Go Reds!

Well I will just say to me it is more like GO AWAY REDS. And take your crazy financier with you.

[FreedomDude]

Demonstrations and mobs during summits are not something new or strange. In UK and France, we had some last week for the G20 and Otan. Far stronger. But Obama, Sarkozy, Merkel and John Major :-) managed to chat together.

Thai police is probably one of the weakest or the less trained in the world.

Are the helicopters made for the dogs? Is Thailand too poor to provide a aircraft / PM?

BINGO! This whole problem began with the failure of the Thai police to remove the yellow shirts from their encampment in the middle of the road many months prior to their Govt House Occupation. You have to draw a line on the disruption to the public that protests cause. Can they do it in a public park? Yeah! Can you just stay in the middle of the road and block traffic for months? NO! The Thai police and their lack of leadership have failed Thailand now that all groups can now just basically do whatever they want without fear of consequences.

[wxpwzrd]

Sling shots with bolts and fire bombs... Pretty much shows me what I needed to see about red shirt protestors.

You obviously didn't follow the tv and articles about the yellowshirts with guns shown on tv firing at people, or are you one of the baying mob on here kissing the arse of the incumbent government,it appears from a lot of posters here that it was perfectly ok for the yellows to do what they wanted but not for the reds,hypocrites the lot of them, espousing about democracy my arse your just a baying mob most of you and a lot just getting on the bandwagon.

COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER - WELL PUT - THERE SEEMS TO BE SO MANY OPS HERE WITH EXPERT COMMENT AND NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT - OSTRICH SYNDROME I THINK -- THEY SUPPORT THE YELLOW TERROR and now will support the new BLUE MOB - or is it that the PAD have just changed they shirt colour - ???? same methods of confrontation - same tactics -- quite possible -

Well, then enlighten everyone with your blinders wide open opinion - which is all it is...

[bangon04]

Red shirts, Yellow shirts, Blue shirts, Brown shirts and Dark green shirts, they are all a complete disgrace to Thailand.

Pitiful display of control during an international event such as this!

For a country that puts so much emphasis on not losing face....have they no idea how foolish they look in the eyes of the world right now?!

and since money is such a motivation, how does Thailand benefit from this national foolishness?

[asean]

Well done the Blue Team, even if they were out numbered and out gunned.

They showed the side of reason and how the vast majority of Thai's are fed up with this Red rabble and their mob tactics.

so no one ever got sick of the yellow shirt rabble?

[hammered]

Cant understand why people on here are cheerleading violence. It was wrong when the yellows did it and it is wrong when reds do it.

[h90]

Don't be fooled by gorvernment's medias, they lie and give out wrong information like communists..I thought the Red one are the Peoples movement with all that ExCommunists?? Red shirt only asking for a new election, they don't care if Yellow Apisit will be won again and he will be a pure PM come from real electionIf I am not wrong Abhisit was elected in the Parliament the same was as Samak and Somchai before.. Gorvenment fraud stolen Taksin money, they need to return his money that is the main point of the red onetoo. He has a reasonable came from real election and country was growing fast because the statistic is not seeing any increase, more a decreasehe has a brain not Apisit or this gorvernment.

The military dictatorship behind gorvernment should be cleaned up to for the long term democracy future and no coup done by them ay more.. tired to see this when they were starving, they always do this.

Heard blue shirts attacked red but the rocks, I don't believed red did that not really a question of believe, pictures videos local people who saw it.. Blue and Yellow are the same people no blue are local Pattaya people who worry for their economic, I think, that they armed and seized the airport and Thailand lost lots of money since from there 200 billions baht.. :D If the airport thing reduced the totals country output 25% for this week, Thailand would make a 41 Trillion per year well where is Apisit will take care of that..? Red shirts are not acted like terrorists no more like normal thugs from the slums.

Just resigned and accepted that you are not an election PM he is an elected PM, the vote in parliament was pretty clear.

[wxpwzrd]

Cant understand why people on here are cheerleading violence. It was wrong when the yellows did it and it is wrong when reds do it.

Exactly. And where are the police? Getting their 'salary' from the highway traffic.

[NiceGuyUSA]

Sling shots with bolts and fire bombs... Pretty much shows me what I needed to see about red shirt protestors.

You obviously didn't follow the tv and articles about the yellowshirts with guns shown on tv firing at people, or are you one of the baying mob on here kissing the arse of the incumbent government,it appears from a lot of posters here that it was perfectly ok for the yellows to do what they wanted but not for the reds,hypocrites the lot of them, espousing about democracy my arse your just a baying mob most of you and a lot just getting on the bandwagon.

When the yellow shirts took over the airport, somebody asked me if I was pro Red or Pro Yellow, I said I was Blue. dam_n, now I need to buy a new shirt. Is there a green group, how about Purple?

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

The ASEAN meeting in Hua Hin went without a hitch.

What is the problem with Pattaya??

[karlski]

Isn't Thaksin just a proxy for the CHINESE GOVT? Isn't that where he's hiding? The government says they know where he is, why not reveal it so people can see the meddlers from abroad?

Thailand is a huge resource, and the only "open" zone in Asia to foreigners with any freedom of movement or lack of military junta or other significant danger.

Buy out the rural poor, make them think this is about politics, use their violent nature to sweep to power, or at the very least, create a civil war and have things be as uncertain as possible for as long as possible, so that nothing makes sense anymore to anyone.

This is CLASSIC example of a successful campaign by outsiders to purposely destabilize a country. This is not just internal strife.

Can someone point out who's meddling in the background if it's not the Chinese?