Bangkok: 10+ Dead, Hundreds Hurt In Bangkok Clashes

[sealy]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

Jingthing do you have a link to this?

http://tweetphoto.com/17900856

Soldiers at Phan Fa stage apparently.

THE SOLDIERS LOOK TIRED MORE THAN THEY LOOK AFRAID AND FEARFUL OF BEING MURDERED.

BESIDES, THEY SEEM TO BE SURROUNDED BY THEIR COMRADES .

NO RED SHIRTS APPEAR TO SURROUND THEM

MAYBE BECAUSE THIS A CLOSE-UP SHOT AND CAN BE INTERPRETED ANY WAY ONE WISHES.

[Insight]

Official figures state 230 soldiers injured. Plenty of TV coverage indicating a large number of casualties on either side.

I know there's gruesome pics doing the rounds but I really can't see how either side can pass themselves off as the "whiter than white" option here, and I'm dead seat on my opinion this is what the reds where ultimately aspiring to. Evidence of which can be seen by their parading of the dead bodies on stage.

[ThanonFarang]

Those guys look more in need of a Chang than afraid of death...

[beerchang]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

Don't know how you can tell being afraid of being murdered is how they look! 'Beaten and really unhappy' (rightly so) is how they look to me (one of them physically as he has a head 'bandage?').

You say the reds are grade A terrorists....what, all of them? I thought the majority were poor, uneducated, etc etc (I read this on TV) farmers?

A very loaded post Jing. One some people might go mad at...I like that! Good work.

[concerned]

If this is a civil war, there are rules of warfare. At this time, the combatants are the Thai army and the red shirt insurgents still out there fighting. Lets stop the fiction that the red shirts were ever there for non-violence, once and for all. Any red shirt going out now is a combatant. Please send all the children and old people home. If they get hurt, it is the red's fault for putting them in a war zone. The tough ladies can stay if they choose. If the combatants are defined, it is a war. If the red shirts continue to play with ideas of blowing up trains of civilians, well they become war criminals/terrorists.

Can we assume that the last "mob" that hit the streets, closed down the airport and generally held the country to ransom have got their yellow shirts carefully hidden away in their drawers at home at the moment?

[Jingthing]

Give them their vote and respect it.

Now that we have a kind of civil war, you suggest an election? What kind of fair, peaceful election can be held in the current conditions? Chances are Thailand gets another military government again, and maybe for even longer than the last miserable one. Thanks a bunch, red insurgents, great work.

Edited April 10, 2010 by Jingthing

[chanty]

Chiang Mai is expecting protests too someone said?

[sceneitb4]

parading dead bodies to fuel the fire is lower than low. where are you thaksin??? what is your response? Gotta blame it on somebody right? any of your crew reading these posts? betcha a few billion they are? you just going to sit here and let the blood flow? show some balls.

[Jingthing]

If this is a civil war, there are rules of warfare. At this time, the combatants are the Thai army and the red shirt insurgents still out there fighting. Lets stop the fiction that the red shirts were ever there for non-violence, once and for all. Any red shirt going out now is a combatant. Please send all the children and old people home. If they get hurt, it is the red's fault for putting them in a war zone. The tough ladies can stay if they choose. If the combatants are defined, it is a war. If the red shirts continue to play with ideas of blowing up trains of civilians, well they become war criminals/terrorists.

Can we assume that the last "mob" that hit the streets, closed down the airport and generally held the country to ransom have got their yellow shirts carefully hidden away in their drawers at home at the moment?

The yellows are irrelevant now and the yellows never declared war against the Kingdom of Thailand, and never made public terrorist threats on live tv.

[473geo]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

remind me again Jing.......who sent the soldiers.....no soldiers no hostages.

What I see here is a plan that went wrong........and people trying to deflect the consequences from the perpetrators.

[guyshown]

If it is proven that some of these people that died were paid by Thaksin to be there I would think he could be up on some very serious charges '

What is your proof? And what do you mean paid to be there?

[Jingthing]

parading dead bodies to fuel the fire is lower than low. where are you thaksin??? what is your response? Gotta blame it on somebody right? any of your crew reading these posts? betcha a few billion they are? you just going to sit here and let the blood flow? show some balls.

