Thai Forces Use Tear Gas, Water Cannon Against Protesters

[animatic]

All of this because the immoral government that was not election by the people is scared of elections.

Out of respect for the dead I shall no longer post until things calm down, I do not support violence and I hate to see government forces killing civilians.

Burma, you are free and Democratic compared to Thailand now.

I think Abhisit made a quite reasonable offer to hold election within 9 month.

It's easy to blame, but when considers everything connected with an earlier election it is a reasonable timeframe.

The red leaders ran away from the negotiating table. Why? They are not interested in Democracy. I pity the pooe people with such a mess in the red leadership. It was all foreseeable when one considers the the red consists at least from three different radical groups, like the communists, the Thaksinists and the hobby-troublemakers, or mob for hire business men.

Are htere any moderates within the red leadership?

It looks like they are split by now. - common sense, common sense is needed mostly right now. People should go home and the trouble stirrers should be arrested.

Sadly common sense has proved quite lacking on Red Stages for months on end.

This has been a continuous escalation to what we have reached today.

Since there is no coherent policies or forethought for AFTER the government is dragged down,

it is imprudent to allow it to be for ANY reason. Horrible as that result may have to be.

Reality is a nasty business some days.

Mob rule taking the day, no matter their rhetoric, would be the death of democracy in Thailand for a long time.

I can't see the red leaders doing much good faith negotiating,

since they can't even get on the same page amongst themselves.

[elcent]

A bad day for my colleagues in the foreign media. One dead, three injured.

2 minutes ago via mobile web

pic of shot soldier http://tweetphoto.com/17891414

[animatic]

All of this because the immoral government that was not election by the people is scared of elections.

Out of respect for the dead I shall no longer post until things calm down, I do not support violence and I hate to see government forces killing civilians.

Burma, you are free and Democratic compared to Thailand now.

The government is not the one that first used lethal ammunition. The government used tear gas and rubber bullets, the redshirt SA responded with hand grenades and real bullets. Ernst Roehm would have been proud to call them his own...

I feel for the soldiers murdered by the redshirt mob.

It seems you are absorbing news from government sources. I'd wait to get the true story. I think we all feel for all those killed and injured.

"It seems you are absorbing news from government sources. "

No.

I was watching 2 different TV channels live.

With all the firing going on it HAD to be rubber bullets from the army side,

or thousands would have been mowed down. There was no massive bloodbath.

There were no masses of gravely wounded expected if real ammo was used by soldiers.

I heard thousands of rounds, at relatively short distances... many would have been hit and killed.

I'll believe the evidence of my own eyes and logic.

And ignore the propaganda from both sides...

but much more is coming from the red apologists.

Edited April 10, 2010 by animatic

[yoshiwara]

The reds wanted a fight and got one, if they don't back down now and negotiate the police will have to use real bullets and defend themselves.

I still don't understand when the people said "reds wanted fight..." 1 month without no violence and just when you give power to army and they decide to "clean" Bangkok from demonstrators...so they charge the manifest and let's go to violence... both side...

It's Abbhisit wanted this, not the reds... If Abbhisit can show Reds are violent so he can say it's not his fault... BUT WE SPEAK OF DEAD PEOPLES TODAY ! Including 1 reporter not Thai ! No winner at all, specially not Abbhisit ! And not Thai country in the foreigner news... I love Thai peoples...Thai country, but definitly not the politics...

Just as Thaksin now lies saying that fake reds caused the violence last Songkran,

red apologists are now going into overdrive, trying to airbrush the red initiation of violence this time as well.

even to the point of wanting to say that the reds were/are so peaceful and were just attacked by the army.

This is not unusual behaviour from an odd one or two contributors.

It is from a red hymn sheet

It is like watching a row of synchronised nodding dogs in the back of a car.

Especially when it is said ' I still don't understand when the people said "reds wanted fight....'

Protestations of love just sound somewhat tarnished then.

Try again.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

BBC is just calling the Thai government liers. "They said they wouldn't use force; they have now used force and at least 8 people are dead."

Clear cut if you ask me.

[granuaile]

BBC is just calling the Thai government liers. "They said they wouldn't use force; they have now used force and at least 8 people are dead."

Clear cut if you ask me.

Hmmm clear cut? Let's see, the reds have used force since day one. The government seeks to restore order. Not clear cut. And since I assume you are paraphrasing, I note u don't provide a link... maybe because it lacks substance?

