My Photos From Some Of Yesterdays Bangkok Chaos

[Flatouthruthefog]

Just a comment about the Reds and their so called peaceful protest. On Friday on the Nation web board there was a video of the execution of a Thai Army truck driver at Din Daeng. The guy was pulled from his cab, he waied at everyone , regardless he was beaten, fell to the ground, there was a shot, everyone jumped back , the shooter patted him on the chest, an ambulance pulled up , the body was thrown it and that was it.

The video was shown on Thai TV. The shooter and other participants are clear to see. There were two other soldiers in the truck as well , one on the back with a weapon. The destroyed army truck often shows up in clips

I saw that clip too, perhaps someone could send it to the BBC whose reporting has been extremley Bad against the CURRENT PM and the army IMHO.

BT

The BBC reporting HAS been and IS extremely weak and superficial, ever since Jonathan Head was forced to leave (in my professional opinion!)

Rachel is good in front of the camera but appears to have zero background knowledge, zero senior contacts in any relevant authorities and (I suspect) zero Thai language. And/or a very sub-standard or very scared interpreter.

We are getting far far better news from individual freelance reporters, brave amateurs and people trapped in their condos or hotels watching events unfold (and in some cases going hungry). Let's stop bashing these people, eh?

Thought for the Day:

If you Sit on the edge of an Abyss, is your name Abyssit?

[Tokay]

The OP has obviously been in the "thick of it" and is now an expert on determining the direction of gunfire in urban warfare.

It's not very difficult to hear bullets zing by when they hit something and ricochet around.

Army snipers in action, very clear & close up from the 50 second point onwards in this clip:

Do you see the weapon they are using in that video (not the shot guns but the larger one with the scope)? The sound those make were not the sounds I heard. Unless the snipers were using handguns just to scare the crowd and randomly shooting into smoke (which is possible), I still don't believe it was the army shooting on that day in the areas I was in. You can hear the army's weapons when they fire them, loud and clear and they don't sound like handguns.

I'm not saying they do not have army snipers out there, for sure they do. I just don't believe my two experiences involved them based on what I saw and heard. However, I could be wrong.

Nope, getting as low to the ground as you can when you first hear gunfire is the smart thing to do, when you've checked that your not in the shooters direct line of sight THEN you run.

Otherwise you become target practice.

I wasn't about to lay down in the middle of the open street and be sitting duck in the event there really were snipers shooting down from the buildings. When I say "run" I mean for the nearest cover, zig zagging along the way. If they can see you, they can shoot you. It then becomes a matter of how good a shot they are and I'm not going to make it an easy shot for them by laying still in the road.

How about this, the smartest thing is not to even be there in the first place .

[Richb2004v2]

How about this, the smartest thing is not to even be there in the first place .

So, what were you doing there then?

[witold]

This is no longer a peaceful demonstration by the RED. They are trying to disrupt and kill the army. I have no sympathy for any one that tries to kill first. 

You are simply projecting your views onto the situation and see it the way you want to see it.  

Guns are not that hard to get.  Granandes/etc are not that hard to get.  If Reds really were there to fight, they would be armed to the teeth with heavy weapons instead of the occasional random with a pistol, some barbed wire, and bamboo sticks.  If they really wanted to cause property damage, they could throw their molatovs at Paragon and burn down half the city.  They are doing neither.  Why?

[Krungbin]

The OP has obviously been in the "thick of it" and is now an expert on determining the direction of gunfire in urban warfare.

Abhisit said he would use snipers and they are at work picking off random civilians at will.

The tactic was/is to try and scare the protesters into giving up.

Like most of the government's plans they have failed.

They tried it on April 10 and it failed, now they try the same stupid tactics again!

It will not work!

They will have to go on killing and maiming with sniper fire for weeks or even months before the reds will give up!

How would you feel if your mates had been shot by snipers under orders from Abhisit?

I think you'd be as angry as hel_l and hel_l-bent on revenge, like I would be!

If you surrender you're going to be sent to prison for a long time (under Abhisit's regime) so what have you got to lose!?

Abhisit refused to allow all to go home with amnesty and now look what he has created!

The death toll are all civilians. No army men!

If the Reds are so heavily armed, where are all the dead army personel?

I've only seen reds with sticks and stones and burning tyres. A few home made rockets and firecrackers ..

Hardly a match for the army's weapons.

Army snipers in action, very clear & close up from the 50 second point onwards in this clip:

Abhisit can now be officially named "The Butcher of Bangkok"

Is this what you call a "sniper"?

To me, it is a soldier shooting with a regular M16 fitted with a scope. In other words, perhaps, a marksman!

[Krungbin]

Just wanted to comment on the Video clip that the soldier was shot dead that got taken from the VAN... that video isn't full... it was on the news as well but the full video clip... in the particular one

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D6rGqZDv...s%3DGCdSFI_PejM

parts have been snipped out in order to make the goverment look good and the reds look bad... (remember tv still under goverment control) altho I agree this is a very very sad incident... I do not blame all the reds as a result, just a few who I guess let their emotions take control. Prob the same for some of the military if they see their fellow gets shot like that.

