Red-Shirts Blamed For Gunfights, Bomb Attacks

[webfact]

Protesters blamed for gunfights, bomb attacks

By The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK: -- The Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situation (CRES) said yesterday that protesters were carrying guns and bombs during the clash at Khok Wua intersection last night.

CRES spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd said at a televised press conference that gunshots were fired by the protesters and injured at least two soldiers.

The press conference took place before a clash erupted later last night when protesters started a gunfight and threw grenades at anti-riot soldiers, causing scores of injuries. At press time, at least eight people were killed and almost 500 injured.

Sansern said it was necessary to crackdown on the red-shirt protesters because they were being violent. He added that the red shirts also tried to storm the 1st Army Region in the morning, and after being pushed back, they returned to Phan Fa Bridge to incite more violence.

The spokesman insisted that the Army operations were in line with the seven internationally accepted crowd-control measures.

Acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the authorities were left with no choice but to disperse the crowds, adding that troops would only use force when necessary to reclaim areas.

"All actions have been and will be in accordance with human rights, legal and international standards," Panitan explained.

Meanwhile, deputy Army commander General Prayuth Jan-ocha yesterday promised to bring normalcy back to the country as soon as possible. He also called on the red shirts to respect the law and think of the country.

A source said that during a CRES meeting yesterday, Prayuth expressed dissatisfaction at the fact that the red shirts were mistreating soldiers.

-- The Nation 2010-04-11

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Jerrytheyoung]

This Thread should not have been opened as it is in Contradiction with the aim of what the Nation has written in "our darkest day".

Yesterday morning, before any incident, I have underlined that Army should stay in its barracks because Army is a symbol of National Unity and should not be used against any fellow citizen- only reserved to external threats.

Young soldiers with several rounds of rubber and some (for warning) live ones, can confuse easily in the heat of a battle. Once everything begins to degenerate, everybody is warming up and the situatiion is escalading on both sides.

The decision to engage army (reluctant initially to be involved) is the key to this tragic saturday.

People engaged in a battle are loosing restraints it is well known: this kind of situation nearly always is degenerating.

The real responsability belongs to those who have created the situation, not to the fighters.

ARMY should have never been involved in this action.

Edited April 11, 2010 by Jerrytheyoung

[Thailand]

Why blame just one side- it takes two to have a battle that leads to subsequent death and injuries, the "they threw the first stone" does not cut it.

The govt are equally to blame for a situation that got so badly out of hand by inept control and management.

A very sad day for the Thai people, my heart goes out to them at the time of the year when all should be joyous.

Edited April 11, 2010 by Thailand

[LuckyLew]

This Thread should not have been opened as it is in Contradiction with the aim of what the Nation has written in "our darkest day".

Yesterday morning, before any incident, I have underlined that Army should stay in its barracks because Army is a symbol of National Unity and should not be used against any fellow citizen- only reserved to external threats.

Young soldiers with several rounds of rubber and some (for warning) live ones, can confuse easily in the heat of a battle. Once everything begins to degenerate, everybody is warming up and the situatiion is escalading on both sides.

The decision to engage army (reluctant initially to be involved) is the key to this tragic saturday.

People engaged in a battle are loosing restraints it is well known: this kind of situation nearly always is degenerating.

The real responsability belongs to those who have created the situation, not to the fighters.

ARMY should have never been involved in this action.

I totally disagree with your opinion

The ARMY had to be engaged

[londonthai]

so how 2 soldiers are injured and at least 15 protesters are dead (reds tell about 38 dead) and 680 injured, if it was protesters which used guns and bombs? So who was shooting at the protestors, if not the army and cops?

what a lot of propaganda about human rights, legal and international standards etc

"crowd-control measures" are not about shooting at point blank at the japanese journalist from reuters, because he told the soldier-murderer to <deleted>*k off

Edited April 11, 2010 by londonthai

[neverdie]

so how 2 soldiers are injured and at least 15 protesters are dead (reds tell about 38 dead) and 680 injured, if it was protesters which used guns and bombs? So who was shooting at the protestors, if not the army and cops?

theres alot more than 2 soldiers injured, not to mention the ones that have been killed AND then theres the ones being held hostage.

sorry, you need to come back with more accurate numbers or are you also trying to skew the facts?