[retdson]

A news clip that's being shown on both Al Jazeera and Euronews clearly shows a soldier firing live rounds from an assault rifle (looks like an M4) in the direction of red shirted protesters. Not aiming high either.

[granuaile]

A news clip that's being shown on both Al Jazeera and Euronews clearly shows a soldier firing live rounds from an assault rifle (looks like an M4) in the direction of red shirted protesters. Not aiming high either.

Live round or rubber bullet, how do you know? Also how do you know if before or after reds fired live rounds? And Al Jazeera? Gimme a break. Aparrently Mr T had friends there, why the UAE keeps harboring him.

[TITI1971]

BBC is just calling the Thai government liers. "They said they wouldn't use force; they have now used force and at least 8 people are dead."

Clear cut if you ask me.

surprising is the 1st post i read about government liers....

All the day they said they don't use real bullet just tear gas and fake bullet....

And now they said they use live bullet (real) but didn't shhot to the protesters...

How I can believe this government... liers and propagandist same as the red leaders or red TV channel.... both sides are liers

Abbhisit must quit and army chief also and responsable of this bloody day : yellow, blue, red, and army...

[BigBikeBKK]

A news clip that's being shown on both Al Jazeera and Euronews clearly shows a soldier firing live rounds from an assault rifle (looks like an M4) in the direction of red shirted protesters. Not aiming high either.

Good!

[retdson]

A news clip that's being shown on both Al Jazeera and Euronews clearly shows a soldier firing live rounds from an assault rifle (looks like an M4) in the direction of red shirted protesters. Not aiming high either.

Live round or rubber bullet, how do you know? Also how do you know if before or after reds fired live rounds? And Al Jazeera? Gimme a break. Aparrently Mr T had friends there, why the UAE keeps harboring him.

Rubber bullets are large caliber and (by Thai forces anyway) fired from smooth bore shotguns. They can't be fired from a small caliber assault rifle without a muzzle adapter - which the rifle in question clearly lacked. As for who fired first - no idea. I was just responding to a post somewhere above asserting that troops were only using rubber bullets. Unlike some posters here, I'm just an observer with no dog in this fight at all. Although I have to say that firing an assault rifle from the hip into a crowd of people - it wouldn't really matter who fired first - it would be criminally irresponsible in any circumstances. And incidentally, Al Jazeera is based in Qatar not the UAE - just thought you'd like to know.

Edited April 10, 2010 by retdson

[Old Man River]

I have watched the video. There was no evidence of molatov cocktails being thrown as another post in this thread suggested. A tear gas cannister was thrown back to whence it came.

If you want to see the picture go to Boston.com (the online edition of the Boston Globe) and in the article "Unrest in Thailand" dated April 9th (Friday) they will have 34 large colored photo of the peaceful Red Shirts taking over PTV. Picture #23 shows clear, undeniable evidence of a molotov coctail and the photo carries the following description: "Flames rise after a fire bomb was hurled at soldiers ...."

I know this is a shock to you that as early as Friday your peace loving heroes were throwing fire bombs at the Army.

[TAWP]

If you fire a gun upwards the bullets coming down will not have enough force to be lethal.

With all due respect, you obviously don't know much about small arms ballistics..

What goes up must come down, granted, but it needn't do so at the same speed. You run up against what's known as "terminal velocity." A bullet fired straight up will slow down, stop, then fall to earth again, accelerating until it reaches a point where its weight equals the resistance of the air. That's its terminal velocity.

In my statement I am talking about those bullets that are fired at a steep vertical angle, not with a slight incline.

In the case of a bullet fired at a precisely vertical angle (something extremely difficult for a human being to duplicate), the bullet would tumble, lose its spin, and fall at a much slower speed due to terminal velocity and is therefore rendered less than lethal on impact (the Busted rating). However, if a bullet is fired upward at a non-vertical angle (a far more probable possibility), it will maintain its spin and will retain enough energy to be lethal on impact (the Plausible rating). Because of this potentiality, firing a gun into the air is illegal in most U.S. states, and even in the states where it is legal, it is not recommended by the police. Also the MythBusters were able to identify two people who had been injured by falling bullets, one of them fatally (the Confirmed rating). To date, this is the only myth to receive all three ratings at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_s...ullets_Fired_Up

And the issue isn't about ballistics, it is about physics.

But we digress...