You won't hear any backtracking from him until it is clear he has totally lost. This is his endgame, anything goes, if the country gets destroyed in the process, so be it.

[elcent]

And where is Abhisit?!?

People keep dying because of him.

Actually they are dying because of your hero Thaksin.

They are just cannon fodder for him.

And what's thaksins response to this shameful and sad scenario which is a result of his massive corruption, abuse of power etc?

One poster says abhisit is to blame for the deaths which happened this day, but of course the fact that thaksin supervised the deaths of 2,500 fellow Thais and had oversight repsonsibility for the death of 250 young men dying of suffocation, and more, is not mentioned by the red supporters.

Greetings Everyone

First I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to all Thai people who have kept the Kingdom safe for many centuries so that we have Thailand so worth visiting and great.

I just watched Khun Abhisit on a televised press conference. I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the fact that he communicated with the world clearly showing loving kindness and compassion.

I am glad to see the government use its power from the earth for all to see. I wish to thank Khun Abhisit for his patience in executing law and order today and up until now. Also I wish to show that I agree with his use of controlled force to put an end to the lawlessness of the "red shirt" protesters that has been ongoing for long enough. I hope that this will show the sacredness of Thai law to all so that we can create a society worth living in.

I would like to see discussion and negotiation happen where all parties feel safe. I want to see peace and happiness in Thailand and the world.

Also thank you to everyone who is participating in the communication here.

It is my intention and imagination that all sides, everyone, can learn and practice communication using the 4 true communication skills; friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity.

(End of Translation.)

Non-Violent Communication as taught and practiced by Marshall Rosenberg would be useful here. It's a good start for anyone interested in improving their communication.

I would like to add in response about Thaksin, that the drug war that caused between 2500 and 5000 casualties, and problem of dead protesters in the south, are some of what Thaksin would do well to publicly apologize for and maybe instead of buying football teams with his countrymen's money, he'd make up for some of his failing while in office, and put it towards curriculum that teaches children how to communicate in a non-violent way and how to create love, compassion, delight and equanimity. It is my opinion that society would well do to move on from having wars against its own citizens, be they for drugs, religion, or color, and move into working together in creative ways of making this world good for everyone.

Maybe we could teach sports in school that emphasize cooperation instead of conflict and competition. I saw that True is doing some exemplary work taking interactive education to the masses of young children in schools. I think I'll go have a look at their website now.

At the entrance to the site there was a beautiful video of music by the king with a Thai song, unsung, but with subtitles.

May all Thai people be united in working together to create a harmonious society.

May all foreigners here show respect and love while enjoying the beautiful Kingdom of Thailand.

Namaste,

Dylan

P.S. I wrote the Thai first and did a translation after and rambled on in English.

Thanks for that info, I can't believe a word of that what's written or what he alledgly said.

who exactly did he address? It seems a double standard thingy. Just remember his daily call to heat up the movement.

Seems as if he tries to sort out the commies so to look good now.

No, Mr Thaksin, you have been caught left handed and this was all your work. What difference does it make to you to have 2500 killed or 2520? or even more? Still you are cowering under a Burka in Dubai, therefore also applied the strategy of jihad warfare? Wouldn't that explain the generous profit in the Manchester deal too?

What else did you do in Montenegro, except eating cakes and renovate a hotel? Don't be such a fool. Many people know whats going on there and here.

[Jingthing]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

remind me again Jing.......who sent the soldiers.....no soldiers no hostages.

What I see here is a plan that went wrong........and people trying to deflect the consequences from the perpetrators.

The soldiers were upholding the law of their country against rebel insurgents. 'Nuff said.

[elcent]

can somebody explain to me how over 250 soldiers got wounded, most by gunshots and grenades? Do they shoot themselves?

[crocodilexp]

May all those in the military who died serving and protecting their country rest in peace

May the journalist who died while doing a job he hopefully loved rest in piece

May the reds shirts who died while looking for a war rest in peace

May some people stop being arrogant pricks in this sad and grave situation.

Red shirts were engaging in civil disobedience, but it was relatively non-violent and Bangkok was peaceful until government decided to crack down yesterday. Think what you will about Thaksin (bleh!) and Abhisit (yuck!), but that is the fact. Had the reds been looking for war, I imagine they would have started the violence 3 weeks ago. Had the government not decided to crack down violently, protests would have continued with no casualties (causing minor disruptions to the city).