Edited April 11, 2010 by neverdie

[TITI1971]

Again surprise. Still no one wrote about how the government, army chief or police comander lie all the saturday to us... including to their fellow yellow supporters...

All the day they said that they use only teargas and plastic bullets.... And when all the world report the clash and many peoples died...so finally they say they use real bullet... and for don't lose their face...they say they shot in the sky or say it's the fault of the protesters...

Hide your face and quit this government of liers. Put them in jail with all the other leaders, different is demonstrators leaders didn't order to shot or use gun with bullets ...it's the personal choice of the peoples...other leaders just break the law (and some buildings).

[angiud]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

[tominbkk]

I think we can all agree it would not be below the Red Shirt mentality to spill some of its own blood to play the sympathy card. They killed their own people, shame on the reds!

[londonthai]

theres alot more than 2 soldiers injured, not to mention the ones that have been killed AND then theres the ones being held hostage.

sorry, you need to come back with more accurate numbers or are you also trying to skew the facts?

sorry, just quoting the original article - 2 injured soldiers.

there were stories about 4 soldiers dead - much less than 11 or 38 (protesters figure) of civilians.

nothing heard so far about hostages.

you come back with accurate numbers

[londonthai]

I think we can all agree it would not be below the Red Shirt mentality to spill some of its own blood to play the sympathy card. They killed their own people, shame on the reds!

I absolutely disagree with you and call your statement yet another piece of statist propaganda - killed their own people? did sepuku or shot themselves in the heads, chest and guts?

it was army that admitted shooting at the protesters

Edited April 11, 2010 by londonthai

[Jerrytheyoung]

Today is not the day to accuse each other and particularly the people engaged on the battle field.

Today responsible people try to avoid the situation escalading.

In democratic Countries we have special Anti-Riot Forces associated with Police. It is a Police Job to control a Mob, not an Army one.

The Army Spokesman is now dissatisfied because the Red Shirt do not respect the soldiers: it was predictable, is not it? ARMY is loosing its credibility: this is an important breach toward a Civil War if the reasonable people loose grip.

[otherstuff1957]

The army shouldn't be involved, but the police are useless. The government has two choices: turn the country over to the Redshirts or use the army.

The current count, according to Narenthorn Medical Center, is 4 soldiers dead and 11 civilians. Hopefully there will be no more.

Edited April 11, 2010 by otherstuff1957

[jamesjdaly]

........Army should stay in its barracks because Army is a symbol of National Unity and should not be used against any fellow citizen- only reserved to external threats.........

....ARMY should have never been involved in this action.......

I will tell you this, boy. We were glad of the British army when the IRA death squads were roaming Belfast in the name of Soldiers of Freedom. Go back to your comfortable little village

and spout there.

[anotherpeter]

This Thread should not have been opened as it is in Contradiction with the aim of what the Nation has written in "our darkest day".

Yesterday morning, before any incident, I have underlined that Army should stay in its barracks because Army is a symbol of National Unity and should not be used against any fellow citizen- only reserved to external threats.

Young soldiers with several rounds of rubber and some (for warning) live ones, can confuse easily in the heat of a battle. Once everything begins to degenerate, everybody is warming up and the situatiion is escalading on both sides.

The decision to engage army (reluctant initially to be involved) is the key to this tragic saturday.

People engaged in a battle are loosing restraints it is well known: this kind of situation nearly always is degenerating.

The real responsability belongs to those who have created the situation, not to the fighters.

ARMY should have never been involved in this action.

In most western countries there are special police forces that deal with these kinds of riots. Thailand doesn't have a trained police force, so unfortunately they need to use the army.

