Five Wounded In Bomb Attack During Yellow Shirt Rally

[h90]

From the explosion photo, I'd say it's fired from a launcher, probably a M203, 350 meter range with 40mm grenade. Less impact damage in the open.

Forensic guy on Sor Wor Por radio reported this morning that the impact site is on the pavement about 80 meters behind the stage.

Not anyone can have his hands on the gear. Two possible groups have it. One is the war weapon marketeer. Another is those in uniforms or ex. But many would benefit from this type of disturban, including those who tried to get Sondhi Lim once before. Did anyone have a look at a nearby building and see if a window was opened?

Well I guess if taking 1.000.000 you can easily get that weapon (or similar) in Myanmar or Cambodia if not direct in Thailand.

That can't be a big problem.

[animatic]

It is being reported that the police have said the explosion was caused by an M79 grenade.

An M79 grenade fired into a crowd would do significantly more than injure five people, it would also make more than an 8cm hole in the ground.

I am going to guess your only perception of the M79 is from Hollywood movies.

Have to agree with TAWP here. When it comes to knowledge regarding explosives and grenades, the expertise is clearly in the PAD camp.

A ridiculous statement.

BOTH ALL sides regardless of color or not, are filled with ex military,

since almost EVERY male in the country has mandatory military training and a term on the forces.

No one side has ANY exclusively greater expertise.

Edited November 16, 2009 by animatic

[animatic]

In a land riddled with corruption getting weapons for a Thai is not a hard thing to swing.

[webfact]

PAD RALLY

M-79 grenade caused the blast

Police said Monday that an M-79 grenade caused a blast at the rally site of the Peoples' Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which injured five people on Sunday night.

Lt Gen Worapong Chewpreecha, city police commissioner said the grenade was fired from near Klong Lod canal apparently aimed at the back of the PAD stage at Sanam Luang.

Police were still not sure whether the motive was to kill participants or merely to alarm.

This kind of grenade can cause the loss of life within a two-metre radius, Worapong said, adding the initial inspection of surveillance cameras and witnesses found no useful information leading to an attacker.

Crime scene investigation police from the Scientific Crime Detection Division inspected the blast site to gather more evidence and to determine the shooting range.

-- The Nation 2009/11/16

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[321niti123]

Those "peaceful" redshirts at it again. Support them at your peril.

Red,Yellow,they both are as bad as each other.

Except for the fact that the reds just threw a bomb and killed people....

Edit - sorry "Wounded" not killed. These people want the best for the country right? They really have our "best interests" in mind. Attempting to kill their fellow countrymen at a peaceful rally.

Lets not start accusing the reds, we still dont know, it might be a third party cambodian group. Although we have no proof, neither the reds, the yellows(they could've setup this bombing to gain sympathy), nor any other group can be discarded from the suspect list as of yet.

[awd]

An M79 grenade fired into a crowd would do significantly more than injure five people, it would also make more than an 8cm hole in the ground.

I am going to guess your only perception of the M79 is from Hollywood movies.

Have to agree with TAWP here. When it comes to knowledge regarding explosives and grenades, the expertise is clearly in the PAD camp.

A ridiculous statement.

BOTH ALL sides regardless of color or not, are filled with ex military,

since almost EVERY male in the country has mandatory military training and a term on the forces.

No one side has ANY exclusively greater expertise.

Agree there's plenty of ex and current military and mafia hitmen on all sides. I was referring to the excellent posts of PAD supporters here on TV who seem very knowledgeable when it comes to munitions and explosive devices.

[webfact]

BOMB ATTACK AT PAD RALLY

Were you all at the massage palour : police asked

Bangkok police chief lashed out at his subordinates for failing to provide security during the yellowshirt rally in Sanam Luang, where a bomb explosion injured five people on Sunday night.

Police chief blasts officers for not securing PAD rally

The NatioPol Lt Gen Worapong Chiewpreecha was quoted as telling senior police officers yesterday that they were irresponsible, lacked discipline and did not have the protective spirit.