In the FULL CLIP shown on the news a day or so ago, some of the red were really violent and bashing the truck up and trying to beat the soldiers up (tention was very high, if yur fellow reds get shot by military i guess you'd blame all the military).. some reds were like trying to punch him... HOWEVER some reds were genuinely trying to get the ARMY man into safety, and trying to shield him from his fellow reds... this wasn't the first incident that reds protected the individuals army personell when they were severly outnumbered... follow link below, this farang guy report who was present at the 10 april incident that the black guards (the so called terrorists, where actually protecting the caught army ppl)

http://www.thai-faq.com/thailand-political...red-protesters/

-the guy reported has a 3 part video clip of 10 april and report pretty un-biased, he was there himself...

As for me...

I pity the army as some are just following orders, and some do not take joy in shooting their fellow thai, however some soldier have shot randomly and hitting civilians, journalist even today reported 2 guys in a condo, just smoking, stray bullet hit them, one died one got wounded... the one who died body couldn't be taken away because it was to dangerous for police to enter...

What I think is why did all this started, my opinion is, when Taksin was in power, everybody (or for the majority) was pretty happy -sure you can't please everybody- but looking at the country as a whole, it ran.. yes there were mishaps and some things going wrong etc... but what you expect thailand is a HUGE country... but things were running, thailand was doing great for most part, yea there was room for improvement. But look at Thailand TODAY?!? Or for the past years after Taksin got kicked out...

Yea prob Taksin was corrupt but for GODSAKE who isn't in thailand or in other nations as well.. it is like saying there is no prostituation in thailand... but the charges that they charged him for was redicious, the same counts for kicking a PM for being on a cooking show... shows the safe face, corruption behind the scene at work.

I like abisit as a person but as a leader, i'm not to certain he has enough power, i believe he follows what he's more or less been told to do... he doesn't have full control... Unlike taksin he had control for most part he was powerful (and maybe that is what scared some ppl behind the scene to much), they waited until he was out of the country before doing the coup, kinda a bit low-balled. Abisit on the other hand, I think he is pretty genuine however he must bow to the powers that be... he has to tip-toe ... he has known crooked as Foreign minister and other well known crooks... anyways enuf rant...

Hope things stabilizes real soon as it is creating a huge divide, alot of thai ppl that I kno are either one side or the other... it is really sad and it is breakign the thai sociaty as a whole...

Entire clip or not....the result is the same, that poor soldier died.

I wonder if his parents, his wife, will vote for "whatever party representing Mr. T." again...

[Krungbin]

Just wanted to comment on the Video clip that the soldier was shot dead that got taken from the VAN... that video isn't full... it was on the news as well but the full video clip... in the particular one

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D6rGqZDv...s%3DGCdSFI_PejM

parts have been snipped out in order to make the goverment look good and the reds look bad... (remember tv still under goverment control) altho I agree this is a very very sad incident... I do not blame all the reds as a result, just a few who I guess let their emotions take control. Prob the same for some of the military if they see their fellow gets shot like that.

In the FULL CLIP shown on the news a day or so ago, some of the red were really violent and bashing the truck up and trying to beat the soldiers up (tention was very high, if yur fellow reds get shot by military i guess you'd blame all the military).. some reds were like trying to punch him... HOWEVER some reds were genuinely trying to get the ARMY man into safety, and trying to shield him from his fellow reds... this wasn't the first incident that reds protected the individuals army personell when they were severly outnumbered... follow link below, this farang guy report who was present at the 10 april incident that the black guards (the so called terrorists, where actually protecting the caught army ppl)

http://www.thai-faq.com/thailand-political...red-protesters/

-the guy reported has a 3 part video clip of 10 april and report pretty un-biased, he was there himself...

As for me...

I pity the army as some are just following orders, and some do not take joy in shooting their fellow thai, however some soldier have shot randomly and hitting civilians, journalist even today reported 2 guys in a condo, just smoking, stray bullet hit them, one died one got wounded... the one who died body couldn't be taken away because it was to dangerous for police to enter...

What I think is why did all this started, my opinion is, when Taksin was in power, everybody (or for the majority) was pretty happy -sure you can't please everybody- but looking at the country as a whole, it ran.. yes there were mishaps and some things going wrong etc... but what you expect thailand is a HUGE country... but things were running, thailand was doing great for most part, yea there was room for improvement. But look at Thailand TODAY?!? Or for the past years after Taksin got kicked out...

Yea prob Taksin was corrupt but for GODSAKE who isn't in thailand or in other nations as well.. it is like saying there is no prostituation in thailand... but the charges that they charged him for was redicious, the same counts for kicking a PM for being on a cooking show... shows the safe face, corruption behind the scene at work.

I like abisit as a person but as a leader, i'm not to certain he has enough power, i believe he follows what he's more or less been told to do... he doesn't have full control... Unlike taksin he had control for most part he was powerful (and maybe that is what scared some ppl behind the scene to much), they waited until he was out of the country before doing the coup, kinda a bit low-balled. Abisit on the other hand, I think he is pretty genuine however he must bow to the powers that be... he has to tip-toe ... he has known crooked as Foreign minister and other well known crooks... anyways enuf rant...

Hope things stabilizes real soon as it is creating a huge divide, alot of thai ppl that I kno are either one side or the other... it is really sad and it is breakign the thai sociaty as a whole...

Full clip or not....

Whether some reds were genuinely trying to get this soldier into safety or not....

The result is just but the same. this poor guy is now dead.

I wonder if his parents, his wife, his relative will vote for the UDD at the next election.

[Ijustwannateach]

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