Also, in these kind of riots in most western countries, the rioters are not usually armed with guns and bombs.

If this is the army's fault, and the army is no longer used to protect the (any) government, then Thailand will be in for many years of mob rule.

[TITI1971]

I think we can all agree it would not be below the Red Shirt mentality to spill some of its own blood to play the sympathy card. They killed their own people, shame on the reds!

and shame on the fake coalition government who use the word democrat just in the name of their politic part...

it's not the first time Thailand has clash in politics with demonstrators... but now they start to lose control on the deep south and in the big province of the north and north east...

next step is civil war if this government continous to ignore the other side... or outisde Bangkok i mean...

[angiud]

soldier hostage (from Matichon online)

[anotherpeter]

Today is not the day to accuse each other and particularly the people engaged on the battle field.

Today responsible people try to avoid the situation escalading.

In democratic Countries we have special Anti-Riot Forces associated with Police. It is a Police Job to control a Mob, not an Army one.

The Army Spokesman is now dissatisfied because the Red Shirt do not respect the soldiers: it was predictable, is not it? ARMY is loosing its credibility: this is an important breach toward a Civil War if the reasonable people loose grip.

Thailand DOESN'T have special Anti-riot forces. They only have the army for these situations.

What do you want anyone to do when there are protestors threatening violence day after day. Sit back and let them do what they threaten?

[tominbkk]

This can all be stopped with the reds going home. Is risking your life really worth 500 Baht a day from Thaksin?

[Jerrytheyoung]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

In France the Anti Riot Forces (named CRS) are recruited amidst Police and professional soldiers at the end of their contract with Army: all the CRS are experienced, no young conscrit. They have a special training. It will not take so long to create such a Force in Thailand.

It is particularly important that People doing this kind of work are mature, responsible, well informed about laws, consequences of their acts.

It is amateurism to engage the Army.

[londonthai]

This can all be stopped with the reds going home. Is risking your life really worth 500 Baht a day from Thaksin?

some top brass politicians, cops and army commanders are payed much more per day by their rich masters to do the dirty jobs on the streets and in the parliament.

don't degrade the protesters who are on the streets for days, weeks and months and die for their political convictions of equality and freedom. They are poor, because the elites are exploiting them to the last satang.

you don't think that those hundreds of thousands of protesters in bangkok and around the country are payed by somebody for a month to stay on the streets?

Edited April 11, 2010 by londonthai

[anotherpeter]

I think we can all agree it would not be below the Red Shirt mentality to spill some of its own blood to play the sympathy card. They killed their own people, shame on the reds!

and shame on the fake coalition government who use the word democrat just in the name of their politic part...

it's not the first time Thailand has clash in politics with demonstrators... but now they start to lose control on the deep south and in the big province of the north and north east...

next step is civil war if this government continous to ignore the other side... or outisde Bangkok i mean...

The deep south is all the Abhisit governments fault?? What sort of logic do you use to work that out?

And it's funny that the PPP can have coalition governments, but as soon as the Democrats do, it's fake.

[MellowYellow]

"All actions have been and will be in accordance with human rights, legal and international standards," Panitan explained.

I'd bet the 15+ dead on both sides would disagree with this.

[geovalin]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

Excellent post.

Thai army is probably the worst in the world in anyway. The weakest / spent money. They lost against Laos and they'd lose against Cambodia.

Abisith is also 100% responsible for the yesterday drama. He never tried to understand the other opinions. Friday, Thai police and Thai army tried to solve the issue in a Thai way but at 10 PM, Abisith put some oil on the fire.

[anotherpeter]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

In France the Anti Riot Forces (named CRS) are recruited amidst Police and professional soldiers at the end of their contract with Army: all the CRS are experienced, no young conscrit. They have a special training. It will not take so long to create such a Force in Thailand.

It is particularly important that People doing this kind of work are mature, responsible, well informed about laws, consequences of their acts.

It is amateurism to engage the Army.