He was referring to the rally the People's Alliance for Democracy organised to condemn convicted exPM Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodia's PM Hun Sen. Five protesters were injured when a grenade was thrown into a crowd near the stage.

"I had ordered the police to provide security at the rally. There should have been about 1,500 police in uniform and 450 others undercover officers. I ordered police cars to be stationed at risky places around the rally. Yet nobody followed my orders. If you all did what I had told you, we would have been able to arrest the suspects," he said.

In fact, he blasted them for not being at the scene of the attack at all. "Were you all at the massage parlour?" the commissioner asked.

Worapong said he personally had to come to the rescue of a mentally challenged person whom the protesters had mistaken as the attacker.

No police officers were there to rescue the man. There were about 30 officers near the site but they all just stood still and refused to help the man. They only came when I ordered them," he said, adding that he hoped the police force would learn a lesson from the incident.

-- The Nation 2009/11/16

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[zzaa09]

When in doubt, always go with the 'official' reportage/versions.....

[hammered]

Kudos to this police general. How about appointing him next national police chief.

Quite even handed too mentioning the attack with the grenade and the mentally challenged guy being presumably roughed up by PAD (earlier reproted as suspect I guess).

[Mosha]

Clothes should be banned. No yellow shirts, no reds.

[h90]

Very interesting article in the Nation:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/11/16...cs_30116706.php

BOMB ATTACK AT PAD RALLY

Were you all at the massage palour : police asked

Bangkok police chief lashed out at his subordinates for failing to provide security during the yellowshirt rally in Sanam Luang, where a bomb explosion injured five people on Sunday night.

Police chief blasts officers for not securing PAD rally

The NatioPol Lt Gen Worapong Chiewpreecha was quoted as telling senior police officers yesterday that they were irresponsible, lacked discipline and did not have the protective spirit.

He was referring to the rally the People's Alliance for Democracy organised to condemn convicted exPM Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodia's PM Hun Sen. Five protesters were injured when a grenade was thrown into a crowd near the stage.

"I had ordered the police to provide security at the rally. There should have been about 1,500 police in uniform and 450 others undercover officers. I ordered police cars to be stationed at risky places around the rally. Yet nobody followed my orders. If you all did what I had told you, we would have been able to arrest the suspects," he said.

In fact, he blasted them for not being at the scene of the attack at all. "Were you all at the massage parlour?" the commissioner asked.

Worapong said he personally had to come to the rescue of a mentally challenged person whom the protesters had mistaken as the attacker.

"No police officers were there to rescue the man. There were about 30 officers near the site but they all just stood still and refused to help the man. They only came when I ordered them," he said, adding that he hoped the police force would learn a lesson from the incident

[frodo]

BOMB ATTACK AT PAD RALLY

Were you all at the massage palour : police asked

Bangkok police chief lashed out at his subordinates for failing to provide security during the yellowshirt rally in Sanam Luang, where a bomb explosion injured five people on Sunday night.

-- The Nation 2009/11/16

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

Kudos to the chief. If only more folks would follow his lead and begin to question and perhaps get some accountability. Step in the right direction.

[TAWP]

>About this 'bomb thing'. It reminded me of those mysterious bombs that used to go off in the very centre of previous, heavily fortified PAD gatherings. Given a friend or foe scenario, how could a foe ever penetrate such an environment. It is too bad people get hurt just for the sake of 'drama'.

Thanks for highlighting how important facts are to you.

The 'mysterious bombs' [sic] was launched grenades, most likely from an M79 grenade launcher, and was done usually from overpasses or buildings close to the site. With an active range of 400m, it can reach far within any site and over that the PAD had set up at the time.

[zzaa09]

Clothes should be banned. No yellow shirts, no reds.

Better yet, partisan political identities should be banished and swept from the cultural mindset.

[TAWP]

Agree there's plenty of ex and current military and mafia hitmen on all sides. I was referring to the excellent posts of PAD supporters here on TV who seem very knowledgeable when it comes to munitions and explosive devices.