Edited April 10, 2010 by crocodilexp

[LuckyFive8888]

parading dead bodies to fuel the fire is lower than low. where are you thaksin??? what is your response? Gotta blame it on somebody right? any of your crew reading these posts? betcha a few billion they are? you just going to sit here and let the blood flow? show some balls.

thaksin doesn't really care if some reds die. he knew this is going to happen and advocated this every single day.

he might be having a good laugh now that finally he is reaping the fruit of his investment.

[elkangorito]

สวัสดีครับผม

ตอนแรกกระผมขอขอบพระคุณท่านประชาชนไทยทุกคนทั้งปวงที่ได้รักษาพระองค์ตลอดมาหลายศดวรรษ ให้เรามีประเทศไทยอันน่าเยี่ยมดีเลิศแห่งโลกมาถึงวันนี้ขอรับกระผม.............

Well Jarearn, you post got almost no attention. I would expect nothing less from the 'black & white' bunch of thaivisa posters. Their inability to think often astounds me.

Notwithstanding this, your remarks are quite interesting.

It is my opinion that society would well do to move on from having wars against its own citizens, be they for drugs, religion, or color, and move into working together in creative ways of making this world good for everyone.

Maybe you don't know this but Thai society has always been a 'feudal' society. They still haven't become aware of such a thing called 'democracy'. As such & when certain factions don't like the current political situation, instead of waiting until the next election, the fools become belligerent & violent.

I saw that True is doing some exemplary work taking interactive education to the masses of young children in schools.

Unless this 'education' you speak of is about 'How modern democracy works', it's of little use to anybody.

Whilstever this country clings to it's current 'cultural indoctrination' techniques, nothing is likely to change. What is needed is a 'change' or amendment to Thai Culture. This will be the first non-violent pivotal step towards true democracy in Thailand.

BTW, where do you think the indoctrination comes from? There is only one 'entity' that I can think of.

[ding]

Thaksin is like a spoiled kid who will destroy Thailand if he can't have his way there.

Abhisit has a bad situation and is trying to be rational.

edit; Democracy is messy but the best form of government.

my .02 satang

Edited April 10, 2010 by ding

[lannarebirth]

Give them their vote and respect it.

It is the sellers of the votes that don't seem to respect it. The buyers certainly do.

[LuckyFive8888]

can somebody explain to me how over 250 soldiers got wounded, most by gunshots and grenades? Do they shoot themselves?

i heard that the reds threw a tank of LPG and it blew up.

i am not sure if it's true though.

[473geo]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

remind me again Jing.......who sent the soldiers.....no soldiers no hostages.

What I see here is a plan that went wrong........and people trying to deflect the consequences from the perpetrators.

The soldiers were upholding the law of their country against rebel insurgents. 'Nuff said.

Most places don't send in troops for minor trespassing infringements......usually a fine!!........'nuff said

[asiancup2007]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

remind me again Jing.......who sent the soldiers.....no soldiers no hostages.

What I see here is a plan that went wrong........and people trying to deflect the consequences from the perpetrators.

The soldiers were upholding the law of their country against rebel insurgents. 'Nuff said.

Rebel insurgents who during the past week handed back weapons and ammo taken from the police and army. Can't think of many insurgents that do that.

Edited April 10, 2010 by asiancup2007

[Jingthing]

Thaksin is like a spoiled kid who will destroy Thailand if he can't have his way there.

Abhisit has a bad situation and is trying to be rational.

my .02 satang

Yes, but the good guys don't always win, especially in Thailand.

[whiterussian]

parading dead bodies to fuel the fire is lower than low. where are you thaksin??? what is your response? Gotta blame it on somebody right? any of your crew reading these posts? betcha a few billion they are? you just going to sit here and let the blood flow? show some balls.

thaksin doesn't really care if some reds die. he knew this is going to happen and advocated this every single day.

he might be having a good laugh now that finally he is reaping the fruit of his investment.

They had to do it tonight, before the songkran vacation when the rest of the countryside reds could descend on BK.

[hoilai]

A very reputable Thai source in my Facebook feed said about a half hour ago that the Red Shirts have taken 28 soldiers hostage. Surprised there is no new thread about this, if it is accurate...