It may not take long, but the fact is, they don't have it.

The police barely have any training in anything, and the general army have some training, but not enough.

That has been the case for years. Maybe something will change soon, but don't hold your breath (under any government).

The red leaders knew they would be up against the army. They knew the quality of the army. They knew that if the red shirts kept on pushing that this would happen. Yet they continued to push.

[anotherpeter]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

Excellent post.

Thai army is probably the worst in the world in anyway. The weakest / spent money. They lost against Laos and they'd lose against Cambodia.

Abisith is also 100% responsible for the yesterday drama. He never tried to understand the other opinions. Friday, Thai police and Thai army tried to solve the issue in a Thai way but at 10 PM, Abisith put some oil on the fire.

I don't think you understand the other opinions.

The red shirts want power. They don't want to change anything else.

[TITI1971]

I think we can all agree it would not be below the Red Shirt mentality to spill some of its own blood to play the sympathy card. They killed their own people, shame on the reds!

and shame on the fake coalition government who use the word democrat just in the name of their politic part...

it's not the first time Thailand has clash in politics with demonstrators... but now they start to lose control on the deep south and in the big province of the north and north east...

next step is civil war if this government continous to ignore the other side... or outisde Bangkok i mean...

The deep south is all the Abhisit governments fault?? What sort of logic do you use to work that out?

And it's funny that the PPP can have coalition governments, but as soon as the Democrats do, it's fake.

I never said the deep south it the fault of this governemnt partly or completly, just nothing change and now could be another part of Thailand angry with him...

TRT was alone, PPP with coalition was first and respect a vote without using a court for ban a lot of opposite members (even if it was right)... Not this coalition of turnjacket politicians who do a coalition specially after the court decide to ban or clean PPP or TRT or all the real opposite of democrats for win majority... if they did'nt have the court in their pocket they did'nt win ! was just the beggining of Abhisit revenge VS Thaksin... now is another part and will be more until both side continous the game to separate for reign....

[londonthai]

The red shirts want power. They don't want to change anything else.

yes, they do - through the ballot box, not the bullets.

they want to defend their voting rights, as well as social achievements which they gained in the last decade. They want to progress further, to get rid of the corrupted social system

Edited April 11, 2010 by londonthai

[anotherpeter]

This can all be stopped with the reds going home. Is risking your life really worth 500 Baht a day from Thaksin?

some top brass politicians, cops and army commanders are payed much more per day by their rich masters to do the dirty jobs on the streets and in the parliament.

don't degrade the protesters who are on the streets for days weeks and months and die for their political convictions of equality and freedom.

you don't think that those hundreds of thousands of protesters in bangkok and around the country are payed by somebody for a month to stay on the streets?

If they were really fighting for equality and freedom then I might be supporting them.

They have been free to cause havoc for weeks. They should be fighting their rich leaders for equality.

There haven't been hundreds of thousands of protestors. There weren't hundreds of thousands protesting yesterday.

This is a minority mob trying to fight for their form of democracy.

If there was a change to a red government tomorrow, absolutely nothing would change. When the anti-red protestors came out, the army would still be cracking down.

[TITI1971]

4 soldiers dead and hundreds wounded....

If thailand had a professional police, with anti riot force to front the insurgents, special forces to quickly and clean arrest the red leaders, they had no needs for the intervention of the Thai Army.

But cops are too busy to count the baht made with their corrupted activities and to scared to face to face a mob.

Excellent post.

Thai army is probably the worst in the world in anyway. The weakest / spent money. They lost against Laos and they'd lose against Cambodia.

Abisith is also 100% responsible for the yesterday drama. He never tried to understand the other opinions. Friday, Thai police and Thai army tried to solve the issue in a Thai way but at 10 PM, Abisith put some oil on the fire.

I don't think you understand the other opinions.

The red shirts want power. They don't want to change anything else.

And Abhisit and the democrats have and want more power too... nothing more (or just more money also)