So now you are calling me an PAD supporter just because I can correct misinformed people regarding weapons and their effects? *sigh*

Yes, some of us are knowledge regarding firearms, both civilian and military, through hobby, training or past or present active duty.

You are expecting credentials, full rank and serial number, next? Sorry, due to PERSEC that aint gonna happen. Of neither me, family members or friends.

But if you distrust any of the info posted - do yourself a favour and get educated. The answer is out there. And not in any Hollywood movie.

[Stumbo]

Politics anywhere is about achieving power and wealth by what ever means. Any actually idealistic and honest person can never be elected since the advent of electronic media as they won't dance to the contributors tune, and as such will never achieve sufficient funding.

Politics isn't anything to get emotional about as it is beyond our control, just sit back and watch the show as all the liars and thieves fight it out to get control of the teats of the treasury. It doesn't matter who wins as they are all the same article in a different packaging.

Red or Yellow etc, who cares? They are all corrupt and only interested in winning at any cost to achieve power and even more wealth. Democrats or Republicans, Labor or Conservative, all two sides of the same coin serving the same masters. And that isn't you or I.

[nitecm]

I have reviewed all the Posts on this thread. I disagree with most of them, but I love to read 'em anyway. Here is my two-bits worth:

>No, it was not a rock concert at Khao Yai. There were no bands. Just a social gathering with friends of the UDD. Limited speechifying, and music mostly consisting of amateur stuff, Karaoke, etc. This movement has evolved a lot of affinity music with great emotive effect. They just enjoyed their socializing in the countryside with tents, etc.

>About this 'bomb thing'. It reminded me of those mysterious bombs that used to go off in the very centre of previous, heavily fortified PAD gatherings. Given a friend or foe scenario, how could a foe ever penetrate such an environment. It is too bad people get hurt just for the sake of 'drama'.

>Only those who are pre-disposed to demonize the UDD would immediately seize upon such an event, to further their agenda. They dont need confirmation or any sort of investigation.

>The many of you who stress that "you are neither red or yellow", dont do yourself any favors. Anyone sincerely wanting to distinguish between these two political forces could do so, and draw up opinions and conclusions...and not be afraid to defend them.

>Using this board to malign a fellow Farang for being interested enough to attend UDD events, and has the power-of-his-convictions, including support of democratic traditions, is not appreciated. I am not him, but know of him. He is also an avowed Buddhist. Don't make trouble for your fellow Farang, even when you disagree with him. Let's be supportive of each other.

>When it comes to this PAD with its' militia tendencies (ie. its heavily fortified perimeters at their previous events) A poster yesterday on this board mentioned the word "Fascist'. I believe that is far too strong, but when you analyze a dictionary definition of that term, some interesting insights occur.

>The Govt. suggesting that alarm is spread through the entire population about this Thailand/Cambodia thing, is just wishful thinking. It is generally known that most insecure leaders will try to create external enemies and internal crisis in order to bolster their precipitous standing.

Awright, I wont bore you with any more of this drivel.

Farmers are only interested at their harvesting now

[animatic]

Politics anywhere is about achieving power and wealth by what ever means. Any actually idealistic and honest person can never be elected since the advent of electronic media as they won't dance to the contributors tune, and as such will never achieve sufficient funding.

Politics isn't anything to get emotional about as it is beyond our control, just sit back and watch the show as all the liars and thieves fight it out to get control of the teats of the treasury. It doesn't matter who wins as they are all the same article in a different packaging.

Red or Yellow etc, who cares? They are all corrupt and only interested in winning at any cost to achieve power and even more wealth. Democrats or Republicans, Labor or Conservative, all two sides of the same coin serving the same masters. And that isn't you or I.

Au contraire.

My mother was in politics; local, county and state, with federal tie-ins.

Never took a dime, never bowed to special interests.

Did it for the good of the people and was well respected.

And over three elections won bigger each time against increasingly strong opponents.