It is accurate. There are pictures. The soldiers look afraid of being murdered. The reds have become grade A terrorists now.

Don't know how you can tell being afraid of being murdered is how they look! 'Beaten and really unhappy' (rightly so) is how they look to me (one of them physically as he has a head 'bandage?').

You say the reds are grade A terrorists....what, all of them? I thought the majority were poor, uneducated, etc etc (I read this on TV) farmers?

A very loaded post Jing. One some people might go mad at...I like that! Good work.

i see the photos in the link but i did not see the soldiers being surrounded by red terrorists ever ready to murder them.

jinting , where did you get all these terrorists/murder attempt ideas from??????????????

[concerned]

If this is a civil war, there are rules of warfare. At this time, the combatants are the Thai army and the red shirt insurgents still out there fighting. Lets stop the fiction that the red shirts were ever there for non-violence, once and for all. Any red shirt going out now is a combatant. Please send all the children and old people home. If they get hurt, it is the red's fault for putting them in a war zone. The tough ladies can stay if they choose. If the combatants are defined, it is a war. If the red shirts continue to play with ideas of blowing up trains of civilians, well they become war criminals/terrorists.

Can we assume that the last "mob" that hit the streets, closed down the airport and generally held the country to ransom have got their yellow shirts carefully hidden away in their drawers at home at the moment?

The yellows are irrelevant now and the yellows never declared war against the Kingdom of Thailand, and never made public terrorist threats on live tv.

They may not have declared war on Thailand but they certainly managed to damage it enormously. At the same time they managed to convince by example that the way to get anywhere was to hold the country to ransom and hit the streets and they were allowed to succeed in doing so with little or no retribution from weak Government.

The results of their example you see before you on the streets of Bangkok right now.

And by the way, before you think otherwise, I am on nobody's side but the side of reason!

[atyclb]

Just out of curiousity, could you share the reasoning you used to conclude or come to the belief everyone on these forums is educated, and/or intelligent???

How can so called "educated" people from civilised nations still come on here and condone and even worse support this nonsense.

You people need to take a serious look in the mirror.

The government has done everything to end this peacefully and Thaksin has got exactly what he set out for at the start, yet you still support them

Soldiers being taken hostage by their own people, for doing their job.

I hope this is finished quickly.

[scorecard]

Is this really how to deal with what was essentially a sit in?

n's don't break through police lines to get into parliament, army lines to get into a satelite station and army barracks.

A sit in? Sure they've been sitting at Central world putting thousands of people out of work. But they've also been running around Bangkok like maniacs provoking the soldiers, the police, the media and anyone else they can get close to. By the way don't forget that the reds often protested outside TV stations. I'm sure if they had been able they would have happily censored what was on the air. They believe in freedom of their speech, freedom for them to assemble, freedom to vote if it's for their party. The reds don't care about the rights and freedoms of people who don't share their point of view. This is far more complicated that a sit in. No one is going to accept the excuse of "we were just sitting here".

How many people were killed in those instances ..................None.

The deaths came last night/tonight. Correct me if I'm wrong.

How truly ignorant can you be? The reds have been breaking the law and have been advocating violence the whole time. They have finally got what they have been asking for and now you try to make them out to be the victims? You can fool some of the people some of the time but I don't think many will buy your rhetoric now.

Abhisit has been very calm and very balanced and avoided strong confrontation and avoided violence. Full marks.

Thaksin is solidly pushing his murky red leaders to cause a frontation and try to win.

Why? Simple, thaksin knows very well that his time is running out fast, abhisit is gaining ground quickly, more and more Thais can see that abhisit is achieving good things and he's becoming stronger all the time as he works his way through the minefiled he inherited.

Abhisit has alreday put in place policy directives which will provide a better share of the wealth, provide better education and opportunity for all Thais and this especially means the poor. (and not by poulistist handouts which fix nothing.)

The red leaders can't keep these truths from their Essan followers forever. That's why they are pushing now before their time runs out.

[CHdiver]

What a sad Day for Thailand. My condolences to all Families who lost a loved one.

However; Abhisit had to react and yes, sometimes the Result is not nice.

I hope Abhisit stays in Power.