A good honest person CAN be in politics for the right reasons and succeed.

Why not here? Well, let your imagination run riot on that little nugget.

Edited November 16, 2009 by animatic

[zzaa09]

Politics anywhere is about achieving power and wealth by what ever means. Any actually idealistic and honest person can never be elected since the advent of electronic media as they won't dance to the contributors tune, and as such will never achieve sufficient funding.

Politics isn't anything to get emotional about as it is beyond our control, just sit back and watch the show as all the liars and thieves fight it out to get control of the teats of the treasury. It doesn't matter who wins as they are all the same article in a different packaging.

Red or Yellow etc, who cares? They are all corrupt and only interested in winning at any cost to achieve power and even more wealth. Democrats or Republicans, Labor or Conservative, all two sides of the same coin serving the same masters. And that isn't you or I.

Your sound intentions will always fall on deaf ears. The social infrastructures are so well established {everywhere}, political counterparts and competiting dogma is the real affliction. Most are so easily manipulated to understand that there might be differences. It's all comes down to magic acts, puppetry, and misdirection.

[zzaa09]

Politics anywhere is about achieving power and wealth by what ever means. Any actually idealistic and honest person can never be elected since the advent of electronic media as they won't dance to the contributors tune, and as such will never achieve sufficient funding.

Politics isn't anything to get emotional about as it is beyond our control, just sit back and watch the show as all the liars and thieves fight it out to get control of the teats of the treasury. It doesn't matter who wins as they are all the same article in a different packaging.

Red or Yellow etc, who cares? They are all corrupt and only interested in winning at any cost to achieve power and even more wealth. Democrats or Republicans, Labor or Conservative, all two sides of the same coin serving the same masters. And that isn't you or I.

Au contraire.

My mother was in politics; local, county and state, with federal tie-ins.

Never took a dine, never bowed to special interests.

Did it for the good of the people and was well respected.

And over three elections won bigger each time against increasingly strong opponents.

A good honest person CAN be in politics for the right reasons and succeed.

Why not here? Well, let your imagination run riot on that little nugget.

The red or the blue pill...??

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Thank you h90, excellent comments.

(Now there is something I never thought I'd say. )

BTW I also think it's good that they became a political party. The more people actively involved in politics, the better. (Better than the old dinosaur crowd).

Well I am not sure if it is a good idea to became a political party.

That are people from very left to very right who joined together to oust Thaksin, but that is all the have in common.

But what program do they want to do?

The very left liberals against hardcore buddhists like Chamlong?

Modern business owner against communists?

Not that I have seen any program at any of the other parties (beside the Democrats) but in my opinion that is domed to fail as soon as there is no enemy anymore.

I might be wrong..........

Right.. but.. you have to look at current goals; it's fine to find agreement in opposing Thaksin while he was PM, or even while proxy parties were in power. Keeping that alliance together should not be a goal in itself; I think people should find like-minded others and push for the goals they want to achieve, i.e. positive goals going forward. Some may truly want a 70-30 type state where the votes of people with money and university degrees count more than farmer's votes. Others may not agree with that. I think it's only natural to re-align for specific goals. And at least they ARE ideological goals, it wouldn't be the old politics of "I vote for Mr. A because I live in a province controlled by Mr. A's clan, and he's buying the beer and his friends build the roads." No matter what the ideology, I too would really like to get away from those kind of politics that are about nothing but money and power.

I fully agree and it would be very easy to get that. Just change the system to 100 % popular vote country wide, instead of 3 guys from every area. But that was even for the military junta too hot.

As long this system exists that what you describe will exist, just instead of Mr. A, Mr B from the other mafia will be in parliament.

It is a system problem.

That 70/30 idea was to fix that, but I can not see how it should help. The only way in my opinion is to forget about the areas.

100% popular vote country wide would work for me too.

Say, you suppose we just solved that whole Red vs Yellow thing?

[RegularReader]

Awright, I wont bore you with any more of this drivel.

Farmers are only interested at their harvesting now

A very vaild point, which has had little attention.

[Steve2UK]

Interesting that there has been much speculation over the bomb and a sprinkling of the red concert things but there has to my knowledge been no analysis of what was said at the PAD rally or at the way it was slanted. Both were very interesting as were comments that attendees were not all natural PAD supporters. The date of the next PAD rally is also of interest.

Do we need a new thread or do we use this one for such comments?

Weren't the organizers of the Sanam Luang rally very clear that this was not a PAD rally?

Was it or wasn't it?

The organisers have called it a rally of no colour and called for people to rally around certain common things.

The media have termed it a PAD or yellow rally.

PAD opponents call it a PAD rally.

I dont think it is clear in general terms as media affects opinion more than the rally organisers. However, it is an interesting tactic to see the PAD who organised it try to open themselves again. In recent months they have become quite marginalised with their drift to extremism and with the Democrats being in government. Now are they trying to reverse this or is it a genuine call for new alliances? I suspect the former although in the current multi-faction morass anything is possible in terms of new alliances and changes of sides.

Seems this thread is appropriate, so here is a link to Nick Nostitz's pics and text following his attendance at both the Khao Yai and Sanam Luang events:

http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2...re-rises-again/

Yes, it's on a blog-type site - so people will view it through whatever filter is their wont. Likewise people can reach (or jump to) their own conclusions as to the accuracy of his reports. With that in mind, I won't select details to mention and won't comment on what he says and shows - I imagine plenty here will do their usual performance in that regard. That said, I haven't seen anything of what he says or shows contradicted by reliable reports elsewhere (except maybe Matichon's crowd number estimate already mentioned, but I've never paid any great attention to such estimates - and I've seen too many wild variations over the years to start now).

[zzaa09]

Farmers are only interested at their harvesting now

The broader general disinterest of the good people is probably more than most would want to accept.

[animatic]

Politics anywhere is about achieving power and wealth by what ever means. Any actually idealistic and honest person can never be elected since the advent of electronic media as they won't dance to the contributors tune, and as such will never achieve sufficient funding.

Politics isn't anything to get emotional about as it is beyond our control, just sit back and watch the show as all the liars and thieves fight it out to get control of the teats of the treasury. It doesn't matter who wins as they are all the same article in a different packaging.

Red or Yellow etc, who cares? They are all corrupt and only interested in winning at any cost to achieve power and even more wealth. Democrats or Republicans, Labor or Conservative, all two sides of the same coin serving the same masters. And that isn't you or I.

Au contraire.

My mother was in politics; local, county and state, with federal tie-ins.

Never took a dine, never bowed to special interests.

Did it for the good of the people and was well respected.

And over three elections won bigger each time against increasingly strong opponents.

A good honest person CAN be in politics for the right reasons and succeed.

Why not here? Well, let your imagination run riot on that little nugget.

The red or the blue pill...??

Go ask Alice...

[h90]

100% popular vote country wide would work for me too.

Say, you suppose we just solved that whole Red vs Yellow thing?

Not solved....it is just a dream

a) you can't implement that unless you a military dictator who writes the constitution new.

it won't solve the problems on the top of the politics in a short time. As it won't happen that fresh new honest people and parties pop out of the floor.

c) it wouldn't help against populists.

It would be just small step in the right direction. and would need years to show effect.

[h90]

one of the suspect people met Thaksin:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...der-to-meet-Tha

[zzaa09]

one of the suspect people met Thaksin:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...der-to-meet-Tha

The revolution will be sponsored by......

[highlander76]

This just what Thailand needs at the start of high season who done this we with never find out the list of suspects for this attack I think will be very long

[hammered]

Farmers are only interested at their harvesting now

The broader general disinterest of the good people is probably more than most would want to accept.

Quite true.

I was just hearing from the family upcountry though that the rice harvest was disastrous for them this year. The worst in a long time. If that is widespread it will have an effect on all politics.

Note I am not blaming government or Thaksin for this problem;)